The right-wing leader of the AfD in Thuringia, Björn Höcke, has to answer to the court for using Nazi vocabulary. He was accused of using signs of unconstitutional organizations, announced the public prosecutor’s office in Halle.
At an election campaign event in Merseburg in May 2021, Höcke is said to have used the banned slogan of the Sturmabteilung (SA) “Everything for Germany!” used from the time of National Socialism. He knew about the origin and meaning of this formula. The public prosecutor’s office in Halle writes that Höcke “denied the criminal relevance of his statement through his defense”.
Saxony-Anhalt’s Greens boss Sebastian Striegel reported Höcke in 2021 a few days after the appearance. The Thuringian state parliament lifted Höcke’s immunity for investigations in the same year and paved the way for an indictment in April 2023 with a further waiver of immunity.
Höcke is one of the main reasons why his AfD is being observed by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution as a suspected right-wing extremist. The 51-year-old has been investigated several times in the past, among other things, on charges of hate speech.