Thuringian AfD leader
Björn Höcke charged for the second time because of a banned slogan
AfD politician Björn Höcke in the plenary hall of the Thuringian state parliament
© Martin Schutt / DPA
In April, AfD politician Björn Höcke will have to stand trial for alleged incitement to hatred. It may not be the last time.
The Halle public prosecutor’s office accuses Thuringia’s AfD leader According to information on Wednesday, Björn Höcke alleged that he had used a banned slogan from the so-called Sturmabteilung (SA) of the National Socialist party NSDAP during a speech in December. Because of a similar alleged incident, Höcke will have to answer before the regional court of the Saxony-Anhalt city from mid-April.
At an AfD election campaign event in Merseburg on May 29, 2021, he is said to have said “Everything for our homeland, everything for Saxony-Anhalt, everything for Germany” at the end of his speech. He is said to have known that “Everything for Germany” was a forbidden slogan of the SA. The trial on charges of using license plates of unconstitutional and terrorist organizations begins on April 18 and is scheduled to last until mid-May.
The public prosecutor’s office now asked the regional court to hear the new allegations together with them. Höcke is said to have said the first part of the slogan at an AfD event in Gera, Thuringia, on December 12, 2023. The public prosecutor said he himself said “everything for” and used gestures to encourage the audience to shout “Germany”.
He knew that criminal proceedings were already underway against him for using the slogan and that its use was punishable. He is now accused of using the license plates of a former National Socialist organization. The Halle Regional Court will decide whether to admit the charges.
Björn Höcke already in court for comments on knife attack
Höcke is facing another trial in Thuringia. At the end of January, the Mühlhausen regional court approved an indictment on suspicion of incitement against the AfD politician. It’s about a post on the social media service Telegram from 2022.
In it, Höcke commented on a fatal knife attack by a Somali in Oggersheim with the words: “The perpetrator is probably mentally ill and suffers from the widespread disease among immigrants that makes those affected scream ‘Allahu Akbar’ and distorts their perception so much that they see in the ‘infidel’ hosts a life unworthy of living.”
Höcke is the parliamentary group and state leader of the AfD in Thuringia. The Thuringian AfD was classified as definitely right-wing extremist by the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution in 2021. The party is being watched. A few years ago, the President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Thomas Haldenwang, described Höcke as a right-wing extremist.
A new state parliament will be elected in Thuringia on September 1st. Höcke is his party’s top candidate. The AfD is currently ahead in polls.