The Lower Franconia police have accepted the AfD’s legal victory after an aborted rally against an appearance by Björn Höcke in Würzburg. They can understand the administrative court’s reasoning and therefore will not apply for leave to appeal, a spokesman for the Lower Franconia police said when asked.
In April, the Würzburg Administrative Court ruled that the police should have taken action against a sit-in that had prevented Höcke (AfD) from appearing in Würzburg on June 25, 2023. At the time, the AfD had planned a rally in which the Thuringian AfD leader Höcke, who is classified as a right-wing extremist by the state’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution, also wanted to take part. However, thousands of counter-demonstrators formed a sit-in.
The AfD broke off its rally, which according to the police was attended by 70 people. The AfD district association of Lower Franconia therefore filed a lawsuit against the Free State and the Lower Franconia police.
June 25 is the anniversary of the so-called Würzburg knife attack. On June 25, 2021, a mentally ill man killed three people in the city center, nine people were injured, some seriously, and many others were traumatized. According to a report, the refugee from Somalia was paranoid schizophrenic and heard voices at the time that had ordered him to commit the crime.