A leading member of Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland party is to stand trial charged with using a banned Nazi phrase.
Björn Höcke, the chair of the AfD in the eastern state of Thuringia, is accused of intentionally deploying a slogan used by the Nazi party’s paramilitary wing, the SA, in a speech at a campaign rally in May 2021.
Höcke is accused of having closed his speech with the phrase “Everything for Germany” knowing of its associations when he said it.
Under German law the use of slogans, propaganda and symbolism linked to anti-constitutional organisations such as the Nazi party or other terrorist organisations, is banned in all but historical and educational contexts.
The charges against Höcke coincided with a poll in the northern state of Brandenburg that showed the AfD to be leading there for the first time. Asked which party they would vote if there was an election on Sunday, 32% of respondents said AfD, followed by 20% for the Social Democrats and 18% for the Christian Democrats. Brandenburg, which goes to the polls next year, is now the fourth state in which the party is leading.
Höcke’s speech was delivered to the audience at a party rally of about 250 people in Merseburg in the state of Saxony-Anhalt. The full slogan he used was: “Everything for our homeland, everything for Saxony-Anhalt, everything for Germany.”
Another AfD politician is under investigation for having used the “Everything for Germany” slogan on an election campaign poster before Bavarian elections on 8 October. The move was condemned by Stephan Protschka, the head of the party in the southern state, who said: “There are certain phrases that simply shouldn’t be used, and ‘Everything for Germany’ is among them.”
A spokesperson for Halle regional court in Saxony-Anhalt said it had given the go-ahead for prosecutors to proceed with charges against Höcke.
He is forbidden from trying to override the decision for the case to go to court. No trial date has yet been set. His lawyer has previously said his client’s use of the slogan did not warrant a prosecution.
Last week, legislators voted in favour of removing Höcke’s parliamentary immunity over separate charges of criminal incitement after prosecutors alleged he had incited racial hatred in 2022 when he linked Muslim immigrants with a violent attack in the south-west city of Ludwigshafen.
As a rule, members of a state parliament are protected against prosecution and only a parliamentary committee’s ruling can allow criminal investigations and charges against them to go ahead.
Höcke belongs to the folkish-nationalist “Flügel”wing of the AfD, which has been categorised by domestic intelligence as “verified rightwing extremist”. He has regularly made headlines in the past for his outspoken views, including stoking revisionist theories over Germany’s Nazi past.
In 2018, he referred to the Holocaust memorial in central Berlin as a “monument of shame”. He has previously said Germany had to perform a “180 degree turn” in terms of how it recalled its past, suggesting a more positive, celebratory take on its history was required.
Thursday’s poll, which was carried out by the research institute and firm infratest dimap and commissioned by the broadcasters rbb24 and Antenne Brandenburg, suggested the biggest political threat to the AfD was posed by the far-left.
Polls showed 44% of Brandenburg voters would welcome the formation of a new leftwing party, amid expectations that Die Linke’s Sahra Wagenknecht is planning a breakaway faction.
Wagenknecht has long toyed with the idea, frequently citing her explicit aim to lure disgruntled voters away from the AfD. Like the AfD, she has shown sympathy towards Vladimir Putin and is anti-immigration.
