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Prominent figure in German far-right party
charged over alleged Nazi slogan
Published
5:25 PM CEST, June 5, 2023
BERLIN (AP)
— A prominent figure in the far-right Alternative for Germany party has been
charged over his alleged use in a 2021 speech of a slogan used by the Nazis’ SA
stormtroopers, German prosecutors said Monday.
Prosecutors
in the eastern city of Halle said that Björn Höcke was charged with public use
of a symbol of an unconstitutional organization. Höcke, an influential figure
on the hard right of Alternative for Germany, heads his party’s branch in the
neighboring eastern state of Thuringia.
Höcke is
accused of ending a speech to some 250 people in Merseburg in May 2021 with the
words “Everything for Germany!”
Prosecutors
charge that he was aware of the origin of the phrase as an SA slogan. In a
statement, they said Höcke’s lawyers had denied that his words had any
“criminal relevance.”
Alternative
for Germany, or AfD, has come under increasing scrutiny from Germany’s domestic
intelligence agency, which has placed its Thuringia branch under formal
observation.
Höcke has
in the past espoused revisionist views of Germany’s Nazi past. In 2018, he
called the Holocaust memorial in Berlin a “monument of shame” and called for
Germany to perform a “180-degree turn” when it comes to the way it remembers
its past. A party tribunal at the time rejected a bid to have him expelled.
The charges
against Höcke come as Germany’s mainstream parties are trading blame for polls
showing support for AfD reaching a record high.
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