The trial of one of the most radical figures of the German far right, Björn Höcke, tried for the use of a Nazi slogan, began Thursday in the east of the country, where the movement hopes to soon assert itself during key regional elections.
Chaotic, the first hearing targeting the leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) was interrupted several times by different requests from his lawyers.
In particular, they wanted everything to be recorded because of the “historical dimension” of the trial, which they want “fair”. A request rejected by the court.
Furious at being continually prevented from reading the indictment, one of the two prosecutors, Benedikt Bernzen, criticized the lawyers for their disruptive behavior. “It’s outrageous,” he said.
Sneaking a slight smile, Björn Höcke, dressed in a dark suit and wearing a sky blue tie, entered the courtroom, staring at the prosecutors for a long time.
“Björn Höcke is a Nazi”
Four and a half months before elections in Thuringia, a region of the former communist GDR where Björn Höcke dreams of coming to power, this trial in Halle, in the neighboring state of Saxony-Anhalt, is particularly followed. Elections are also planned for the fall in Saxony and Brandenburg.
A few hundred demonstrators, brandishing banners with the inscriptions “Stop the AfD” or “Björn Höcke is a Nazi” and shouting slogans against the far right, gathered in front of the court surrounded by police forces.
Created in 2013, the AfD has experienced a surge in the polls since the summer but has recently fallen back a little due to very radical positions in its ranks, particularly around the expulsion of foreigners from Germany.
“For the voters of this region, a conviction of Höcke by the court will not change anything because they are convinced that the democratic institutions are angry with him,” however, relativizes to AFP Johannes Kiess, political scientist from the University of Leipzig, in Saxony. “On the other hand, for AfD sympathizers in the west of the country, this trial damages the image of the party,” adds the political scientist.
Before the European election, the leader of the AfD is working to demonize his image. In a televised duel a week ago, he claimed that his party’s concept of “remigration” was aimed at bringing back Germans living abroad, not expelling foreigners from Germany.
One of its main candidates in the European elections in June was also accused of having received money from a propaganda network financed by Moscow.
A Nazi motto that the AfD leader claims not to know
Björn Höcke is on trial for having declared “Everything for our homeland, everything for Saxony-Anhalt, everything for Germany”, during an election rally at the end of May 2021 in Merseburg, not far from Halle.
However, “All for Germany” was a motto used by the SA, a paramilitary formation of the Nazi party which played an essential role in Hitler’s conquest of power. The 52-year-old German, who notably taught history for fifteen years at high school, claims not to have known it.
In Germany, where the law strictly prohibits the use of Nazi slogans or the public display of symbols of the Third Reich, this offense is punishable by up to three years in prison.
The “monument of shame”
A conviction could theoretically complicate the candidacy for election of the judge, accustomed to verbal provocations. In January 2017, he described the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin as a “monument of shame” and his expulsion from the party was considered.
Parted on the side, this slender man with steel blue eyes pleads for a break with the culture of repentance for Nazi crimes, the foundation of the post-war period in the country. Björn Höcke grew up in western Germany in a family espousing far-right views.
The spring of 2013 marked the starting point of the political rise of this father of four children: he was a founding member of the regional section of the AfD in Thuringia, where he had moved five years earlier.
In August of the same year, he became its president. Due to very extreme positions, the AfD in Thuringia, like that in Saxony-Anhalt, were placed under surveillance by the intelligence services.