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The Thuringian AfD leader Björn Höcke has to answer to the court in Halle. The public prosecutor’s office also criticizes his comments on the trial.
Halle – The Halle Regional Court has suspended the trial against the Thuringian AfD-Boss Björn Höcke because of a banned Nazi slogan. The court had scheduled this additional day of the trial because it needed time to discuss a large number of motions for evidence. The court’s decisions will determine, among other things, whether the pleadings can be made and the verdict pronounced on this, the last scheduled day of the trial. Originally, only two days of the trial were planned.
The public prosecutor’s office has charged AfD politician Höcke with allegedly chanting the banned Nazi slogan “Everything for Germany” at a regular meeting of his party with around 350 participants in Gera, Thuringia, last December. He spoke the first two words and, according to the public prosecutor’s office, encouraged the audience to complete the slogan with gestures. It was once used by the Sturmabteilung (SA), the paramilitary combat organization of the Nazi party NSDAP.
In the Höcke trial: A historian is to be heard on the Nazi slogan
Höcke denies having encouraged the audience and stresses his innocence. The 52-year-old had also said that he did not consider the use of the slogan to be a criminal offense. His defense lawyers demanded that a historian speak about the meaning and spread of the slogan – they do not believe the slogan was central to the SA. Nor was it widely used.
A historian who was to testify as an expert witness on Wednesday, the second day of the trial, was reportedly mp3 rejected by Judge Jan Stengel because he had previously publicly expressed negative views about the AfD: “That is simply not possible.”
The public prosecutor criticizes Höcke’s public statements on the trial in Halle
Höcke’s lawyers also demanded that the participants of the AfD regulars’ table be identified and heard. This would prove that they did not feel encouraged by Höcke to complete the slogan.
![Trial against AfD politician Höcke](https://www.merkur.de/assets/images/34/927/34927866-prozess-gegen-den-afd-politiker-hoecke-OXBG.jpg)
According to the prosecutor, the public prosecutor has responded to the public statements of AfD politician Höcke on the trial. mp3 reacted critically. In a video on Telegram, the defendant said that “political show trials” had to be dealt with and that after the AfD took power, there would be a free judiciary again. In this context, prosecutor Benedikt Bernzen spoke loudly mp3 of an understanding of democracy that is not compatible with the free and democratic basic order.
State elections in Thuringia – Höcke enters the race as top candidate
For Höcke, this is the second criminal trial at the Halle Regional Court. On May 14, the 52-year-old was sentenced to a fine of 100 daily rates of 130 euros each for the same Nazi slogan. He had used the slogan in 2021 at an election campaign event in Merseburg, Saxony-Anhalt. The decision is not legally binding because Höcke has appealed. Then, as now, the charge is using symbols of unconstitutional and terrorist organizations.
The former history teacher wants to run as the AfD’s top candidate in the state elections in Thuringia on September 1. His party is classified as definitely right-wing extremist by the state’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
Coalitions after the state election: Höcke renews his offer to the CDU
Loud mp3-Election poll by Infratest dimap in June, the AfD is the top candidate in Thuringia with 28 percent approval, ahead of the CDU (23) and the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW, 21). In addition, 18 percent of those surveyed would vote for the right-wing extremist Höcke as prime minister if that were directly possible. Höcke is thus on a par with opposition leader Mario Voigt (CDU) and behind the incumbent prime minister Bodo Ramelow (Left Party, 47).
The AfD parliamentary group leader renewed his offer of cooperation to the Thuringian CDU at the AfD federal party conference in Essen. A coalition with the BSW and other state parliament parties would lead to a loss of profile for the CDU, Höcke told Phoenix“Then it will be relegated to political insignificance as a formerly conservative force.” CDU parliamentary group leader Voigt has not yet ruled out forming a coalition with the BSW and the SPD, but cooperation with the AfD or the Left Party is taboo for him so far. (dpa/ses)
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