The incendiary regional leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the German state of Thuringia, Björn Höcke, has been convicted and fined again for using a banned Nazi slogan.
Höcke, 52, was found guilty of using signals of unconstitutional and terrorist organizations to lead a crowd in chanting the banned motto of the Nazi SA stromtroopers – “Alles für Deutschland” (Everything for Germany) – during a speech at a December 2023 party event.
Höcke said the first two words and then gestured to the crowd to complete the slogan. At the time, he was under criminal charges for using the same banned slogan during a separate speech during an election campaign in May 2021.
Judge Jan Stengel stated that Höcke’s guilt in the case was indisputable and that he knew he was committing a criminal offense by using the slogan.
Stengel said the politician clearly wanted the crowd to finish the slogan and was deliberately testing the boundaries of what could be said.
Stengel rejected Höcke’s claims that he was the victim of political persecution. The judge noted that he has reviewed convictions from courts in the now-defunct communist East Germany over the past 30 years and is familiar with cases of genuine political persecution.
During closing arguments on Monday, Höcke claimed that his opponents were using the court to silence him.
In May, Höcke was sentenced to a fine of €13,000 ($14,000) in that earlier case. He is currently appealing the verdict.
The court in Halle sentenced Höcke on Tuesday to a fine of €16,900 in total.
Public prosecutor Benedikt Bernzen had asked the court for a suspended prison sentence of eight months and a ban on Höcke from holding political office for two years. Höcke’s defense demanded acquittal.
“The fine is sufficient,” Stengel said in denying the requests.
The verdict is not yet legally binding. His lawyers said they would decide in the coming days whether to appeal.
Höcke is the leading candidate for the AfD in the upcoming parliamentary elections in Thuringia, where the party has a clear lead in opinion polls.
He also still faces another ongoing criminal case on charges of incitement of the people over a message Höcke posted in Telegram in 2022 after an act of violence in the city of Ludwigshafen.
In the message, Höcke suggested that there is a “widespread disease among immigrants that causes victims to shout ‘Allahu Akbar’ and distorts their perception so that they see the ‘disbelieving’ hosts as people unworthy of life.”
The dates for the trial have not yet been set.
