A GERMAN COURT has convicted one of the most prominent figures in the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party of using a banned Nazi slogan in a campaign speech and ordered him to pay a fine.

The verdict in Bjorn Hocke’s trial comes months before a regional election in the eastern state of Thuringia in which he plans to run for governor.

The state court in the eastern city of Halle convicted Hocke of using symbols of an unconstitutional organisation, German news agency dpa reported.

While the charge can carry a maximum sentence of three years in prison, the court imposed a fine of 13,000 euros.

Prosecutors had sought a six-month suspended sentence, while defence lawyers argued for acquittal.

The case centred on a speech in Merseburg in May 2021 in which Hocke used the phrase “Everything for Germany!”

Prosecutors contended he was aware of its origin as a slogan of the SA stormtroopers, a Nazi paramilitary organisation, but Hocke argued that it was an “everyday saying”.

The former history teacher said at the trial that he was “completely innocent” and described himself as a “law-abiding citizen”.

He once called the Holocaust memorial in Berlin a “monument of shame” and called for Germany to perform a “180-degree turn” in how it remembers its past.

The 52-year-old is an influential figure in the far-right of AfD party, which suffered another legal defeat in its attempt to appeal a court decision that found it to be a “suspected extremist organisation”. 

AfD was founded in 2013 as a Eurosceptic party and has since moved towards anti-immigrant politics. 

Plagued by scandal

The rulings come with the party already reeling from a Chinese spying scandal, as well as claims of links to Russia.

The legal dispute started in 2021 when the domestic intelligence agency, the BfV, labelled the AfD a “suspected” right-wing extremist group, giving authorities more power to gather intelligence on it.

The party challenged the move in the courts but yesterday the Higher Administrative Court in Muenster rejected the AfD’s appeal.

The party “has no right to demand that the BfV refrain from monitoring it”, said the court, adding that existing laws “provide a sufficient legal basis for observation as a suspected case”.

The court has been hearing arguments in the case since March.

The AfD’s lawyers claimed statements made by its members, which had been collected by the BfV as evidence to support their arguments, were “the aberrations of individuals” and should not be attributed to the party as a whole, which has some 45,000 members.

But the lawyer representing the BfV said the views showed the party’s extremism and were “not just the individual opinions of a few people”.

They were taken from a large number of statements by high-ranking officials and elected representatives with considerable political influence, and have a “very clear” impact on political life in Germany, the lawyer said.

In 2022 a lower court in Cologne had already dismissed an appeal against the BfV’s move to label the AfD a suspected right-wing extremist group, leading the party to turn to the Muenster court.

Posting on X, Chancellor Olaf Scholz hailed the ruling as evidence that “our constitutional state protects our democracy – also against threats from within”.

But AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla suggested the verdict was politically motivated, as it came ahead of next month’s European elections in which the party is hoping to make gains.

“You have to take into account the timing of these proceedings,” he said. “We are in the middle of the European election campaign… there is clearly a domestic political motivation behind this.”

The party said it was considering its next steps, and will likely lodge a further appeal at a court in Leipzig.

Some German media reported yesterday that the court ruling could clear the way for the intelligence services to take a further step against the AfD by labelling it a “confirmed” right-wing extremist group – which would give authorities further powers to monitor its members.

Several local branches of the party have already been given this classification.

The party’s most recent scandal came last month when the aide of Maximilian Krah, an AfD European Parliament lawmaker, was arrested on suspicion of spying for China.

Krah had previously faced Russian propaganda allegations.

In January, an investigation by media group Correctiv indicated AfD members had discussed the idea of mass deportations at a meeting with extremists, leading to a wave of protests across the country.

With reporting from AFP and Press Association.

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