HALLE, Germany (AP) 鈥 One of the most prominent figures in the far-right Alternative for Germany party went on trial Thursday on charges of using a Nazi slogan, months before a regional election in which he plans to run to become his state's governor.
Bj枚rn H枚cke, 52, is the leader of the regional branch of Alternative for Germany, or AfD, in the eastern state of Thuringia and a powerful figure on the party鈥檚 hard right.
While never formally a national leader of AfD, the former history teacher has been consistently influential as the 11-year-old party steadily headed further right and ousted several comparatively moderate leaders.
At the trial at the state court in Halle, he using symbols of unconstitutional organizations. He is accused of ending a speech in nearby Merseburg in May 2021 with the words 鈥淓verything for Germany!鈥
Prosecutors contend he was aware of the origin of the phrase as a slogan of the Nazis' SA stormtroopers, but H枚cke argued that it is an 鈥渆veryday saying.鈥
Using symbols of unconstitutional organizations can carry a fine or a prison sentence of up to three years. Four court sessions have been scheduled through May 14.
Demonstrators gathered outside the court building before the trial opened, with banners including 鈥淏j枚rn H枚cke is a Nazi鈥 and 鈥淪top AfD!鈥 About 570 protesters turned out, according to police.
The court last week added a second count of using the same phrase to the Halle trial, but decided shortly before proceedings started to try that separately because H枚cke鈥檚 defense lawyers recently changed, German news agency dpa reported. In that case, prosecutors allege that he repeated the offense at a party event in Gera last December, 鈥渋n certain knowledge" that using the slogan is a criminal offense.
They say that H枚cke said 鈥淓verything for ...鈥 and encouraged the audience to shout 鈥淕ermany!鈥
There are no formal pleas in the German legal system, and defendants aren't obliged to respond to the charges. H枚cke's defense team said after the indictment was read Thursday that he would respond and answer questions from prosecutors at a later point.
H枚cke insisted in a debate with a conservative rival last week that he wasn鈥檛 aware 鈥淓verything for Germany!鈥 was a Nazi slogan and claimed that many others have used it. 鈥淓veryone out there knows it鈥檚 an everyday saying,鈥 he said on Welt television.
H枚cke has led AfD's regional branch in Thuringia since 2013, the year the party was founded, and its group in the state legislature in Erfurt since it first won seats there in 2014.
He once called the Holocaust memorial in Berlin a 鈥渕onument of shame鈥 and called for Germany to perform a 鈥180-degree turn鈥 in how it remembers its past. A party tribunal in 2018 to have him expelled.
H枚cke's regional branch of AfD is now one of three that the domestic intelligence agency has under official surveillance as a 鈥減roven right-wing extremist鈥 group.
Wolfgang Schroeder, a political science professor at the Berlin Social Science Center, said H枚cke has become an increasingly important figure in AfD and the front man of a 鈥渞adicalization project鈥 in the party. He said that people vote for the party 鈥渋n part out of protest, in part out of conviction.鈥
AfD is particularly strong in the formerly communist east and is in first place in polls in Thuringia before a on Sept. 1, with recent surveys showing support of 29-to-31%.
It's unlikely that any other party will agree to work with H枚cke and put him in the governor's office, but AfD's strength has made forming governing coalitions in the state enormously complicated.
H枚cke also faces a second trial, for which dates haven't yet been set, on charges of incitement related to a 2022 post on Telegram about a crime in the western city of Ludwigshafen.
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Geir Moulson reported from Berlin.
