German far-right politician on trial for alleged use of banned Nazi slogan

Bjorn Hocke, leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in Thuringia, faces three years in prison if convicted.

A prominent member of Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has gone on trial after being charged with using a banned Nazi slogan.

Bjorn Hocke, the 52-year-old leader of the anti-migrant AfD in the eastern state of Thuringia, has been accused of invoking the phrase “Alles fur Deutschland” (“Everything for Germany”) – a slogan of the Nazis’ SA stormtroopers.

His trial opened on Thursday in the city of Halle just months before state elections he hopes to win.

The AfD, which national polls put in second place after the opposition conservatives, is under growing scrutiny over reports that senior party figures had discussed the deportation of people with non-ethnic German backgrounds.

Hocke is accused of ending a speech in Merseburg in the state of Saxony-Anhalt before Germany’s 2021 federal elections with the words “Everything for Germany”. The phrase, along with other Nazi slogans and symbols, is illegal in Germany.