German AfD politician charged over Nazi slogan

BERLIN: German prosecutors charged a prominent member of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party Monday with using a banned Nazi slogan in an election campaign. Bjoern Hoecke, the party´s regional leader in Thuringia, allegedly used the motto of the Nazi´s Stormtroopers SA paramilitary wing, “Everything for Germany”, the Halle prosecutor´s office said. Hoecke, a former history teacher, uttered the phrase in full knowledge of its “origin and meaning” in front of 250 people at a campaign event in 2021, according to prosecutors. The AfD won 10 percent of the vote in the general election that year. Hoecke is charged with “the public use of a symbol of a former National Socialist organisation”. The far-right politician “questioned the criminal relevance of his remark” through his lawyer, prosecutors said.