BERLIN (AP) 鈥 A prominent figure in the far-right Alternative for Germany party has been charged over his alleged use in a 2021 speech of a slogan used by the Nazis' SA stormtroopers, German prosecutors said Monday.
Prosecutors in the eastern city of Halle said that Bj枚rn H枚cke was charged with public use of a symbol of an unconstitutional organization. H枚cke, an influential figure on the hard right of Alternative for Germany, heads his party's branch in the neighboring eastern state of Thuringia.
H枚cke is accused of ending a speech to some 250 people in Merseburg in May 2021 with the words 鈥淓verything for Germany!鈥
Prosecutors charge that he was aware of the origin of the phrase as an SA slogan. In a statement, they said H枚cke's lawyers had denied that his words had any 鈥渃riminal relevance.鈥
Alternative for Germany, or AfD, has come under from Germany's domestic intelligence agency, which has placed its Thuringia branch under formal observation.
H枚cke has in the past espoused revisionist views of Germany鈥檚 Nazi past. In 2018, he 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 when it comes to the way it remembers its past. A party tribunal at the time to have him expelled.
The charges against H枚cke come as Germany's mainstream parties are trading blame for polls showing support for AfD reaching .
