2024-09-01 18:46:17
Björn Höcke is withdrawing from the election campaign in Thuringia “for health reasons”. This was announced by his spokesman.
The AfD’s top candidate Björn Höcke is temporarily withdrawing from the election campaign for the Thuringian state parliament. There are “health reasons” for this, said a spokesman. Höcke was supposed to take part in the last discussion round of all seven top candidates today at 5 p.m., which was broadcast by “Antenne Thüringen” and “ntv”.
According to “ntv”, Höcke had already tried to cancel the appearance on Monday. He cited “private reasons” for doing so. The date and his confirmation had already been set three months ago.
On Tuesday, Höcke confirmed his participation again and apologized to the organizers for all the “inconvenience.” The final cancellation finally came on Wednesday morning. “Mr. Höcke cannot participate for health reasons,” a spokesman explained. “He has to take himself out.”
Höcke’s co-state spokesman for the AfD Thuringia, Stefan Möller, will take part in the discussion as a replacement.
As “ntv” speculates, the cancellation could also have something to do with Höcke’s previous TV appearances. For example, a discussion round on MDR went badly, he seemed fidgety and not very quick-witted. Perhaps Höcke no longer wants to take any risks, since the AfD has been stable at 30 percent in polls for weeks, “ntv” suspects.
This interpretation is supported by the fact that Höcke only canceled his appointments on Wednesday. Torben Braga, press spokesman for the AfD Thuringia, emphasized on X that Höcke’s election campaign would continue as planned from Thursday with an appearance in Nordhausen.