2024-04-28 04:58:40
The AfD politician Björn Höcke has to answer before the Halle regional court because of a speech. His further statements are now being examined in two proceedings.
The Thuringian AfD party and parliamentary group leader Björn Höcke is threatened with further legal trouble: The Gera public prosecutor’s office is currently examining whether it will apply to the Thuringian state parliament to lift Höcke’s immunity in two proceedings. There are currently preliminary investigations against the 52-year-old in both cases, a spokesman for the Gera public prosecutor’s office told the German Press Agency. Once these have been completed, the public prosecutor’s office will decide “whether an application for the lifting of immunity should be submitted to the Justice Committee of the Thuringian state parliament.”
Höcke himself does not currently want to comment on the preliminary investigations in the two proceedings. “Björn Höcke will not comment on this matter initially,” said his office manager in response to a dpa request. The Thuringian AfD is classified and monitored by the state Office for the Protection of the Constitution as definitely right-wing extremist.
“No functioning democracy”
According to the spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office, one of the preliminary investigations concerns a speech by Höcke as part of a citizens’ dialogue on January 18, 2024 in Gera. He spoke about an action in Leipzig in which several thousand people had recently protested against the AfD. “In this regard, we are examining whether the offenses of incitement to hatred or denigration of the state and its symbols could exist.” The spokesman did not say which passages of the speech would be examined in detail.
According to dpa information, the preliminary investigations relate in particular to Höcke’s statement in this speech at the time that this protest looked like the torchlight marches of the National Socialists in 1933. Höcke also said at the time: “Germany will no longer be a functioning democracy in 2024.”
Accusation of sedition
According to the spokesman, the other preliminary investigation is aimed at a speech by Höcke on October 3, 2022 in Gera. The spokesman said that his statements about Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine would be examined. This is also about the accusation of sedition.
Höcke has recently had to answer for another speech before the Halle district court. He is said to have used the SA slogan “Everything for Germany” in Merseburg in May 2021. The Halle public prosecutor’s office accuses him of publicly using the license plate of a former National Socialist organization. Höcke denies knowing that the saying “Everything for Germany” was a motto of the National Socialist Sturmabteilung (SA). In Thuringia he will also have to answer before the Mühlhausen regional court on charges of incitement to hatred. The charges have already been admitted, but trial dates have not yet been set.
Thuringian state parliament members enjoy immunity, i.e. protection from criminal prosecution. In principle, the investigating authorities are only allowed to take action against them after the Parliament’s Justice Committee has approved investigations against them.