The far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) came out on top in the regional elections in Thuringia on Sunday 1 September, a first in the country since the post-war period, with its controversial leader Björn Höcke at its head.
The German Far Right Alternative for Germany (AfD) won the elections in Thuringia, in the east of the country, on Sunday, September 1. A victory that weakens Chancellor Olaf Scholz and marks a resounding political victory for the far right in the country.
A week after the triple murder knife attack blamed on Syrian in Solingen, North Rhine-Westphalia, which has rekindled a debate in the country on immigrationthe AfD has capitalized on this news item.
One figure therefore emerges from this regional election: Björn Höcke, the leader of the AfD in this region of the former GDR.
Former history teacher makes anti-Semitic remarks
Björn Höcke, 52, a father of four, is a former history teacher who has now turned politician. With his slender frame, salt-and-pepper hair and smiling face, he represents a “non-threatening, even friendly figure” who is renewing the image of the far right in the country, notes the Wall Street Journal, but who is nevertheless part of the most radical fringe of the far right.
The local AfD leader, who holds no political mandate and no position in the party’s federal office, has in fact distinguished himself on several occasions for the violence of his remarks, in particular by making anti-Semitic statements. In 2016, he expressed his “compassion” for Ursula Haverbeck, a notorious Holocaust denier who was convicted by the German courts.
In 2017, he said of Adolf Hitler that “even the worst criminal may have something good in him, something worth loving.”
At the same time, he still described the Holocaust memorial in Berlin as a “monument of shame in the heart of the capital” and called for a “180-degree change in the politics of memory.”
A pro-natalist and anti-immigration discourse
In his speeches, Björn Höcke notably promotes “remigration” from Germany, a recurring theme in identity-based discourse, by clearly calling for “a major programme of deporting illegal immigrants” by plane.
This fantasy of mass expulsion of foreigners from Germany is accompanied by a pro-natalist discourse, since he wants to pay a check for 10,000 euros for each birth in the country.
An anti-ecologist, he also wants to put an end to the inclusion of children with disabilities in mainstream schools, calling for “freedom” from this model described as an “ideology” which “slows down the performance” of able-bodied children, as reported by the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Convicted for using Nazi slogan
Björn Höcke is no stranger to the justice system, having been sentenced on appeal in early July to a fine of 16,900 euros for using a Nazi slogan.
In fact, he had called on the public, during a rally in December 2023, to take up the phrase “Everything for Germany”, the motto of the paramilitary group “Sturmabteilung” (SA) which played a key role in Adolf Hitler’s rise to power. The former history teacher declared that he was not aware that the use of this motto is illegal in Germany and claimed to have simply reinterpreted Donald Trump’s slogan “America First”.
He had already been found guilty in the first instance, but had chosen to appeal. This conviction cannot prevent his election this Sunday, since in Germany, only a prison sentence of at least six months can lead to a measure of ineligibility. Not enough to lower his popularity rating, however.
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