BERLIN (AP) 鈥 One of the best-known figures in the far-right Alternative for Germany party said Tuesday at his trial on charges of using a Nazi slogan that he is 鈥渃ompletely innocent.鈥
Bj枚rn H枚cke at the state court in the eastern city of Halle last week, months before a regional election in the state of Thuringia in which he plans to run for the governor's job. He is accused of using symbols of unconstitutional organizations, a charge that can carry a fine or a prison sentence of up to three years.
H枚cke is accused of ending a speech in nearby Merseburg in May 2021 with the words 鈥淓verything for Germany!鈥 Prosecutors contend he was aware of the origin of the phrase as a slogan of the Nazis鈥 SA stormtroopers, but H枚cke has argued that it is an 鈥渆veryday saying.鈥
There are no formal pleas in the German legal system and defendants aren't obliged to respond to the charges. But H枚cke did so on Tuesday, German news agency dpa reported.
鈥淚 am in fact completely innocent,鈥 he said. The former history teacher described himself as a 鈥渓aw-abiding citizen.鈥
Court sessions in the trial are scheduled through May 14.
The 52-year-old H枚cke is an influential figure on the hard right of Alternative for Germany, or AfD.
He has led the AfD鈥檚 regional branch in Thuringia since 2013, the year the party was founded, and is due to lead its campaign in set for Sept. 1.
He once 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 in how it remembers its past. A party tribunal in 2018 to have him expelled.
The Thuringia branch of the AfD is now one of three that the domestic intelligence agency has under official surveillance as a 鈥減roven right-wing extremist鈥 group.
