Far-right German politician fined over Nazi slogan

Controversial German far-right politician Bjoern Hoecke was fined 16,900 euros ($18,150) Monday for using a banned Nazi slogan, his second conviction for the offence.

Hoecke, the leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the eastern region of Thuringia, was fined by judges in the city of Halle for knowingly using the phrase "Alles fuer Deutschland" (Everything for Germany) at a party gathering in December 2023.

At the event in the city of Gera in Thuringia, Hoecke, 52, had called out the phrase "everything for" and incited the crowd to reply: "Germany".

A motto of the Sturmabteilung paramilitary group that played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power, the phrase is illegal in Germany, along with the Nazi salute and other slogans and symbols from that era.

In May the same court had already fined Hoecke 13,000 euros ($14,000) for using the same phrase at a 2021 campaign rally.

At the opening of his latest trial last week Hoecke insisted the phrase consisted of "commonplace words that happened to be used by a criminal organisation" and branded the proceedings a "farce".

Considered an extremist by German intelligence services, Hoecke has long courted controversy.

He once called Berlin's Holocaust monument a "memorial of shame" and has urged a "180-degree shift" in the country's culture of remembrance.

But the scandals have not dented his popularity, and Hoecke is gunning to become Germany's first far-right state premier when Thuringia holds regional elections in September.

Also on Monday a court in the southern state of Bavaria ruled that it was legal for local intelligence services to put the AfD under observation.

The party had brought a complaint against the decision of Bavaria's Office for the Protection of the Constitution in June 2022 to put the AfD under observation.

However, Munich's administrative court ruled that the move was justified, pointing to "anti-constitutional trends" in the party including xenophobic and violent statements.