Björn Höcke (Bjoern Hoecke) is a German politician and member of Alternative for Germany (AfD). Along with Andreas Kalbitz, Höcke was the head of the AfD’s far-right Der Flügel section, which the German government’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution expressed as a suspected right-wing extremist organisation. Based on his political activities he seems to be a pro-Russian Politician.
At a right-wing-affiliated peace demonstration held on the first anniversary of the Russian invasion, Bjoern Hoecke blamed the US for involvement in the 2014 Maidan protests and the removal from power of ex-Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych. He claimed that the Donbas conflict that began in 2014 was a ‘silent civil war’ against eastern Ukrainians and that Russia merely desired to help ‘free eastern Ukrainians’. That understanding of history garnered the audience’s approval and is likely to have been well acquired in the Kremlin.
He is not outliers within the AfD. He reflects the anti-American, pro-Russian position spread by individual members. He echoes the Kremlin’s agenda, including calls for the lifting of sanctions against Russia and Belarus, putting the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline into operation, containing weapons deliveries to Ukraine and imposing an immediate ceasefire.
Björn Höcke has also been found guilty of knowingly using a Nazi slogan in a sermon. Björn Höcke, who leads the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in the state of Thuringia, was on trial for expressing the words “Everything for Germany!” at a May 2021 rally. The slogan is kinked with the SA stormtroopers, who played a pivotal role in the Nazis’ rise to power. The court in the eastern city of Halle sentenced the 52-year-old for using symbols of a Nazi organisation and fined him €13,000 ($14,000; £11,200). DW News conveys that the money will go to a grassroots anti-extremism programme. However, Höcke fled the maximum sentence of three years in prison and was banned from public office.
