He is often described as the most radical face of Germany’s far-right AfD party, has called for the “remigration” of foreigners and been convicted of using a banned Nazi slogan.<\/p>\n
But Bjoern Hoecke, 53, head of the Alternative for Germany in the eastern state of Thuringia, is convinced he is on the correct path amid a lurch to the right around the Western world led by US President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
“In America, remigration is not only being discussed but also implemented under Trump,” Hoecke said in an interview with AFP.<\/p>\n
“The entire Western world is asking itself how it can resolve the problems that have been piled up in countries as a result of migration.”<\/p>\n
Hoecke, a former history teacher, was last year fined twice for using the banned Nazi slogan “Alles fuer Deutschland” (Everything for Germany), and the regional chapter he leads has been designated a “right-wing extremist” organisation by Germany’s domestic intelligence service.<\/p>\n
But despite all of this, the AfD won last year’s Thuringia state election with more than 30 percent of the vote — the first such victory for a far-right party since World War II — and scored a record 20.8 percent in February’s national elections.<\/p>\n
Hoecke said he sees a lot of “common ground” between the AfD and the Trump administration, especially on social issues such as “the fight against wokeism” and against what he labels the “politicisation of the judiciary”.<\/p>\n
“In Germany, (the judiciary) is no longer independent in some areas,” he said, referencing his own conviction over the Nazi slogan — which he insists was politically motivated.<\/p>\n
Hoecke voiced confidence that the AfD will one day triumph over what he labels the established “cartel parties”, and one recent YouGov survey put it at 27 percent, ahead of the conservative CDU\/CSU bloc of Chancellor Friedrich Merz.<\/p>\n
– ‘Dynamic of polarisation’ –<\/p>\n
Looking to the United States, Hoecke said the killing of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk was a “turning point”.<\/p>\n
“To murder such a man is a real breach of taboo” and an “escalation of the dynamic of polarisation that we have been observing in the West for years,” Hoecke said.<\/p>\n
“Could Western societies, which are very fragile, be pushed into a state that could be described as the brink of civil war? That is a real concern for me.”<\/p>\n
Many observers say the Trump administration has emboldened the AfD to become more radical, but Hoecke disagrees.<\/p>\n
“The AfD has not become more radical — the government has become more radical,” he argued, pointing to its policies on Europe, climate change, and especially migration, which he labels “the mother of all crises”.<\/p>\n
Ten years after former chancellor Angela Merkel allowed in hundreds of thousands of migrants, the topic has only grown more divisive.<\/p>\n
“Migration is the number one issue and has a negative impact on all areas of society,” Hoecke said, calling the stance of successive governments on the issue “disastrous”.<\/p>\n
Hoecke, a father of four who hails from western Germany, has become a powerful figurehead for the AfD in the formerly communist east, where it has enjoyed its strongest support.<\/p>\n
As Germany marks 35 years since reunification on October 3, Hoecke said eastern Germany “still has the experience of dictatorship in its bones”.<\/p>\n
“The East is much more sensitive to manipulation. Criticism of the established media is much more pronounced in the east… In the West, people are not quite as awakened.”<\/p>\n
But the AfD has recently gained ground in western Germany too and this month tripled its score in local elections in North Rhine-Westphalia, the country’s most populous state.<\/p>\n
For Hoecke, who once referred to Berlin’s Holocaust memorial as a “monument of shame”, the ideal Germany would begin with “Germans becoming friends with themselves again”.<\/p>\n
“All forms of patriotism have been driven out of the Germans,” he said.<\/p>\n
“If we do not slowly find our way back to our own identity, there will be no future for this country.”<\/p>\n
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