(AP-ANSA) - BERLIN - Political opponents say he's a Nazi and
a court recently ruled he can be called a fascist, but to many
Germans angry about immigration Bjoern Hoecke is the leader
they've been waiting for. The 47-year-old former history teacher
is predicted to lead the far-right Alternative for Germany party
to third or even second place in a regional election Sunday,
despite being considered a possible extremist threat by the
country's domestic intelligence agency.
A poll released Friday by public broadcaster ZDF forecast
that the party, known by its German acronym AfD, would receive
21% of the vote in Thuringia, almost doubling its 2014 result in
the central state with a population of 2.1 million. The
governing coalition of three left-wing parties is expected to
lose its majority, according to the survey of 1,177 voters which
had a margin of error of up to 3 percentage points. The vote in
Thuringia, one of Germany's 16 states, reflects the difficulty
that mainstream parties have had confronting a politician who
openly espouses racial ideology, has criticized Germany's
efforts to atone for the Holocaust and has questioned whether
Adolf Hitler was "entirely evil" - positions that would have
been considered beyond the pale by most German voters until
recently.
Like in other formerly communist eastern German states where
AfD is particularly strong, the outcome of Sunday's vote could
force new, previously untested alliances between erstwhile
political enemies united chiefly in their refusal to cooperate
with the far right. "I believe Hoecke is a Nazi," Mike Mohring,
the lead candidate in Thuringia for Chancellor Angela Merkel's
conservative Christian Democrats, told voters this week. He made
it clear his party won't team up with AfD, even though together
they could get a majority. In a book published last year, Hoecke
laid out his view that a "strong broom" is required to "clear
the pigsty," making clear that he would target migrants and
political opponents using "well-tempered cruelty" if necessary.
Such language has alarmed even members of Hoecke's own party,
which has twice tried unsuccessfully to kick him out . Former
party leader Frauke Petry argued there was sufficient evidence
to show that Hoecke had written pseudonymous articles for
neo-Nazi magazines, a conclusion shared by Germany's domestic
intelligence agency. Hoecke has denied writing for neo-Nazi
magazines or being an extremist. Still, he marched publicly
alongside known extremists at a rally last year and last month a
regional court rejected Hoecke's complaint against protesters
who described him as a "fascist," citing the contents of his
book. A good result in Thuringia could cement Hoecke's position
within the party, offering him a strong platform in an upcoming
leadership election. Since its founding in 2013, the party has
drifted steadily to the right, embracing many of the positions
previously held by fringe parties while also attracting
conservative voters unhappy with Merkel's liberal policies on
immigration. Germany's security services have warned that
far-right extremists feel increasingly emboldened, citing the
killing in June of a moderate politician from Merkel's party who
was shot dead by a suspected neo-Nazi, and the anti-Semitic
shooting this month in Halle in which two people were killed.
Other parties have accused AfD of fueling violence against
political opponents and minorities with its vocal criticism of
immigration, a charge the party has strongly denied. Hammering
home his message to voters in the final days of the campaign,
Hoecke said AfD would "launch a deportation offensive 2020 if we
get into government." (AP-ANSA).
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