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POLITICS

Coalition mayhem in Hesse

Politicians in the German state of Hesse have still not formed a government due to disagreement between the parties. A coalition has yet to be formed along traditional lines and the CDU and SPD refuse to form a grand coalition emulating that of the federal government.

Published: 30 January 2008 15:25 CET

“The grand coalition is impossible,” Andrea Ypsilanti head of the SPD and candidate for premier of Hessen, told the local daily Neuen Presse. She told the Berliner Morgenpost that there is no common ground between both parties’ programmes and that her refusal to enter a coalition with the CDU is not simply based on opposition to CDU Roland Koch.

“If Roland Koch were gone, the CDU’s program would remain. The programs do not fit together. One cannot make a coalition in which both parties must completely abandon their identity.”

The CDU has announced that it is willing to talk to “all democratic parties” about a coalition with the exception of the Left Party. The rightwing NDP party is also excluded, as the CDU does not consider them to be democratic.

One possibility would be a coalition between the centre FDP and the CDU, which would encompass 53 percent of the seats. Pundits have also cited a coalition between the SPD and the Green Party as a possibility. This would encompass 51 percent of the seats.

Another possibility could be the “Jamaica Coalition,” a coalition between the CDU, FDP and The Green party. The name comes from the respective party colours, yellow, black and green, the colours of the Jamaican flag. This scenario, however, was rejected by the Green Party.

Leading SPD candidate in the Hamburg election Michael Naumann has called for a “traffic light” coalition. This is a reference to the colours of the SPD, CDU and The Green Party, which are red, yellow and green, respectively. The Green Party rejected this coalition, because they did not want to join with the conservative CDU.

Politicians and pundits believe that Roland Koch will remain the premier in the end, as he won the most votes, and that a grand coalition will form in the absence of any other alternative.

CRIME

German far-right politician fined €13,000 for using Nazi slogan

A German court has convicted one of the country's most controversial far-right politicians, Björn Höcke, of deliberately using a banned Nazi slogan at a rally.

Published: 15 May 2024 08:43 CEST
German far-right politician fined €13,000 for using Nazi slogan

The court fined Höcke, 52, of the far-right AfD party, €13,000 for using the phrase “Alles fuer Deutschland” (“Everything for Germany”) during a 2021 campaign rally.

Once a motto of the so-called Sturmabteilung paramilitary group that played a key role in Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, the phrase is illegal in modern-day Germany, along with the Nazi salute and other slogans and symbols from that era.

The former high school history teacher claimed not to have been aware that the phrase had been used by the Nazis, telling the court he was “completely not guilty”.

Höcke said he thought the phrase was an “everyday saying”.

But prosecutors argued that Höcke used the phrase in full knowledge of its “origin and meaning”.

They had sought a six-month suspended sentence plus two years’ probation, and a payment of €10,000 to a charitable organisation.

Writing on X, formerly Twitter, after the trial, Höcke said the “ability to dissent is in jeopardy”.

“If this verdict stands, free speech will be dead in Germany,” he added.

Höcke, the leader of the AfD in Thuringia, is gunning to become Germany’s first far-right state premier when the state holds regional elections in September.

With the court ordering only a fine rather than a jail term, the verdict is not thought to threaten his candidacy at the elections.

‘AfD scandals’

The trial is one of several controversies the AfD is battling ahead of European Parliament elections in June and regional elections in the autumn in Thuringia, Brandenburg and Saxony.

Founded in 2013, the anti-Islam and anti-immigration AfD saw a surge in popularity last year – its 10th anniversary – seizing on concerns over rising migration, high inflation and a stumbling economy.

But its support has wavered since the start of 2024, as it contends with scandals including allegations that senior party members were paid to spread pro-Russian views on a Moscow-financed news website.

Considered an extremist by German intelligence services, Höcke is one of the AfD’s most controversial personalities.

He has called Berlin’s Holocaust monument a “memorial of shame” and urged a “180-degree shift” in the country’s culture of remembrance.

Höcke was convicted of using the banned slogan at an election rally in Merseburg in the state of Saxony-Anhalt in the run-up to Germany’s 2021 federal election.

READ ALSO: How worried should Germany be about the far-right AfD after mass deportation scandal?

He had also been due to stand trial on a second charge of shouting “Everything for…” and inciting the audience to reply “Germany” at an AfD meeting in Thuringia in December.

However, the court decided to separate the proceedings for the second charge, announced earlier this month, because the defence had not had enough time to prepare.

Prosecutor Benedikt Bernzen on Friday underlined the reach of Höcke’s statement, saying that a video of it had been clicked on 21,000 times on the Facebook page of AfD Sachsen-Anhalt alone.

Höcke’s defence lawyer Philip Müller argued the rally was an “insignificant campaign event” and that the offending statement was only brought to the public’s notice by the trial.

Germany’s domestic security agency has labelled the AfD in Thuringia a “confirmed” extremist organisation, along with the party’s regional branches in Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt.

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