Musk Magnifies Focus on Extremist Who Used Banned Nazi Slogan

Just months after enduring a firestorm over anti-Semitism, Elon Musk appeared to be courting another one when he amplified comments from a right-wing German extremist on the social media platform he owns.

Bjoern Hoecke, an influential regional figure in the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, wrote a post to Musk’s X over the weekend in which he complained he was being tried for using a proscribed Nazi slogan.

“What did you say?” asked Musk in reaction to Hoecke’s tweet which was — unusually for the politician — formulated in English.

According to prosecutors, the AfD’s leader in the East German state of Thuringia had at a 2021 campaign event used a slogan associated with the military arm of the Nazi dictatorship, which is illegal under German law. The former history teacher has long courted controversy for views deemed too extreme even by some in his own party. As recently as 2019 a German court judged that describing Hoecke as a fascist could not be ruled libelous.

“Why is that illegal?” Musk asked, in a follow-up to the politician’s post.

“Every patriot in Germany” Hoecke said, is being “defamed as a Nazi.” German law prohibits the use of certain terms, the former history teacher added, with the goal of preventing Germany from “finding itself again.”

Feeding off a sense of grievance against immigrants and refugees, Hoecke’s AfD is the favorite in elections due to take place in Thuringia in September. This poses challenges for the German security services since the courts have classified the party’s regional branch as far-right extremist.

Nationwide, the AfD has in the past year risen to second place in polls of voter intention behind the opposition Christian Democrats, even if its support has faltered lately after some of its members were exposed as attending a meeting at which they discussed a “re-migration” scheme that echoed Nazi policies.

Source » msn.com