Last year Bjoern Hoecke, one of the AfD’s most radical leaders, was convicted and fined twice for using a banned Nazi slogan, “Alles fuer Deutschland” (Everything for Germany).
Despite its popularity, the AfD is unlikely to enter government after the February 23 polls, as all mainstream parties have ruled out working with it.
And many Germans remain fiercely opposed to the party. Tens of thousands rallied in cities across the country on Saturday against the far right.
Nevertheless the German political establishment is increasingly worried that the far right’s views are gaining traction.
“Our culture of remembrance is facing fundamental challenges,” Culture Minister Claudia Roth said Monday.
“Disinformation, conspiracy theories and hate speech can now spread almost without limit in important social media,” she said.
“This is all the more worrying given that there is currently a rapidly advancing relativisation and deliberately pursued historical amnesia in the use of terms and gestures that are historically associated with” the Nazi era, she said.
