What's happened
AfD politician in Germany faces trial for using a banned Nazi slogan in a campaign speech
Why it matters
The trial of a prominent far-right politician for using a banned Nazi slogan is significant in Germany's ongoing struggle with far-right extremism and the legacy of the Nazi era.
What the papers say
The Guardian reports on the concerns raised by the directors of a memorial at a former Nazi concentration camp about the revisionist views of the far-right politician expected to become its local mayor. The Times and The Times of Israel both cover the trial of Björn Höcke for using a banned Nazi slogan, with The Times also reporting on the growing support for the far-right AfD party in the state of Brandenburg.
How we got here
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has been gaining support in various states, with growing complacency about its right-wing links. The trial of Björn Höcke coincides with a poll in the state of Brandenburg showing the AfD to be leading there for the first time.
More on these topics
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Alternative for Germany is a right-wing to far-right political party in Germany. Founded in April 2013, the AfD narrowly missed the 5% electoral threshold to sit in the Bundestag during the 2013 federal election.
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National Socialism, more commonly known as Nazism, is the ideology and practices associated with the Nazi Party—officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party —in Nazi Germany, and of other far-right groups with similar ideas and aims.
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Björn Höcke is a German politician and a member of Alternative for Germany. Along with Andreas Kalbitz, Höcke is the leader of the AfD's far-right "Der Flügel" faction, which the German government's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitutio
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central and Western Europe. Covering an area of 357,022 square kilometres, it lies between the Baltic and North seas to the north, and the Alps to the south.
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Brandenburg is a state in the northeast of Germany. With an area of 29,478 square kilometres and a population of 2.5 million residents, it is the fifth-largest German state by area and the tenth-most populous.
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Nordhausen is a city in Thuringia, Germany. It is the capital of the Nordhausen district and the urban centre of northern Thuringia and the southern Harz region; its population is 42,000.