- Carpenter bomb stuns Guardians as Tigers level series
- Harris, Trump and Biden mark Oct. 7 attacks as US election looms
- Oil prices extend gains on Mideast tensions, Wall Street falls
- US judge orders Google to open Android to rival app stores
- On attacks anniversary, Israel fights 'sacred' multi-front war
- Nobel scientist uncovered tiny genetic switches with big potential
- Grammy-winning Cissy Houston, mother of Whitney, dies at 91
- UN biodiversity summit in Colombia aims to turn words into action
- Georgia Supreme Court reinstates six-week abortion ban
- 'Dark day': Victims mourned around the globe on Oct. 7 anniversary
- On attacks anniversary, Israel fights multi-front war
- Mexican mayor murdered days after taking office
- Intensifying to Category 5, Hurricane Milton targets Florida
- Mission to probe smashed asteroid launches despite hurricane
- Biden, Harris mark Oct. 7 with call for Mideast peace
- Dupont set for Toulouse return after post-Olympic holiday
- French rugby bosses tighten discipline after nightmare Argentina tour
- Oil prices extend gains on Mideast tensions, Wall Street slips
- Visitors to get rare view of Rome's Trevi Fountain
- Europe's asteroid mission Hera launches despite hurricane
- Man City and Premier League both claim victory in legal case
- Deschamps delight as 'light back on' for Pogba after doping ban
- Biden, Harris urge Mideast peace on Oct. 7 anniversary
- Neeskens, tough midfielder in Cruyff's Ajax and Dutch teams
- UN warns world's water cycle becoming ever more erratic
- Oil prices extend gains on Mideast tensions, Wall Street retreats
- Ex-Dutch football star Johan Neeskens dies
- Man Utd battling to improve fortunes, says Evans
- What is microRNA? Nobel-winning discovery explained
- Masood, Abdullah centuries lift Pakistan to 328-4 in first England Test
- Hurricane Milton strengthens fast, threatens Mexico, Florida
- Tunisia's President Saied set for landslide election win
- Barca hoping to return to Camp Nou 'by end of year'
- Trump to open second golf course at Scotland resort in summer 2025
- Super-sub Jhon Duran rewarded with new Aston Villa deal
- US duo win Nobel for gene regulation breakthrough
- Masood hits first ton for four years to power Pakistan to 233-1
- Fritz wins delayed match to reach Shanghai Masters third round
- Naomi Osaka pulls out of Japan Open with back injury
- Weather may delay launch of mission to study deflected asteroid
- China to flesh out economic stimulus plans after bumper rally
- Artist Marina Abramovic hopes first China show offers tech respite
- Asian markets track Wall St rally on US jobs data
- Pakistan 122-1 at lunch in first England Test
- Kazakhs approve plan for first nuclear power plant
- World marks anniversary of Oct. 7 attack on Israel
- 'Second family': tennis stars hunt winning formula with new coaches
- Philippines, South Korea agree to deepen maritime cooperation
- Mexico mayor murdered days after taking office
- Sardinia's sheep farmers battle bluetongue as climate warms
RBGPF | -1.97% | 58.94 | $ | |
JRI | -0.76% | 13.18 | $ | |
SCS | -0.15% | 12.95 | $ | |
BCC | 1.68% | 141.27 | $ | |
CMSC | -0.53% | 24.57 | $ | |
AZN | -0.78% | 76.87 | $ | |
BTI | -0.26% | 35.2 | $ | |
GSK | -0.49% | 38.63 | $ | |
NGG | -1.56% | 65.48 | $ | |
RELX | -0.54% | 46.04 | $ | |
BCE | -0.54% | 33.53 | $ | |
RIO | -0.11% | 69.62 | $ | |
RYCEF | -1.45% | 6.88 | $ | |
BP | 0.78% | 33.14 | $ | |
VOD | 0.31% | 9.69 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.09% | 24.79 | $ |
Bjoern Hoecke, key leader of Germany's far-right AfD
German far-right politician Bjoern Hoecke, known for his inflammatory rhetoric against immigrants and Islam, on Sunday led the AfD party to its first ever regional election victory.
A former high school history teacher and a father-of-four, 52-year-old Hoecke has emerged as one of the most radical and prominent leaders of the Alternative for Germany party.
His once fringe party won around 33 percent of the vote in the formerly communist eastern state of Thuringia, where he is party leader, and looked to come a close second in neighbouring Saxony.
At national elections a year from now, the AfD hopes to build on its momentum and harness fears about immigration and crime to derail the coalition government of centre-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
"Filled with pride", Hoecke said Sunday he was "ready to take on the responsibilities of governing".
But despite winning a third of seats in Thuringia's legislature, the AfD is unlikely to come to power, as all the other parties have ruled out teaming up with it to form a governing majority.
Hoecke, a slim man with steely blue eyes who grew up in western Germany, has long courted controversy and is considered a political extremist by Germany's domestic intelligence service.
He has advocated breaking with Germany's culture of repentance for Nazi crimes and once called Berlin's Holocaust monument a "memorial of shame".
He has been one of the AfD's key figures in its decade-long evolution from eurosceptic protest party into a movement with a nationalist and anti-Islam platform that rails against multiculturalism and denies climate change.
In 2020, Thomas Haldenwang, the head of Germany's domestic intelligence service, said he judged Hoecke to be a "right-wing extremist".
- Nazi slogan -
At a recent election rally, Hoecke charged that Thuringia had become "a magnet for migrants" and promised the crowd "a major programme to deport illegal immigrants" if elected.
Hoecke also drew cheers from the crowd with a promise of a 10,000-euro ($11,000) bonus for every German baby born in Thuringia and his criticism of environmentalists.
He has also vowed to curtail the powers of the domestic security service and to slash funding for initiatives against right-wing extremism, and for public broadcasters he accuses of seeking to "stigmatise" him.
Hoecke was fined twice this year for using a banned Nazi slogan, the phrase "Alles fuer Deutschland" (Everything for Germany).
A motto of the Sturmabteilung paramilitary group that played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power, the phrase is illegal in Germany, along with the Nazi salute and other slogans and symbols from that era.
At the opening of his trial, Hoecke insisted the phrase consisted of "commonplace words that happened to be used by a criminal organisation" and branded the proceedings a "farce".
On Sunday, with a smile on his face and his arms in the air, he savoured the AfD victory in front of a restaurant in the state capital Erfurt, where his party had barred journalists from its celebration.
Its record electoral gains in Thuringia and Saxony are certain to give the AfD the power to veto certain government policies.
Hoecke cautioned the other parties against shutting out the AfD, declaring: "I can only warn against this. Anyone who wants stable conditions in Thuringia must integrate the AfD."
X.Karnes--AMWN