section_path: Public profile/Neo-Nazi controversies
section_name: Neo-Nazi controversies
paragraph_text: Neo-Nazi controversies
  
  In January 2017 Björn Höcke, one of the founders of AfD, gave a speech in Dresden in which, referring to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, he stated that "we Germans are the only people in the world who have planted a memorial of shame in the heart of their capital", and suggested that Germans "need to make a 180 degree change in their politics of commemoration". The speech was widely criticized as antisemitic or neo-Nazi, among others by Jewish leaders in Germany. Within AfD, he was described by his party chairwoman, Frauke Petry, as a "burden to the party", while other members of the party, such as Alexander Gauland, said that they found no antisemitism in the speech.
  
  In February 2017, AfD leaders asked for Höcke to be expelled from the party due to his speech. The arbitration committee of AfD in Thuringia was set to rule on the leaders' request. In May 2018, an AfD tribunal ruled that Höcke was allowed to stay in the party.
  
  The AfD politician Matthias Helferich had described himself in social media messages as the "friendly face of the ns," referring to National Socialism. Helferich also called himself a "democratic Freisler," referring to a Nazi-era judge.
  
  In January 2024 it was revealed that senior members of the party, including Roland Hartwig, then advisor to party co-leader Alice Weidel, attended a meeting alongside neo-Nazi influencers, where plans for the deportation of millions of "asylum seekers", "non-assimilated people", and those with "non-German backgrounds" were discussed, including those with German citizenship and residency rights. The event triggered the 2024 German anti-extremism protests.
  
  In May 2024, Höcke was convicted and fined €13,000 by the state court in Halle for deliberately using a banned slogan "Alles für Deutschland", associated with the Nazi Party's paramilitary wing, in a May 2021 campaign speech. In the same month, the party member Maximilian Krah defence of the Waffen-SS caused controversy.
  
  Following the 2025 federal election it was confirmed that Maximillian Krah and Matthias Helferich would be joining the parliament.