Pallade Veneta - Far-right firebrand Hoecke draws crowds in eastern Germany

Hoecke was greeted with rapturous applause as he appeared at a rally to drum up support for the far-right AfD in the town this month ahead of a key regional election.

Hoecke, 52, a former history teacher, is the head of the AfD in Thuringia, one of three former East German states going to the polls in September.

The location of the rally was calculated -- the AfD caused a sensation in Sonneberg last year when it secured its first district administrator position there in all of Germany.

Now, the party is hoping to win a state election for the first time -- and with polls putting it in the lead on around 30 percent, that goal looks well within reach.

Hoecke was fined twice this year for using a banned Nazi slogan and has previously caused controversy with statements such as calling Berlin's Holocaust monument a "memorial of shame".

But he did not hold back as he addressed a crowd of around 200 people in Sonneberg, decrying how Thuringia had become "a magnet for migrants" and accusing the opposition of "fascist methods".

- 'Remigration' -

In the front row, a 19-year-old plastics industry worker who gave his name only as Kemi was wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the words "Hoecke for chancellor".

"His speech is very informative and he has the right vision for Germany," he said, adding that there were "too many misunderstandings about him."

"Everyone has the right to express their opinion in Germany," said Diana Werner, a 50-year-old care worker.

She will be voting for the AfD because she wants to see "a major change in this country", especially through "remigration".

AfD members were accused earlier this year of discussing the concept of remigration -- the expulsion of immigrants and "non-assimilated citizens" -- at a meeting with extremists.

The AfD officially rejects the concept.

But in Sonneberg, Hoecke promised the crowd "a major programme to deport illegal immigrants" if he is elected.

"I think there are too many people who come here and commit too many crimes," said Werner.

In a subtle nod to the AfD's stance on the issue, party members at the rally were handing out blue inflatable planes for children to play with.

Hoecke's promise of a 10,000-euro ($11,000) bonus for every baby born in Thuringia and his criticism of environmentalists also drew enthusiastic cheers from the crowd.

An AfD victory in Thuringia would make Hoecke and his radical ideas even more "inescapable" within the party, according to Julia Reuschenbach, a political scientist at the Free University of Berlin.

- Far-right 'hotspot' -

Around the corner from the rally in Sonneberg, around 100 protesters were kept apart from the AfD supporters by police.

"What would happen to our healthcare system without all those (foreigners) who provide invaluable help?" said Claudia Mueller, 74, who suffers from polio.

Sonneberg has become a "hotspot" for far-right violence since the AfD took control of the town in 2023, according to Ezra, a local counselling service for attack victims.

"Verbal violence has increased here, with people daring to say more things about immigration or the government," said Georg Litty, a 50-year-old social worker.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD) look set for an electoral disaster in Thuringia where they are currently polling at around six percent.

At a recent rally for the SPD, Scholz said Hoecke "talks like a Nazi".

"Let them govern, and then we can get angry if they cheat us like the old parties," said Markus, a 58-year-old lorry driver.

The AfD is unlikely to come to power in Thuringia, even if it wins the election, as other parties have ruled out teaming up with it to form a majority.

But it would not be the first time the state has blazed a far-right trail: the Nazi party first came to power in Thuringia, in a coalition with the conservatives in 1930.

L.Barone--PV