In recent days, if you follow the German news....Bjoern Hoecke has been in the news a good bit. Who is the guy? Well....let's go back to the original take-over period of the AfD Party (2015) and flipping it into an anti-migrant/immigrant party.
There were around eight key individuals noted in this period, and Bjoern Hoecke was one of the eight. If you asked me at that point....was Hoecke a bit odd? I would have said that the other seven fit into a certain style and character....while Hoecke seemed to be on an unusual path. I'm avoiding using the word 'cult-like' (which German journalists and even members of the AfD Party have used) when describing Hoecke.
In the very beginning....ARD (Channel One) actually gave the guy an invitation to a public forum, and I think their intention was that they'd 'brand' him as a Nazi-pretender in the show and help starve off his advancement. Well, I sat and watched the show, and his appeal in that hour-long piece was a big supporter of German nationalism....German character....German culture. If you were a German voter and in search of someone favored German history....you would have sided with Hoecke. I think ARD's intentions got lost, and Hoecke actually gained out of that episode.
The rest of the AfD Party? For the most part, you get the impression that they are just shaking their head over the appeal of the guy, his speeches, and his approach to the national political situation.
Here's the key thing for recent notice on this guy....the Thuringian state election is now about twelve weeks away, and Hoecke is leading his regional AfD Party in polling to around 20-to-22 percent of the vote presently. At the very least, they will place 2nd place. The CDU? They will pull out a 24-to-26 percent win, and be fairly limited on the coalition partnership deal....being forced into a deal with the FDP, SPD, and Greens (four coalition players is something you simply never see in German politics).
Some folks are a bit worried that Hoecke is getting too much notice across the other 15 German states, and he might turn into some kind of Hitler-like character. If you watch videos of the guy in the past six months....he's turned on charisma and charm.....acting more like some Hollywood star that is full of himself.
An idiot? No....the guy has a degree in history and sports. He holds a master's degree. He's certainly not an idiot. His speeches reflect German history (not just the past seventy years since the war, but going back the past thousand years).
So you come to the obvious question....if the Thuringian election goes with a hefty AfD win....does Hoecke advance in national politics and become a problem for the current leadership of the AfD Party? Part of the limitations on the party was that they didn't have any front-runner and it was more of a group of a dozen characters who were marginally noted in the news.
That's the basis of the Hoecke chatter and why it amounts to something. I don't think it's going away, and he might become the national face of the party within two years....just in time for the 2021 national election.
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