Berlin prosecutors announced Monday that a member of Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has been charged with performing a Nazi salute inside the parliament building, AFP reported.
The parliamentarian allegedly “greeted a party colleague... at the east entrance to the Reichstag building with a heel click and a Hitler salute” in June 2023, according to a statement from prosecutors.
Making such a gesture is a criminal offense under German law and can result in up to three years’ imprisonment.
German daily Bild identified the lawmaker as 60-year-old Matthias Moosdorf, a parliament member representing the city of Zwickau in Saxony, formerly part of East Germany. Prosecutors added that “the accused is said to have been aware that the greeting... was visible to others in the entrance area.”
Moosdorf was stripped of his parliamentary immunity in October after the accusation surfaced. On Monday, he posted on the X platform denying that he had made the gesture.
Moosdorf, a trained cellist, joined the AfD in 2016 and served as a foreign policy spokesman for the party’s parliamentary group until May, when he was removed from the position following internal disputes over his perceived pro-Russian stance.
AfD, which was formed in 2013, entered Germany’s national parliament with 12.6% of the vote in 2017.
The party has a history of controversial statements, particularly surrounding the Holocaust. The party’s leader, Björn Höcke, caused a firestorm in February of 2017 when he suggested that Germany should end its decades-long tradition of acknowledging and atoning for its Nazi past.
AfD chairman Alexander Gauland in 2018 described the Nazi period as a mere "speck of bird poo in over 1,000 years of successful German history".
He had previously asserted, however, that Jews should not fear the strong election showing by AfD and indicated that he was ready to meet with German Jewish leaders “at any time.”
Five German states hold elections next year, including two in the east where AfD is strongest.