Far-right German politician convicted over Holocaust remarks

A court in Munich convicted a politician from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party on Friday of incitement to hatred over remarks comparing a coronavirus vaccination campaign with Nazi anti-Jewish pogroms, reported dpa.

Florian Jäger, who previously served as an AfD member of Germany's parliament, posted a video to his Facebook page in which he compared vaccine regulations with the Nazis' infamous and violent Kristallnacht terror campaign against German Jews in November 1938.

The court ruled that the comments amounted to incitement and sentenced Jäger to pay a fine, which was reduced due to the poor state of the politician's personal finances.

Jäger, 52, is the district chairman for the AfD in Fürstenfeldbruck, a suburb to the west of Munich. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment from dpa after the verdict.

In the video, Jäger claimed that the German government's measures to control the coronavirus pandemic were comparable to the persecution of Jews under the Nazis. Millions of Jews and others were murdered by Nazi Germany, which also operated an extensive and brutal system of slave labour.

Senior prosecutor Andreas Franck argued in court that Jäger had intentionally sought to incite people and poured petrol on a fire with his comments.