The Bavarian Administrative Court (VGH) has cancelled the ban on Björn Höcke from speaking at AfD election events in two Bavarian municipalities. The VGH ruled that the municipalities had not sufficiently justified the ban on speaking. In the case of the municipality of Seybothenreuth, it thus upheld the complaint of the AfD district association in Bayreuth; in the other case, it rejected the complaint of the town of Lindenberg (Ref.: 4 CS 26.288 and 4 CS 26.291 of 13 February 2026).

The municipalities had only authorised the AfD election events in their public facilities on the condition that Björn Höcke did not appear as a speaker. In the opinion of the VGH, however, the municipalities had not sufficiently demonstrated that criminal offences or administrative offences were to be expected from Höcke as a guest speaker. According to the court's press release, it was „not to be expected with sufficient probability that these would be events at which content could be expected that would condone, glorify or justify the National Socialist reign of violence and despotism, or - in accordance with the necessary restrictive interpretation - disseminate anti-Semitic content“.

The VGH thus confirms the high requirements for a speech ban, which the Administrative Court (VG) of Augsburg had already accepted, and clarifies that the new provision of Art. 21 para. 1a) GO, which only came into force on 1 January 2026, must also be interpreted narrowly. The VG Bayreuth had based its decision that the AfD may only hold the party event without Höcke on the sufficient probability required there.