Abstract
Different to all its neighboring countries, in Germany, seemed to be no ground for right-wing populist parties due to two main obstacles. First, because populism in Germany must operate in a historically encumbered environment, the media has developed a fear of contact with it which prevents any unconstrained debate and constantly exposes the right-wing parties to the risk of being linked with National Socialism. And, second, because of the stigmatization that would follow and thereby prevent the parties’ from establishing themselves as a political force. This has changed in the 2010s.
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Notes
- 1.
The AfD’s radicalization was demonstrated in 2021 it suddenly demanding Germany leave the EU (“Dexit”) before the imminent German parliamentary elections.
- 2.
The General Secretary of the CDU at that time, Peter Tauber said in 2014, the AfD would still be elected to one or two state legislatures and would then disappear from the political landscape (Tauber, 2014). The renowned researcher on populism Cas Mudde likewise judged that the AfD would “implode and would disappear as a relevant political power” (Mudde, 2004).
- 3.
For example, a few months after Baden-Württemberg’s state legislative election in May 2016, a second AfD faction was formed. Furthermore, the AfD lost its coalition status in Lower Saxony in 2000.
- 4.
Experiences in Austria show, that a single large coalition fuels the establishment of an extreme right party. The NPD which at that time had German nationalistic leanings also profited in Germany during the 1960s from such a Grand Coalition.
- 5.
Infratest dimap survey for Brandenburg; https://wahl.tagesschau.de/wahlen/2019-09-01-LT-DE-BB/index.shtml; Saxony; https://wahl.tagesschau.de/wahlen/2019-09-01-LT-DE-SN/umfrage-ostdeutschland.shtml; and Thuringia; https://wahl.tagesschau.de/wahlen/2019-10-27-LT-DE-TH/index.shtml (all accessed 5 July 2021).
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Hartleb, F. (2022). The Right-Wing Populist Disruption in the Berlin Republic. Opportunity Structures and Success of the Alternative for Germany (AfD). In: Oswald, M., Robertson, J. (eds) The Legacy and Impact of German Unification. New Perspectives in German Political Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97154-0_8
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