Abstract
The Alternative for Germany (AfD) had a mixed record of success in the 2021 federal election. Although it shed just under a fifth of its voters compared to 2017, the party maintained its support or even gained strength in East Germany, especially in southeast Germany. Although the party’s influence over public policy is extremely limited given the exclusion strategy pursued by all the mainstream German parties, the AfD is becoming an effective ‘populist issue entrepreneur,’ maintaining issue ownership over EU scepticism and anti-immigrant sentiment while capitalising on (or simply inventing) new issues in the electoral marketplace. Given this, the AfD will likely remain a fixture of German politics for many years to come.
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Hansen, M.A., Olsen, J. (2023). The Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the 2021 Federal Election: Down But Hardly Out. In: Campbell, R., Davidson-Schmich, L.K. (eds) The 2021 German Federal Election. New Perspectives in German Political Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-38930-6_8
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