The relatively new party known as the Alternative for Germany (Alternative für Deutschland, AfD) and its relationship to right-wing extremism have been the subject of a great deal of intensive discussion among political and social scientists. While one stream of research focuses primarily on the strategic aspects of the AfD, such as its populist rhetoric… Continue reading “The antisemitic turn of the “Alternative for Germany” party”
The German terror group “National Socialist Underground“ is unprecedented – radical right terrorism is not A marathon trial in Germany has come to an end. On 11 July 2018, more than five years after the trial had begun, the higher regional court in Munich handed down the sentences against five members and supporters of the… Continue reading “The Under-Discussed Recent History Of The Radical Right Terrorism In Germany”
Where left-leaning observers warn of a return of totalitarian nationalism, the far right warns of the return of socialist and communist totalitarian politics. With the rise of populist and far-right politics in Europe and beyond, the fear of the return of totalitarian politics has equally intensified. Comparisons with the rise of fascism in the 1920s… Continue reading “The Far Right Imagines a Totalitarian Other”
Adhering to a nostalgia for a more stable time, many observers see in the end of Merkel’s era the beginning of a dystopian future of political turmoil. Six years ago, in November 2012, Angela Merkel was at the height of her domestic and European power. At the domestic level, Germany was perceived as an “island… Continue reading “The End of the Merkel Era”
My study of the radical right in my book Voting Radical Right in Western Europe focused on the institutions that determine the “rules of the game” – in particular, electoral systems and the difference between proportional representation and first-past-the-post systems. I argued that electoral systems need to be taken into account when comparing party systems… Continue reading “Voting Radical Right in Western Europe “Rules of the Game””
Four years ago on October 20, 2014, ‘Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident’ (PEGIDA) staged their first-ever demonstration in the city of Dresden. About 350 people attended. Soon, the weekly PEGIDA protests turned into the most talked about issue in German politics. In the winter of 2014 and 2015, up to 20,000 people… Continue reading “PEGIDA turns 4 – will AfD be among the well-wishers?”
In late August, the east German city of Chemnitz startled observers from all over the world. On 26 August 2018, 35 yr.old German Daniel H. was stabbed to death after a quarrel had escalated at a city festival in Chemnitz (Saxony). Shortly afterwards, the police arrested two asylum seekers from Syria and Iraq as… Continue reading “Scenes of ‘civil war’? Radical right narratives on Chemnitz”
Germany to the Germans! Foreigners out” was the central slogan of the racist riots in the city of Rostock in 1992. For around three days, neo-Nazis controlled the streets in the plattenbau district of Lichtenhagen where the central registration for asylum-seekers (as well as a housing block of Vietnamese contract workers) were situated. With stones… Continue reading “The truth lies in Chemnitz?”
The recent right-wing surge in Germany is marked by an increasing degree of dispersal among radical-right actors. New parties, movements, groupuscules, think tanks and media outlets have emerged since 2013 (when the Alternative for Germany party, the AfD, was founded), fundamentally transforming the radical-right field and causing a lack of strategic coordination and ideological coherency.… Continue reading “Uniting Germany’s Radical Right”
Music has long been a key factor in spreading neo-Nazi ideology, serving both as a tool to attract (young) people and to reproduce identities of those already part of the scene/movement. Indeed, it is through music that the extreme right has voiced its ideas, including racism and xenophobia, othering of ‘internal enemies’, antisemitism as well… Continue reading “Fancy a show? Neo-Nazi concerts in Germany”