ABSTRACT

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of radical right populism in Germany. It gives an overview of historical developments of the phenomenon and its current appearance. It examines three of the main far-right organizations in Germany: the radical right populist party AfD (Alternative for Germany), Pegida (Patriotic Europeans against the Islamification of the Occident), and the Identitarian Movement.

The book investigates the positions of these groups as expressed in programmes, publications, and statements of party leaders and movement activists. It explores their history, ideologies, strategies, and their main activists and representatives, as well as the overlap between the groups. The ideological positions examined include populism, nativism, authoritarianism, volkish nationalism, ethnopluralism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, antisemitism, antifeminism, and Euroscepticism. The analysis shows that these ideological features are sometimes strategically interlinked for effect and used to justify specific political demands such as the stronger regulation of immigration and the exclusion of Muslims.

This much-needed volume will be of particular interest to students and researchers of German politics, populism, social movements, party politics, and right-wing extremism.

chapter 1|7 pages

Introduction

chapter 2|14 pages

Populism and Radical Right Populism

chapter 3|12 pages

Radical Right Populist Precursors of AfD

chapter 4|18 pages

A Short History of AfD

chapter 5|15 pages

AfD’s Radical Right Populism

chapter 6|12 pages

Volkish Nationalism as Core Ideology

chapter 7|10 pages

AfD’s Reluctant Hard Euroscepticism

chapter 9|9 pages

Antisemitism and Historical Revisionism

chapter 10|27 pages

AfD as “Anti-Gender Party”

chapter 11|12 pages

Strategy of Ambivalence

AfD between neoliberalism and social populism 1

chapter 12|5 pages

Conclusion