ABSTRACT
Since 1990, Germany’s party system has seen the addition of two electorally successful new parties – Die Linke on the left, and the Alternative for Germany (AfD) on the right. This chapter considers how established parties have reacted to the emergence of these two populist parties and how, in turn, Die Linke and the AfD have dealt with their responses. It also scrutinizes how Die Linke, as the older of the newcomers, has reacted to the AfD’s emergence. Focussing on the period 2008–2018, the analysis is guided by the three-fold typology of strategic choice – dismissal, accommodation, and adversarialism – which is employed throughout the book.
The chapter finds that mainstream parties primarily used the strategies of dismissal and adversarialism vis-à-vis challenger parties, but also tried the accommodative approach. For example, the Eurozone crisis saw the dismissal of the criticism of ‘bank bailouts’ and ‘rescue packages’ voiced by Die Linke. Criticism coming from the AfD was countered with hostile adversarialism in an attempt to ostracize the party. The refugee crisis saw mainstream parties change strategy. At first, they defended Germany’s humanitarian ‘welcome culture’ against the AfD’s strong nativist criticism, to then adopt a discourse that sometimes bore resemblance to that of the AfD. Die Linke, losing voters to the AfD over its cosmopolitan positions on immigration, stayed its adversarial course against the right-wing newcomer party despite internal conflict over it.
