The Pandemic Factor

The Covid-19 Crisis in the Alternative for Germany's 2021 Federal Election Campaign

Bibliographic Data

ID3648554
AuthorsLars Rensmann (0000-0001-5762-8809, corresponding author), Thijs De Zee
Year2022
Volume40
Issue4
Pages69-103
Publication date2022-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueGerman Politics & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1045-0300 • E-ISSN: 1558-5441
PublisherBerghahn Books (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.3167/gps.2022.400404
OpenAlexW4312048125
LanguageEN
Citations received2

This article examines how and why the covid-19 pandemic featured as a central issue in the Alternative for Germany's 2021 Bundestag election campaign. Using a wide range of political communication tools, the radical right party's opposition to public health policies against the pandemic ranged from a critique of hygienic measures to hosting coronavirus denialism and conspiracy myths suggesting that "the elite" had manufactured "corona hysteria" to subjugate the German people. Mirroring its general radicalization process toward an anti-system movement party, the AfD's campaign primarily gave voice to an ideologically driven, conspiracist, and authoritarian-nationalist core electorate, which has its center of gravity in the East. In the environment of an emerging "pandemic divide," the party also sought to appeal to a robust minority of corona skeptics. More generally, the AfD's campaign points to the still underresearched role of science denialism and conspiracy myths in radical right mobilizations of a counterfactual age

Appeal · Authoritarianism · Democracy · Ideology · Nationalism · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · German legal, social, and political studies · Law · Populism, Right-Wing Movements

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Open DOIOpen Access