| Popis: |
Until recently, Germany was somewhat of a political outlier among advanced liberal democracies. Unlike its neighbors, Germany proved relatively resilient to the sirens of radical right-wing populism. The success of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the federal election of 2017 marks a decisive break with this past. With more than 12 per cent of the vote it became the third largest party in the newly elected Bundestag. The results sent shock waves through Germany’s political establishment and across the entire country. With the AfD, a party entered the Bundestag, which in the run-up to the election had introduced a new confrontational and aggressive tone into the political discussion, designed to irritate and polarize. Leading party members used provocation to push the boundaries of acceptable speech and break established taboos (Steffen 2017). They justified their strategy arguing that they were only lending voice to ordinary people and providing a platform for their views. A number of its candidates, however, made no secret of their extremist views; nor did they try to hide their ties to right-wing extremist groups, both domestically and abroad, nor their amicable contacts with like-minded parties abroad, most prominently the Austrian Freedom Party (FPO), the Swiss People’s Party (SVP), and the Dutch Party for Freedom (PVV). |
