Unpacking action repertoire of right-wing political parties: Findings from Germany

ABSTRACT

Recent studies of right-wing political parties have stressed importance of ‘internal supply side’ of these parties leading to more party-centric explanations. Following this lead, the present paper uses an ethnographic approach to empirically explore micro-mobilisation endeavours of a German right-wing party called Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). The paper draws upon social movement studies to highlight the constitutive role of grass root AfD members in creating a position of strength for their party in Saxony. Based on original, extensive fieldwork, I argue that one of the important reasons AfD has emerged as a significant player in the eastern German state of Saxony lies in party’s skilful appropriation of standard political action repertoire. Party members not only draw upon resources embedded in their social surroundings, but by using organisational forms as frame, they are also able to shape and create favourable political opportunities for their party.

KEYWORDS:

• German politics
• party organisation
• political sociology
• radical right parties

Acknowledgement

I am thankful to German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for a research fellowship to support my research project from September 2019 to October 2020.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 In 2004, the DVU made a non-competition pact with NPD for elections in Saxony. It merged in the NPD eventually in 2011.

2 To protect the privacy of the participants, pseudonyms are used and they appear in italicised form the first time they are mentioned. Quotation marks are used to indicate insertion of precise words of participants. At many points their words appear in original in brackets followed by their translation in English by myself.

3 AfD politicians are often regarded as a group of ‘old white men’ in public parlance. It is worth noting that this common stereotype is not entirely unfounded and is partly confirmed in scholarly accounts which point out disproportionately high share of ‘experienced men’ in AfD leadership (Schroeder et al., 2017, pp. 14–15).

4 The full list of AfD representatives in Saxon Landtag convened in 2019 is available at the state parliament’s website: https://www.landtag.sachsen.de/de/abgeordnete-fraktionen/abgeordnete/index.cshtml

5 The term Ochsentour is a rather negatively loaded term in German political parlance and connotes the often long-winding career path of a party member to climb ranks in the party and reach a prominent position.

6 It must be noted that research findings about social groups and income level among AfD supporters are highly mixed. For example, while YouGov surveys conducted by Zeit (Steffen, 2017) shows AfD supporters as higher-than average income earners, the analysis of State Parliament election results by Infratest dimap (2013–2017) suggests contrary evidence (see Kim, 2018). The income group of AfD supporters thus remains hotly debated without conclusive results.

7 The survey findings in Schroeder et al. (2017) were based on AfD parliamentarians in 10 state and national parliament.

8 Reports of such ‘unusual’ collaborations between AfD and representatives of other parties at local law-making bodies abound in German media. Parties hailing from conservative and liberal milieu, for example the CDU, FDP and Freie Wähler, are seen more susceptible to such collaborations than parties on the Left (SPD, Linke, Greens), although the latter has not been completely immune to the idea. (See Lasch, 2019; Lassiwe, 2020; Lehmann, 2019; Meisner, 2019; Nimz & Rietzschel, 2019).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by German Academic Exchange Service New Delhi [grant number 57440919].