Communicating Faction in the AfD: Party-Movement Connections on the German Right

• In Event: Party Communications and Agenda Setting

Abstract

Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland is widely understood to contain two distinct factions, one of which (Der Flügel) is closely linked to far-right movements. Yet the identifying features of these factions are poorly understood empirically, and networks of connections to movements on the far-right remain unclear, in part due to active obfuscation. We shed light on these networks using their communication and contacts on social media. First, we identify the factional affiliation of all national and state-level AfD legislators using canonical correspondence analysis to position them within the party. Next, we take a network analysis approach to identify distinct communities within the party in terms of geography, ideology, and distance to leadership figures. Finally, we examine how these factions serve to connect the party with far-right movements including PEGIDA, Reichsbürger, Querdenker (COVID denialist), and pro-Russian sympathizers. This work enables us to understand the communicative connections between formal political actors and movement politics on the far-right in the digital age, and the role that factions can play within a party more generally.

Authors

• Mike Cowburn, European University Viadrina

• Ulrike Klinger, European University Viadrina

• Marius Sältzer, Universtität Mannheim