At the end of November 2020, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) held a federal party convention which brought together about 500 delegates, in person, during lockdown measures. Maybe unsurprisingly, the convention criticized “panic-like corona measures taken by the federal government”.
During the convention, one of AfD’s two Federal Spokesmen, Jörg Meuthen, caused internal uproar as he, once again, joined the party’s internal conflict between ‘moderates’ and radicals, by attacking those who showed uncritical sympathy for the Querdenken (lateral thinking) anti-lockdown ‘movement’ (which often features conspiracy theories or extreme-right actors). His criticism furthermore included those who label the government’s reform to the infection protection law (Infektionsschutzgesetz) as “Corona dictatorship” (Corona-Diktatur) and compare it to the Enabling Act of 1933 (Ermächtigungsgesetz).
Whether this attempt to steer the AfD away from the most obscure anti-lockdown manifestations remains to be seen – and similarly, the jury is out to assess whether the party’s COVID-19 performance will ultimately appeal to the electorate. After all, while being the most critical of all parliamentary parties in Germany about COVID-19 response, its stance has not prevented the AfD from sliding in the polls.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the AfD has moved from tolerating the COVID-19 measures (and even criticising the belated response) to a rejection often in line with non-parliamentary protests. In fact, in an interview with Germany’s main TV station on 26 November 2020, AfD co-leader in the German parliament (Bundestag) Alice Weidel supported the aforementioned Querdenken in its opposition to the German government’s reform to the Infektionsschutzgesetz on 18 November 2020, which anti-lockdown protesters view as a return of the Ermächtigungsgesetz.
Indeed, on the day of the parliamentary vote, two far-right bloggers, who had been invited to the German parliament by AfD members of parliament, harassed parliamentarians of other parties on the corridors of the Bundestag. Recent events indicate that, in the course of the COVID-19 crisis, the AfD, having initially taken a less confrontative stance towards COVID-19 measures, returned to its populist, far-right meta-narrative which promises to bring about ethno-national rebirth for ‘true’ Germans while opposing the allegedly anti-democratic fantasies of ‘the elite’.
Based on an ongoing research project on the AfD’s climate change and COVID-19 communication, we have seen how the AfD has used COVID-19 to legitimize its own agenda and, in turn, delegitimize others. Material published between March and September 2020 by the AfD, in the party’s magazine, press releases and YouTube videos led us to three conclusions.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
