On Wednesday, February 21, at 12:30 PM (GISB room 4067), EURO will be sponsoring a talk by Alex Baker, MA candidate in European Studies currently on exchange with the Freie Universität in Berlin. 

The talk, whose abstract can be found below, will be entitled "The Alternative für Deutschland (AfD): A Case Study in European Right-Wing Populism." 

In last September’s German federal elections the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) garnered 12.6% of the vote, becoming the third largest party in the Bundestag. The AfD was founded in 2013 in response to the Euro crisis, and since then, has established itself as a major player in German politics while also making a sharp rightward turn. It is currently present in 14 of the 16 German state parliaments, with the chance to enter all 16 by the end of 2018. During its rise, scholars, the media, and politicians referred to the party using a variety of terms, calling it things such as: a single-issue party, a protest party, traditional conservative, a neo-fascist street movement, radical-right, classic liberal, populist, nativist, among others.

Baker hypothesizes that the AfD is best placed in the the populist radical right party family, alongside parties like Austria’s Freedom Party (FPÖ), France’s National Front (FN), and the Netherlands Party for Freedom (PVV). This lecture will offer a systematic analysis of the AfD’s ideology. It will explore what core features comprise the party’s ideology, how these ideological features are expressed, and offer an explanation for why the AfD is best categorized as a populist radical right party.

Lunch will be provided!

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