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The corona pandemic has given right-wing populists across Europe a tailwind.
This is the result of a study by the Mercator Forum Migration and Democracy (Midem) at the Technical University of Dresden.
Scientists had analyzed the quantitative and qualitative results of the contributions of populist parties in twelve countries.
"Times of crisis are always gateways for dissatisfaction and protest," said Midem boss Hans Vorländer at the presentation of the study "Corona and right-wing populism" in Dresden.
In such times it would be easy for political forces to stir up worries, fears and resentments and to pillory elites, institutions or even an entire system.
It was the same during the migration crisis.
However, the analysis also clearly differentiates.
In general, Corona was not necessarily a winning topic for right-wing populists, said Vorländer.
"But they were able to succeed where they were able to take up and sharpen existing experiences of alienation and populist attitudes of individual sections of the population with their criticism of the system."
AfD also benefits from corona skeptics
With a view to the AfD, the study shows that its populist style is decisive for the fact that numerous corona skeptics gather behind the party. The representative survey on the corona measures in Saxony shows that negative positions on the government measures to protect against infection are primarily related to populist orientations. That means: People who reject the Corona measures often feel that they are little or badly represented by politics and institutions. On the other hand, critical attitudes towards infection control measures are less often associated with ethnocentric or authoritarian attitudes.
Vorländer is an expert on topics such as right-wing populism and migration, and has been head of the MIDEM research center at TU Dresden since 2017. Most recently, the renowned political scientist and his team were skeptical of vaccinations in the summer of the study "Covid-19 in Saxony" investigated in the Free State.
The results were in turn the basis for other studies, for example on the question of how indecisive unvaccinated people could still be changed.
as / AFP
