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Surprises, symbols, and mainstreaming

Symbolic politics in AfD’s European elections campaign

ORCiD logo with link | Goethe University, Frankfurt
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with Goethe University Frankfurt.

Published online: 30 April 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.24202.sal
Abstract
The results of the 2024 European Elections results in Germany have sparked extensive debates on the future of democracy in Europe, prompting various interpretations for AfD’s electoral performance. This article examines AfD’s election campaign through the lenses of symbolic and visual politics, arguing that the party hijacked four discursive spaces — Sylt’s Ausländer Raus, #StolzMonat, Mannheim knife attack, and the pro-Palestinian demonstrations debate — and appropriated their symbolic resources for its visually-appealing and outreaching electoral campaign. Moreover, this article situates this campaign within the subfield of mainstreaming, arguing that the visually appealing campaign and convergence with mainstream parties actively contributes to the mainstreaming of AfD and its discourses.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Theoretical and Conceptual Framework
      • 1.1.1Election Surprises
      • 1.1.2Political Symbols and symbolism
      • 1.1.3Mainstreaming: Visual populism and social media
    • 1.2Methodological Choices: Critical discourse analysis
  • 2.Hijacked Discursive Spaces and Symbolic Resources
    • 2.1Sylt’s Ausländer Raus: An Electoral Soundtrack!
    • 2.2#StolzMonat: New Profile Picture!
    • 2.3Mannheim: Hijacking the Crisis!
    • 2.4Pro-Palestinian Demos: Antisemitism to Islamophobia
  • 3.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgment
  • Notes
  • References
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