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The Visual Politics of the Alternative for Germany (AfD): Anti-Islam, Ethno-Nationalism, and Gendered Images

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  • Nicole Doerr

    (Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen, 1014 Copenhagen, Denmark)

Abstract

This article is an empirical investigation into the visual mobilization strategies by far-right political parties for election campaigns constructing Muslim immigrants as a “threat” to the nation. Drawing on an interdisciplinary theoretical approach of social movement studies and research on media and communication, I focus on the far-right political party Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has produced several widespread inflammatory series of visual election posters featuring anti-Islam rhetoric, combined with provocative images of gender and sexuality. By approaching visual politics through a perspective on actors constructing visual forms of political mobilization, I show how far-right populist “movement parties” are supported by professional graphic designers commercializing extremist ideologies by creating ambivalent images and text messages. My findings on the AfD’s visual campaign politics document the instrumentalization and appropriation of the rhetoric of women’s empowerment and LGBT rights discourse, helping the AfD to rebrand its image as a liberal democratic opposition party, while at the same time, maintaining its illiberal political agenda on gender and sexuality. Visual representations of gender and sexuality in professionally created election posters served to ridicule and shame Muslim minorities and denounce their “Otherness”—while also promoting a heroic self-image of the party as a savior of white women and Western civilization from the threat of male Muslim migrants. By documenting the visual politics of the AfD, as embedded in transnational cooperation between different actors, including visual professional graphic designers and far-right party activists, my multimodal analysis shows how far-right movement parties marketize and commercialize their image as “progressive” in order to reach out to new voters.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicole Doerr, 2021. "The Visual Politics of the Alternative for Germany (AfD): Anti-Islam, Ethno-Nationalism, and Gendered Images," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-15, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:10:y:2021:i:1:p:20-:d:480380
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Kai Arzheimer, 2019. "“Don't Mention the War!” how Populist Right‐Wing Radicalism Became (Almost) Normal in Germany," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(S1), pages 90-102, September.
    2. Mieke Verloo & David Paternotte, 2018. "The Feminist Project under Threat in Europe," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 6(3), pages 1-5.
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    Cited by:

    1. Chia-Jung Tsai & R. Gordon Rinderknecht & Emilio Zagheni, 2023. "The interplay between refugee inflows and media coverage in determining attitudes towards immigration in Germany," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2023-035, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.

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