Right-wing populism is experiencing a revival across a number of European states. To date, they have achieved remarkable results in several elections, leading to an increase in representation in local, national and european levels. Sweden and Germany are two of the European countries that have experienced this political evolution through the Sweden Democrats (SD) and the Alternative for Germany (AfD). The purpose of this thesis is to study the parties’ origins in order to examine whether the current versions of the parties are equivalent to the versions of the time of their founding. In order to address this question, I have used primary sources such as official party programmes, as well as secondary sources for a more impartial perspective. In conclusion, both of the parties have very different origins and have subsequently evolved in different directions towards their current forms, which indeed show significant similarities.

During the past ten years, European politics experienced a rise of far right-wing parties because of intensified levels of insecurity among the public (Falasca & Grandien, 2017). These parties organize their political discourse around topics of nationalism and a strong opinion against immigration, the Euro and the European Union (Breeze, 2019; Häusler, 2018). One of these parties is the Alternative for Germany (AfD) which celebrated a major success in the federal elections in 2017 where it became the third largest party in the German Bundestag.   The present study aims to analyze the campaign posters of the AfD as one element of their strategic political communication for the 2017 election period in the context of the party’s growing popularity among German society. To accomplish that goal, the qualitative method of multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA) is applied. The MCDA analyzes written and visual content. The study seeks to identify the narratives implemented by the party and analyze them by drawing on the concept of nationalism. Furthermore, the analysis aims to identify the frames created around the main issues addressed in the party’s political agenda by discussing them in relation to the concepts of ontological security and existential anxiety by Giddens (1991) and the framing theory by Goffman (1974).   The study reveals that the AfD highlights in its political communication one main conflict: The German public versus the immigrants. The immigrants are framed as the threatening strange other whose cultural values, and religious beliefs contradict with those of the Germans who are depicted as the victims. This is achieved through the posters which seek to elicit fear and hatred towards the strange new to increase the insecurities perceived by the public. The party, on the contrary, represents itself as the savior of the German nation, its traditions, and values which they aim to maintain and protect from Muslim influence.

The Diploma thesis discusses the German political party Alternative für Deutschland and its position in the German political system. The thesis deals with Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) since its establishment in 2013 until spring 2017. The aim of the thesis is to analyze the ideological and programmatic transformation of AfD. AfD was formed as an eurosceptic party just few months before the General Election in 2013. AfD has became the first eurosceptic party in Germany which has attracted substantial electoral support in local, national and European elections. The main motivation of the party was the fight against the eurozone crisis and EU criticism. The AfD's criticism is mainly focused on the EU's fiscal and monetary regime. Frauke Petry has became a new party leader in 2015. In the same year the party has turned its focus to immigration and Islam. New leader Petry has managed to take control of a debate on the position of migration and asylum policy. Under her leadership the party has became an anti-immigration party. She was also trying to enfoce a party line to extend populism, xenophobia and islamophobia. AfD is focused on criticism of migration and asylum policies in EU and Germany. Leadership of Petry was widely seen as heralding a shift of the party to the right. The thesis deals with...

Diplomová práce se zabývá německou politickou stranou Alternative für Deutschland ) od jejího založení v roce 2013 až do jara 2017. Cílem práce je odhalit faktory úspěchu zkoumané strany. Širší teoretický rámec poskytuje podklad pro rozbor okolností vzniku a ožena jako euroskeptická strana. Později se v souvislosti se změnou vedení začala profilovat jako krajně pravicová strana. Práce sleduje ideologický a programový vývoj AfD a volební úspěchy. Práce využívá průzkumy, které poskytly ičích obrázek o tom, jak voliči s Závěrečná část práce analyzuje faktory úspěchu AfD prostřednictvím použití voličského jednání. Faktory úspěchy jsou vysvětleny na základě průniku strany poptávky a

This thesis concerns the support for the AfD in the federal states Bremen, Saxony-Anhalt, and Baden-Württemberg. In particular, the goal is to explain the support for the AfD among the eligible voters of Bremen, Saxony-Anhalt, and Baden-Württemberg at the most recently elections held in Bremen on 10 May 2015 and in Baden-Württemberg and Saxony-Anhalt on 13 March 2016. This is a disciplined, interpretive case study, which uses the existing models of voting behaviour to explain the voting for the AfD in Bremen, Saxony-Anhalt, and Baden- Württemberg. It employs a sociological model of voting behaviour and a model of rational choice. The goal is to determine whether the support for the AfD in the three selected federal states can be explained using these models of voting behaviour, and if so, which model of voting behaviour best explains the support for the AfD. First, the thesis presents the models of voting behaviour that are used in the study for analysis of the support for the AfD. The next portion of the thesis deals with the party Alternative for Germany. The section of the thesis that follows is devoted to the actual analysis of support for the AfD, first in Baden- Württemberg and then in the federal states Saxony-Anhalt and Bremen. The answers to the research question are presented at the...

During the last decades, culturally racist parties, like the Sweden Democrats (SD) and the Alterna-tive for Germany (AfD), have seen a rapid growth in popularity and are now represented in parliaments in almost all European countries. Although the majority of their voters are considered white, male, and working class, a growing number of people with a migration background started sup-porting parties of said political stream that frame migration as the biggest threat to society. This thesis aims at understanding the alleged contradiction of individuals that are to different degrees racialized as immigrants becoming members in the SD and AfD. Located within discourses of racial neoliberalism, the study examines how national belonging and subject positions are constructed and contested, and how racist migrant respectability serves as a strategy of overcoming a struggle for belonging to the host society.