COVID-19: влияние на политическую повестку «Альтернативы для Германии»

Современная Европа. 2022. № 4. С. 200–209.

Lisenkova A. D.

The article analyzes the main features of the coronavirus agenda of the political party Alternative for Germany. Based on the increased concern of German citizens about the COVID-19 pandemic, the party began to pay special attention to it, along with its main traditional priority topics (euro, migration, climate change). Despite the initial support for the government's course, the Alternative for Germany almost immediately switched to criticizing it. Positioning itself as ‘the only party for freedom and civil rights,’ it has consistently denied various coronavirus restrictions and opposed mandatory vaccinations. As a consequence, it became close to the lateral thinkers and launched the Healthy without compulsion campaign. However, the coronavirus rhetoric of this kind did not allow the Alternative for Germany to improve or even maintain its 2017 results in the 2021 Bundestag elections. The national average dynamics of the party’s popularity development is negative. Meanwhile, in the Eastern states, the party managed not only to influence the perception of the COVID-19 pandemic, but also to maintain a high position in general due to the traditional popularity of its course. The author comes to the conclusion that similar results are also associated with its unpopular climate change course, a decrease in migration flows, disagreements within the Alternative for Germany, etc.

Keywords: популизм, populism, вакцинация, vaccination, coronavirus, коронавирус, COVID-19, Alternative for Germany, Healthy without compulsion, "Альтернатива для Германии", «Здоров без принуждения», COVID-19