‘Protest voting’ for the radical right is a zombie idea that keeps coming back. Right now, it gets wheeled out once more to explain the AfD’s surge in the polls.
Of course, everyone and their grandfather already know that nativism is the driving force behind the AfD’s support and has become more important over time. This was still true in the 2021 election.
But the AfD has gone up quite a bit in the polls. Is this driven by new, unideological protest voters? The answer is no.
A recent Deutschlandtrend survey shows that 4 in 5 AfD supporters see the party as close to their personal values. This figure is comparable to the CDU & their electorate, and not that much lower than for the other parties. People who say that they vote for the AfD do this for ideological reasons.
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