Multimodal Analysis of European Populist Discourse: The Case of the German AfD Election Posters in 2021

Satomi KOBAYASHI

Master's thesis

Visual Politics of European Right-Wing Populists: The Case of the AfD Election Campaign in 2021

Abstract:

Alternative für Deutschland [AfD], a German radical right-wing populist party, is the most successful party among all the German right wings after World War II. This thesis multimodally analyses populist discourses in AfD's posters for the most recent Bundestag election to identify its campaign strategy. It tries to fill two research gaps: little visual analysis in populism research and little research on the 2021 Bundestag election campaign. The research question is: What strategies can be read from AfD's election posters in 2021 within the historical and socio-political context of Germany? Multimodal discourse analysis [MDA] was used to examine 19 election posters of AfD for the 2021 Bundestag election, which are issue-oriented and contain photos. Further comparative analysis was carried out using 2021 Facebook posts and 2017 posters. The analysis reveals the factors that give the AfD's 2021 posters a unified and moderate impression, the intended target groups and the discourses embedded in the posters. Most of the AfD's strategy was typical populist; however, it also had rare features of European radical right-wing populist parties, such as no Eurosceptic element or no depiction of demonising outsiders. Moreover, AfD made new attempts to portray a second-generation immigrant as on "our" side. They are a significant change compared to the 2017 posters, but not a change in ideology itself. The AfD's strategy for the 2021 posters is to euphemise the exclusion of outsiders and avoid criticism that AfD is xenophobic. Also, some Facebook posts having a relatively limited audience contain salient xenophobic elements. By using different campaign tools and design approaches depending on the target group, the AfD's strategy became more professionalised.

Abstract:

Alternative für Deutschland [AfD], a German radical right-wing populist party, is the most successful party among all the German right wings after World War II. This thesis multimodally analyses populist discourses in AfD's posters for the most recent Bundestag election to identify its campaign strategy. It tries to fill two research gaps: little visual analysis in populism research and little research on the 2021 Bundestag election campaign. The research question is: What strategies can be read from AfD's election posters in 2021 within the historical and socio-political context of Germany? Multimodal discourse analysis [MDA] was used to examine 19 election posters of AfD for the 2021 Bundestag election, which are issue-oriented and contain photos. Further comparative analysis was carried out using 2021 Facebook posts and 2017 posters. The analysis reveals the factors that give the AfD's 2021 posters a unified and moderate impression, the intended target groups and the discourses embedded in the posters. Most of the AfD's strategy was typical populist; however, it also had rare features of European radical right-wing populist parties, such as no Eurosceptic element or no depiction of demonising outsiders. Moreover, AfD made new attempts to portray a second-generation immigrant as on "our" side. They are a significant change compared to the 2017 posters, but not a change in ideology itself. The AfD's strategy for the 2021 posters is to euphemise the exclusion of outsiders and avoid criticism that AfD is xenophobic. Also, some Facebook posts having a relatively limited audience contain salient xenophobic elements. By using different campaign tools and design approaches depending on the target group, the AfD's strategy became more professionalised.

Keywords

Populism, Germany, AfD, Bundestag, election campaign, election poster, multimodal discourse analysis

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 3. 6. 2022

Thesis defence

• Supervisor: doc. Mgr. Martin Elbel, M.A., Ph.D.

Palacký University Olomouc

Faculty of Arts

Master programme / field:
Humanities / Euroculture