The Political Exploitation of Covid-19: The AfD as Challenger Party and the Impact on Parliament

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has been an issue ready for political exploitation, and it has con­tributed to political polarization in western democracies . In Germany, the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) adapted its policy positions and performative style and took advantage of the changing circumstances in the pandemic . The pandemic situation thus provided a political opportunity for the AfD to grow its own political repertoire, acting as a challenger party . An overview of evolving party strategy and a content analysis of select legislative debates held in the Bundestag between the outbreak of the pandemic in February 2020 and August 2021 shows that the AfD behaved as an “issue entrepreneur” in the months after the onset of the public health crisis and that it used its populist critique of the government­managed response to the public health crisis to inform a parliamentary strategy of disrup­tion . The party’s behavior led to more adversarial and polarized parliamentary politics . This is relevant to the broader study of pressures imparted by the pandemic crisis on parliamen­tary governance as well as of today’s populist far-right parties and their impact on parlia­mentary democracy .