Discursive opportunities for radical actors and events: Debating Islamist and right-wing violence in Germany

The success of radical actors and events depends on their visibility, resonance and legitimacy within the political and public sphere (discursive opportunities). Previous research shows that acts of political violence may attract media attention and thus provide windows of opportunities for radical actors to shape political discourses on contested issues. Yet, we still lack understanding of how and under what conditions these acts of political violence transform public discourses. To this end, this paper explores mass media debates in Germany at the nexus of migration, Islam and national identity and in the context of Islamist (Berlin 2016 and Dresden, Wien and Paris 2020) and right-wing (Halle 2019 and Hanau 2020) political violence. Drawing on a new, relational dataset based on quantitative content analysis of quality newspapers, this study assesses which issues dominated, resonated and polarized in the context of these terrorist attacks and how political actors reacted and framed their claims. Hence, the paper contributes to scholarship on radicalism and democracy in two ways: First, it demonstrates under what conditions radical events constitute discursive critical junctures with drastic consequences for political conflict over migration, Islam and national identity. Second, the study considers the role of political ideology and context and shows whether and how discursive opportunities vary between right-wing and Islamist radicalization.