Between Philo-semitic Civilizationism and Anti-semitic Nationalism? The Ambivalent Attitude of the Alternative für Deutschland towards Judaism and Israel

The paper refers to the assumptions of Rogers Brubaker, according to whom some Western and Northern European right-wing populist parties form a “civilizationist” cluster characterized by a "philosemitic stance". In this regard, the paper aims to critically review the concept of philo-semitism and to analyse the extent to which the German right-wing populist party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) fits into this “civilizationist” cluster in light of the party’s ambivalent attitude toward Judaism and Israel. We examined statements of the AfD regional sections in Berlin and Baden-Württemberg as well as of the federal party by using a qualitative content analysis in order to identify and compare attitudes towards Judaism, Jews and Israel. The analysis is based on electoral manifestos and statements made by AfD MPs in the two state parliaments (from 2015-2019) and the Bundestag (from 2017-2019). Our results show a significant difference between the regional sections: Whereas the AfD Baden-Württemberg is remarkable for its numerous anti-Semitic statements, the AfD Berlin defines itself as a "pro-Jewish" party, criticizing, however, almost exclusively left-wing and Islamic anti-Semitism. On the federal level, both anti-Semitic and pro-Jewish/pro-Israeli statements can be observed. We argue that the different attitudes can be explained by regionally divergent discursive opportunity structures. To conclude, we argue that the AfD can be described as “civilizationist” only to a rather limited extent.