Populist Rhetoric in Local German Politics

Parliamentary debate provides a stage for political communication where ‘radical right populist parties‘ (RRPPs) can either be recognized and normalized or challenged and marginalized. This dynamic also applies at the local level in federalized countries, where – on the one hand – reduced public scrutiny and limited party-political influence create conditions that may facilitate the RRPPs' normalization into the political mainstream. On the other hand, however, limited public attention, especially at county level, might produce incentives for an adapted populist rhetoric in local politics. This study thus investigates how the RRPP ‘Alternative für Deutschland’ (AfD) uses populist and emotionalized rhetoric in district council debates and how established parties and officials respond to this communicative style. We expect that party ideology, issue salience, and the strength and political strategy of RRPP influence populist rhetoric and the communicative responses of established parties and officials at local level. To test these expectations, the project builds on a novel dataset of livestream transcripts from German council debates, using dictionary-based sentiment analysis and other text-as-data-methods. Additionally, a survey was distributed to all members of county council with live broadcast of local political debates. Based on the survey responses the potential and background of this new option to study local political debates is discussed. The study thus aims to advance understanding of local political debate and the communication of RRPP in less mediatized environments and levels the path for future studies on local political debates in Germany.