Between Electoral Strategy and Metapolitics: The Image of Islam in the Alternative for Germany and the New Right Journal Sezession

The relationship between right-wing populist parties and their metapolitical environments has increasingly attracted attention in political science research. This paper explores the relationship between the Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the intellectual milieu of the so-called New Right by examining their respective approaches to Islam. Using the image of Islam as a case study, the contribution seeks to shed light on the broader interplay between party politics and right-wing metapolitics in contemporary Germany. The central research question concerns to what extent the positions among New Right thinkers and the AfD converged. Empirically, the study is based on a comparative discourse network analysis of AfD parliamentary speeches, as well as articles published in the New Right journal Sezession. This method allows us to map and compare the conceptual and argumentative structures underlying both actors’ discourses on Islam. Preliminary findings indicate that the AfD tends to construct Islam primarily within a civilizationist and security-oriented framework. It is portrayed as a cultural and domestic threat to German and European identity, but also as a challenge to liberal values such as gender equality and the protection of minorities. This use of ostensibly liberal arguments serves to justify exclusionary positions while appealing to a broader electorate. In contrast, authors of the Sezession articulate a more ambivalent and ideologically complex image of Islam. While warning against “Islamisation”, several authors of the Sezession perceive modernity and liberalism as the “main enemies” and therefore reject the “liberal critique of Islam” employed by the AfD as a mobilization strategy. The paper concludes by arguing that the differing representations of Islam mirror the ideological fragmentation within the far right and the distinct functional logics of party and forefield. The AfD’s discourse is shaped by populist mobilization and electoral strategy, while the New Right’s metapolitical approach allows for greater ideological experimentation. By comparing these two spheres, the study contributes to a deeper understanding of the dynamics of cooperation and differentiation within the German far right.