Tolerated Toxicity? Public Attitudes Towards Harassment of MPs in Germany

Harassment of political elites has become a widespread phenomenon even in consolidated democracies. Germany, long considered as a political role model due to its peaceful, consensus-oriented political culture, is no exception, as record levels of verbal and physical attacks on political elites show. Yet, we know little about the citizens’ attitudes towards such decline in civic discourse. Drawing on representative survey data of the German population of 2026, the paper asks two largely understudied questions: To what extent do citizens show sympathy for harassment of MPs? And which factors (e.g. satisfaction with democracy, political interest, perceived performance of parliament, ideology, gender) shape these attitudes? Conceptually and empirically, we focus on different types of toxic behavior which vary in severity (like booing MPs, online harassment, protests outside the private homes of politicians, damage to constituency offices or physical attacks). We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for those who consider becoming involved in politics as well as for active politicians.