Intra-Party Differences in the Radicalisation Process of the Alternative for Germany

Since its founding in 2013, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) has undergone several develop- mental phases. Following the 2015 “refugee crisis”, the originally Eurosceptic “professors’ party” shifted from economically liberal positions to a nativist, anti‑immigration and anti‑Is- lamic agenda typical of a populist radical‑right party (Arzheimer & Berning, 2019; Berg- mann et al., 2017; Dilling, 2018; Mudde, 2019; Schmitt‑Beck, 2017) and has since become in- creasingly radicalised. Internal conflicts between moderate and radical factions have been iden- tified as a key driver of this radicalisation (Arzheimer & Berning, 2019; Franzmann, 2016, 2019; Pytlas & Biehler, 2024), together with pronounced regional differ- ences between eastern and western state associations and candidates (Arzheimer, 2023; Franzmann, 2016). To date, few quantitative studies have examined the AfD’s rhetorical radi- calisation while explicitly accounting for intra‑party and sub‑national heterogeneity. The paper asks how the AfD’s parliamentary rhetoric has become more radical in an anti-liberal stance since 2017. Unlike party manifestos, which present curated policy positions, plenary de- bates capture dynamic rhetorical strategies, emotional appeals and competitive interactions that shape political discourse (Bonikowski et al., 2022; Osnabrügge et al., 2021; Valentim & Wid- mann, 2023). Drawing on the German Parl dataset (Blaette & Leonhardt (2024), I analyse ple- nary speeches delivered by members of the AfD parliamentary group in the German Bundestag between 2017 and 2024. Employing text‑as‑data methods I quantify linguistic patterns and sit- uate them within broader semantic structures (Rodriguez & Spirling, 2022). This makes multi- ple dimensions of radicalisation linguistically observable, with a particular focus on intra‑party variation. By incorporating regional differences among state associations, I assess how sub‑na- tional dynamics contribute to the party’s overall radicalisation trajectory. The findings illumi- nate the role of factional conflict and regional heterogeneity in shaping the AfD’s rhetorical shift, thereby contributing to broader debates on party radicalisation in contemporary European politics.