When the Taboo Weakens: Local Collaboration with Far-Right Parties

While collaboration between mainstream and far-right parties is typically avoided at the national level, local politics often present a different reality. This paper examines the conditions under which politicians from mainstream parties are willing to collaborate with far-right actors at the local level. Drawing on original, large-scale survey data from over 2,000 councillors and mayors across four German states, we focus on two main predictors: ideological distance and individual ambition. We argue that willingness to collaborate with far-right parties increases as ideological distance decreases. However, Politicians who aspire to higher office may anticipate reputational costs from such collaboration and therefore avoid collaboration with far-right colleagues, even when ideological alignment exists. Our empirical strategy relies on a newly developed survey item capturing willingness to collaborate with councillors from other parties. This study is among the first to investigate collaboration with and by far-right parties at the local level based on survey data. It contributes to the broader literature on far-right normalization and the responses of mainstream parties.