Study: High level of anti-democratic and antisemitic attitudes among AFD voters
Many AfD supporters vote for the party apparently not despite but because of their
anti-democratic positions. This emerges from a representative survey published
by the University of Leipzig on Tuesday. In no other group of voters are extreme
right-wing attitudes and hostility to Muslims more widespread than among AfD
voters, explained the extremism researcher and head of the study, Oliver
Decker. She also had clearer antisemitic attitudes.
Overall, according to the study, the AfD
voters showed significantly higher approval ratings for anti-democratic
attitudes than the supporters of other parties. According to this, 80.6 percent
of AfD voters stated that they felt “strange” in their own country because of
“the many Muslims”. More than 70 percent thought that Muslims should be
prohibited from immigrating to Germany. In addition, according to the survey,
one in five AfD supporters is ready to use physical violence to assert their
own interests. More than half of the AfD voters find resentments against Jews
at least partially understandable
Decker explained that those Germans who had long shared
extremely right-wing attitudes - be it chauvinism, advocacy of a dictatorship,
antisemitism or xenophobia - but voted for the SPD or CDU until 2014 were now
voting for a party that implemented a program based on their attitudes.
"You have found a political home in the AfD," said the scientist.
Against the background of the events of the past few months, the murder of the
Hessian politician Walter Lübcke, the assassination of the synagogue in Halle
and the subsequent murders as well as the recent racist terrorist attack in
Hanau , "this clear position against democratic cohesion should be viewed
with concern" Decker said.
Source: uni-leipzig