Populism Populism maintains a major stronghold in the western world, shown through the election of Trump in the United States of America, and even in the AfD’s rise into German parliament. It is not populism itself that grapples the attention of the modern day citizen, but the cunning character that is passing along their rhetoric behind it. It is exclusionary populism that is preached from political parties of the global north that makes it so attachable to the mindset of voters. Exclusionary populism seeks to exclude groups from the majority of society, to limit the group’s access to benefits and rights; and the criteria for this inclusion is almost always on a cultural, religious, or ethnic basis . In the west, exclusionary populism is…show more content… As well as, banning foreign funding of mosques in Germany, banning the burka and the Muslim call to prayer, and putting all imams through a state vetting procedure . The AfD’s strength comes from the fact that it had managed to obviously attract followers of far-right rhetoric, but also because of a largely unforeseen development amongst right-wing parties who moderate their platforms in order to appeal to mainstream voters . This can be shown through the AfD’s ability to convince mainstream German society of dangers that could possibly be brought by immigrants and refugees ; being attributable to the fact that the fear of jihadists and hostility toward refugees have become conflated with one another . And which essentially allows these right-wing populists to manipulate the mindsets of citizens, helping their agenda of shutting the doors to desperate refugees, and to propel blatant discrimination against Muslims . When rapid immigration and terrorism occur simultaneously, and with terrorists belonging to the same religious and ethnic groups as the immigrants and refugees, the combination of fear and xenophobia can erupt into something dark, endangering, and entirely destructive . The quick capitalization of this common fear amongst mainstream Germany is…show more content… In the 2017 national German election, where the AfD party was able to sneak into office as the third largest party, they were able to amass an important anti-Merkel vote; which reflected an opposition to her controversial Willkommenspolitik (Welcome policy) towards refugees and immigrants . Furthermore, the far-right part hit a major score with their idea of reintroducing permanent border controls in Germany, and the dismantlement of the European Union’s external borders; even though their standpoint contradicted the European Union’s free movement zone . In retrospect to these facts, 89% of AfD voters thought that Merkel’s immigration policies ignored the concerns of German citizens, and 85% wanted stronger national borders . Finally, the AfD certified their xenophobic and islamophobic views by campaigning to fight an invasion of foreigners, stating that Islam was foreign and alien to Germany . In conclusion, the AfD was able to profit off of xenophobia due to the issue of immigration being a heavily primary topic of discussion in the German
