Category: Politics

Sweden: (some) thoughts and (no) prayers

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Sweden: (some) thoughts and (no) prayers 1

The other day, an American journalist wanted to talk about the Sweden Democrat’s role in the upcoming Swedish election. Being no country specialist, I tried to deflect the request, but he sent me some more specific questions anyway, which I tried to answer to the best of my abilities. Unsurprisingly, I provided too much detail,…

The CSU’s hard line towards refugees/immigrants is hardly new

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Hey twitter, the CSU’s current anti-refugee line may be inspired by rise of AfD and upcoming elections, but it is hardly new. Lubbers et al. 2002 report (for the 1990s) that the CSU was responsible for Germany having one of the most restrictive “anti-immigrant climates” in Western Europe, that the CSU they were the most…

Italy, the UK, Sweden, and Russia paying for AfD flights: four European crisis links I liked

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Italy, the UK, Sweden, and Russia paying for AfD flights: four European crisis links I liked 2

Why did the Italian President use a half-forgotten constitutional power to veto Paolo Savona’s appointment as finance minister? Here is why. FAZ: Russia paid 25,000 Euro charter for a private plane for former leader Petry & two other AfD politicians’ visit An unnamed EU official said that the UK’s Brexit negotiators are chasing a fantasy.…

British Eurocrats, the Five Stars, Conference Posters, Dutch Twitter, and a surprise: five links I liked

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Brexit-hit British EU staff ditch UK passports. As it turns out, the others still see them as Brits. The POP blog published an interesting article in 2017: “The 5 Star Movement is Neither Left-Wing nor Antifascist”, which is currently trending on Twitter (you wonder why). Still worth reading. Good advice on the LSE Impact Blog:…

Update: How the AfD ditched Euroscepticism and embraced immigration, in one picture

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Update February 5, 2018

In March 2017, I posted a graph which shows how the AfD’s Facebook posts moved away from euroscepticism and Greece-bashing towards immigration and Islamophobia.

This research on the AfD has now been published as part of a larger project.

But trends can change, and local regression smoothers have a habit of behaving strangely at the borders. So I downloaded another year’s worth of Facebook posts and reran the scripts:

Update: How the AfD ditched Euroscepticism and embraced immigration, in one picture 4

Somewhat unsurprisingly, the new graph confirms for 2017 what we have seen for 2016: Muslims and immigrants are all the rage, whereas the Euro crisis is so 2014. I leave the old graph/post below as is for comparison.

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Hardliner Björn Höcke will not be expelled from the AfD

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Hardliner Björn Höcke will not be expelled from the AfD 5

What’s the matter with Höcke? A party tribunal in his home state of Thuringia has ruled that Björn Höcke has not violated the party’s fundamental principles in his so-called “Dresden speech”. In January 2017, Höcke had demanded a “U-turn” in German memory politics, which he deemed “stupid”. In the same speech, Höcke called the Berlin…

Trump, Blair, Shaggy: It wasn’t me

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Trump, Blair, Shaggy: It wasn't me 6

This morning, I came across an outrageously funny a moderately amusing video involving Shaggy’s early 2000s classic, some seriously revamped lyrics, and the man himself (btw, is this blond-hairing an act of cultural appropriation?). Cheap laughs, and the almost heart-warming idea that the FBI could end this, and everything would go back to normal. And…

Commonwealth Day?

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Commonwealth Day? 7

Last Monday was Commonwealth Day, the date formerly known as Empire Day. I know this because I heard some claptrap on the BBC about 2.5 billion hearts beating as one. All eyes on London etc. Otherwise I would not have known. Let me provide some context for this. At the moment, I live in downtown…

I looked up the AfD’s women’s organisation on Facebook. You will not believe what I found

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I looked up the AfD's women's organisation on Facebook. You will not believe what I found 8

Women don’t like the AfD (and why would they?) The AfD is not particularly attractive for women. Survey data suggest that only one in three AfD voters is a woman. The new national executive has 14 memebers. Just two are of the female persuasion. This amounts to a cool 14%, even less than the female…

Alexander Gauland’s election as party leader confirms the AfD’s shift to the very right

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Alexander Gauland's election as party leader confirms the AfD's shift to the very right 10

At today’s AfD conference, Jörg Meuthen has been reelected as one of the the two co-chairs of the party. Although there was no other candidate, he garnered only 72% “yes” votes. Meuthen was once promoted by Petry because of his convenient market liberal profile, but quickly became friendly with the more radical elements. The election…