The AfD and its Electoral Persistence in Eastern Germany. Causes, Issues, and Implications

This Special Issue examines the persistence of AfD's electoral success and the party's strong regional entrenchment in Eastern Germany more than a decade after its foundation. Bringing together ten contributions, it explores the socio-economic, cultural, and political foundations of AfD support, transformations in party competition and generational dynamics, and the party’s strategic expansion into new issue areas such as gender, climate, foreign policy, and memory politics. The 2024 elections in three Eastern German states constitute a key, though not exclusive, empirical focus. By focusing on subnational contexts, the Special Issue sheds light on processes of normalisation and the distinct trajectories of far-right politics in Eastern Germany, while contributing to broader debates in international research on the far right.