Sustainment: The AfD and the COVID-19 Pandemic in the 2021 Federal Election

In this chapter, we complete our empirical study of voters for the AfD over its current election-cycle lifetime by examining who voted for the AfD in the 2021 federal election and why. To answer these basic questions, we once again utilize the German Longitudinal Election Study (GLES). We confirm some of our previous findings on AfD support discussed in prior chapters. More significantly, however, we uncover three new findings on AfD vote choice. First, in contrast to our conclusions in Chapter  5 on the 2017 federal election, but consistent with those in Chapter  4 on the 2013 federal election, anti-EU attitudes had a positive, statistically significant and substantive impact on AfD vote choice in 2021. Second, and underscoring the AfD’s populist credentials, we show that negative attitudes towards political elites increased the probability of voting for the party in 2021. Finally, our empirical analysis finds that dissatisfaction with the Merkel government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic correlates positively with voting for the AfD. The last result especially buttresses the central thesis of this book: namely, that the AfD can be seen as a populist “issue entrepreneur.”