Suchergebnisse

Against the backdrop of multiple European crises and the end of the 'liberal consensus' on European integration, this article explores the increasing politicisation of 'Europe' by the populist far right. As a case study, it focuses on how key far-right actors in Germany deploy a term from the country's intellectual history, namely the notion of the Abendland ('Occident'), to construct 'Europe' and 'European civilisation' according to an exclusionary and populist political agenda. Drawing from the toolboxes of conceptual history and ethnography, the interpretive analysis traces the long-term semiotic shifts of the concepts of Abendland and 'Europe' in the context of post-war democratisation, European integration and social liberalisation. Applying a rhetorical lens to original empirical material, the article explains how contemporary far-right players strategically 'redescribe' the Abendland to mobilise it in the struggle over the meaning of 'Europe'.

Zusammenfassung
Dieser Beitrag thematisiert die Reaktionen der Dresdner rechtspopulistischen Protestbewegung "Patriotische Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes" (PEGIDA) auf die COVID-19-Pandemie in Deutschland. Er beschäftigt sich mit Kontinuitäten und Brüchen in PEGIDAs Aktivismus während der ersten Pandemie-Welle und "Lockdown", insbesondere im Hinblick auf Aktionsformen, Netzwerke und diskursive Deutungsrahmen. Auf Grundlage des Verständnisses von PEGIDA als einer social movement organization (SMO), die sich in und durch öffentlichen Protest konstituiert, analysiert der Artikel zum einen Kontinuitäten in PEGIDAs Kooperation mit etablierten Figuren aus der Rechtsaußen-Szene sowie in bekannten rechtspopulistischen Artikulationsmustern. Zum anderen verweist die Analyse auf neuartige, virtuelle Aktionsformen sowie auf veränderte, der regierungskritischen "Querdenken"-Bewegung angepasste Deutungsrahmen. Abschließend argumentiert der Beitrag, dass PEGIDA während der ersten Welle der COVID-19-Pandemie weder eindeutige Mobilisierungserfolge noch -misserfolge verbuchen konnte. Der Analyse liegt eine "virtuelle Ethnographie" zugrunde.

Drawing from interpretive, namely discursive-performative approaches to both institutional and grassroots (populist) politics, this article explores political performances and counter-performances of control in Germany during the so-called first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methodologically, the article constructs a comparative analytical framework including three cases from both within and outside of the federal institutional structure of Germany: at the institutional level, the cases comprise Angela Merkel, long-term federal Chancellor of Germany, and Michael Kretschmer, the regional Governor of the state of Saxony; at the grassroots level, the selected case is the populist protest movement "Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the Occident" (Patriotische Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes, PEGIDA). Based on original empirical data generated using the toolkit of qualitative-interpretive methodology, notably online ethnography, the comparative analysis focuses on a few key counter-performances of control, among them a TV address (Merkel), a visit to an "anti-lockdown" demonstration (Kretschmer), and virtual protest events (PEGIDA). Emphasizing the performed, dynamic, and contested character of political control in Germany in spring 2020, the empirical analysis yields the following results: first, it sheds light on the different political styles of performing and contesting institutional control, including the habitus, modes, and (emotional) tones of the communication of the performers, and the scripts, stages, intended audiences as (imagined) constituencies, and modalities of transmission of their performances. Second, the discourse-theoretical perspective of the analysis reveals that political performances of control were closely linked to articulations of democracy as an empty signifier, and to claims for safeguarding democratic principles as such. Third, the article demonstrates the value of interpretive approaches to politics to generate more nuanced understandings of the relationships between the pandemic, democracy, and populism in a situation of an ultimate lack of control.

Cet article examine un des rares cas de populisme transnational dans le contexte de la (dés)intégration européenne, en se concentrant sur le mouvement d'extrême droite Fortress Europe (« l'Europe forteresse »). En utilisant de nouvelles sources primaires telles que des textes numériques, des images et des vidéos, l'article effectue une analyse critique du discours et des performances de Fortress Europe. L'analyse révèle comment l'alliance construit l'Europe en tant que société en guerre contre « les immigrants » et ses « élites ». Au-delà, l'article considère la construction discursive de l'Europe sous l'angle du populisme transnational, en soulignant les succès et les échecs de l'alliance dans la construction d'un « peuple » transnational. Enfin, il discute de manière critique de la forteresse européenne dans le contexte de la politique européenne dominante.

The notion of 'European heritage' plays an increasingly important role in the discursive constructions of a collective sense of European belonging. This Special Issue critically reviews some of the contemporary instrumentalizations of European heritage as processes of borderwork by which various political and non-political actors demarcate the boundaries of Europe and European identity. Specifically, the nine contributions shed light on some of the top-down and bottom-up uses of European heritage and explore whether the borderwork of European heritage delineates and separates Europeanness as an exclusive and singular identity, or whether it constitutes a space of exchange, flow and entanglement where Europeanness is defined as inclusive and pluralistic. Characterized by interdisciplinarity, methodological variety and a conception of Europe broader than the European Union, this Special Issue aims to broaden the scope of scholarship in European studies and (critical) heritage studies.