This project examines how conservative elites, specifically center-right politicians, influence public mobilization against the far-right in Germany. Recent protests against the AfD revealed ambivalent reactions from conservative leaders, raising questions about how elite endorsements affect grassroots activism. While existing research often examines the mainstream right’s importance in either facilitating or limiting the rise of the far-right, this literature is focused on electoral outcomes. We add to it by exploring how conservative elite cues shape non-electoral political mobilization against far-right movements.

In the observational part, we are planning to combine longitudinal data on the partisanship of mayors of German cities and counties (obtained from Bjorn Bremer and co-authors) with longitudinal protest data to examine the effect of having a conservative mayor on the incidence of protest against the far-right.

The experimental component uses an online survey experiment, currently in the field, where respondents are randomly assigned to one of five conditions: a neutral control condition, positive and negative statements about the protests (based on real-world statements), with and without a CDU/CSU cue. This design enables the study to separate the effects of message content from the influence of conservative endorsement. Key outcomes include perceived closeness to and voting intentions regarding the AfD, perception of the AfD as a threat to democracy, support for an AfD ban, likelihood of attending a protest against the AfD, interest in reading a (real) petition for an AfD ban, and intention to donate to anti-AfD organizations.