2017 is the year in which Germany saw elements of its first real digital election campaign. Data-driven get-out-the-vote efforts, hypes around Christian Lindner and Martin Schulz as well as the discussion around Fake News and social bots however cannot distract attention from the fact that, as seen in other European countries, populists are often the most prolific users of social networks. In this policy brief Paul-Jasper Dittrich compares the efforts of the AfD on Facebook with populists from other European countries and urges non-populist parties to accommodate in the long term to the social media-driven transformation of the public sphere.
Paul-Jasper Dittrich is advisor at the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development, he formally worked for the Jacques Delors Centre.