Strategies against the extreme right: Preventing right-wing extremist land grabs

Delphine Wollenburg works in anti-discrimination work in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Although, as she herself emphasizes, she is white and only comes from another EU country, she has had personal experience with the right-wing shift in discourse. She has been living in a village in Western Pomerania for ten years and her family uses French as their family language: “Recently, when I was picking him up from the after-school care center, my husband was asked by a seven-year-old child why he was married to a French woman - the foreigners bring the diseases to Germany.”

Wollenburg emphasizes that it was not a child of a right-wing extremist cadre. However, it has already gotten to the point where children pick up on things like this from adults' conversations. This worries her greatly: "Extreme right-wing political actors have repeatedly pushed the boundaries of what can be said. This lowers the inhibition threshold for discriminatory behavior."

The AfD received around 80 percent in her village in the state elections. If she herself has fears about speaking French with her children on the playground, what about refugees or children of color? People suffered from discrimination, withdrew and became ill, reports Wollenburg. You have to focus on their experiences and show solidarity.

Together with other specialists from science and practice, Wollenburg worked on a book entitled “Social space, radicalization and hostility to democracy in the northeast” and asks how democracy can be strengthened, especially in rural areas with right-wing hegemony. The publications of the “RAA (Regional Work Centers) Democracy and Education in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania” offer answers and counter-strategies. Steamed together: Protect those affected, strengthen democracy as a social practice, promote democracy as early as possible in many areas of society.

But it also offers explanations as to why the AfD achieved 38 percent in the state elections here. “The AfD can fall back on structures that have grown since the 1990s,” says one of the authors, right-wing extremism expert Daniel Trepsdorf, who is also a left-wing politician. “The extreme right has tried out forms of agitation here in rural areas like in a laboratory.”

“Radicalization over the garden fence” would be systematically carried out via local recognition structures such as fire departments. Right-wing extremists also offer summer camps, forest hikes and martial arts to indoctrinate young people. There are also ethnic settlers who act regionally as “national elites”, poisoning village atmospheres and becoming hegemonic. Such circles are increasingly joining the AfD and finding employment in parliaments or even becoming members of parliament themselves.

In contrast, local parliaments require consistent solidarity between democratic actors who have to oppose the shift in discourse that is taking place, says Trepsdorf. It is also extremely important that there are meeting places for young people where belonging can be lived, but also a solid democratic worldview and media skills can be conveyed.

Robert Schiedewitz from Lobbi, an initiative that was founded at the end of the so-called baseball bat years and supports those affected by right-wing violence, believes it is likely that the AfD election success could be accompanied by increased right-wing violence. At least that's what the experiences from 2024 and 2025 showed. As a result, those affected avoided places, and some moved away because they weren't white or were perceived as queer. And those involved wondered whether they would even take a position. “This is something that is happening quietly and a process that has been going on for three decades – unmolested in many places,” said Schiedewitz. The most important thing now is to protect those affected. To do this, protective structures must be expanded, meeting spaces created and networking promoted.

In schools, education and cooperation with the social sector would help combat radicalization tendencies, as Stefan Kollasch from the Regional Center for Democratic Culture in West Mecklenburg explained. This works especially where there is a participatory concept and where there is a dialogue with students and parents. The digital space would remain a major construction site, in which young right-wing extremist terrorist groups such as the “Last Defense Wave” have recently become turbo-radicalized.

Trepsdorf added that, regardless of the type of school, success was particularly successful where students made their own rules, for example discussing a class constitution and thinking about how to organize a class chat and how to deal with discrimination in chats. “Where students set their own rules, they control these rules and then educate themselves,” says Trepsdorf. However, this requires time and continuity: “Democracy is the only form of society that you have to learn.”

Júlia Wéber, professor of democracy education in Neubrandenburg, offers insights into the field of social work. For the study, she empirically examined the extent to which the extreme right is trying to turn social work into a battlefield. Almost 80 percent of the professionals surveyed were aware of extreme right-wing activities in their region; Every second person surveyed reported verbal hostility or threats. Right-wing actors tried to fill gaps in care, intimidate skilled workers, delegitimize democratic institutions and put social work under pressure through parliamentary questions.

Wéber says: “We see that the pre-political space of social services is used to advance ideologies of inequality.” On the other hand, there is a need for clear mission statements and codes as well as sensitization of specialists during their training - as well as long-term support for advice centers that can provide support in the event of attacks.