Surplus Fascism: Reflections on Current Tendencies of Abandonment in Germany and Beyond

Given the current rise of right-wing authoritarian and fascist movements and political parties all around the world, not to mention the recent success of the AfD in Germany, there is a renewed debate about the form, causes, and effects of fascism. This article discusses fascism as a response to and driver of surplus crisis. Taking its cue from Marx’s analysis of the importance of relative surplus populations for the functioning of capital, it explores how being rendered superfluous prepares certain populations for being subjected to forms of excessive violence like being excluded from political participation or even the realm of the livable. Based on examples from contemporary German discourses, including the border crisis and the criminalization of the Palestine solidarity movement, and utilizing the conceptual tools offered by various critical theories, the article interprets the affective structure of the fascist subject as a punitive reaction to the affront that the presence of the surplus poses to a self-entitled subject.