Permanent crises, the politics of the Merkel governments, and the rise of right-wing populism in Germany

Angela Merkel served as German Chancellor for four legislative terms and presided over numerous crises. These crises diverted political attention from the adoption of programmatic positions by the governing parties, and the Christian democrats in particular. Where change was more than a response to a crisis, reforms often were ad hoc or closely resembled the ideas of the centre-left parties rather than those of the Christian democrats. At the same time, during the Merkel years, a right-populist party, the Alternative für Germany (AfD), entered the Bundestag – the first time for a party to the right of the Christian democrats to do so in Germany’s post-war history. By examining the policies and politics of the four Merkel governments and analysing original individual-level data, the chapter investigates whether these developments are related, specifically whether the crisis-ridden nature of the Merkel years and the policies of the Merkel governments contributed to the rise of the AfD.