How Framing Shapes Anti-Far-Right Mobilization
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What shapes citizens’ willingness to mobilize against the far right? While researchon far-right party support has expanded rapidly, we know less about whendemocratic publics mobilize to oppose these actors. This paper examines how eliteframing influences anti-far-right activism, drawing on Germany’s 2024 mass protestsagainst the AfD and the ambivalent response from conservative (CDU/CSU) elites.A pre-registered survey experiment (N = 3,310) tests the effects of positive andnegative protest frames—both with and without attribution to conservative politicians—on protest intention, petition interest, and donation behavior. Negativeframes linking protests to Antifa significantly reduce mobilization, while positiveframes emphasizing the defense of liberal democracy do not increase participationoverall but can mobilize conservative voters who endorse the party’s “firewall”against the AfD. Overall, this study shows that delegitimizing rhetoric demobilizescitizens, revealing how elite discourse can erode grassroots democratic resilience.
