Long-term loss of significance causes voter frustration

Neue Studie zeigt auf: AfD & Co. werden dort gewählt, wo der Wohlstand langfristig sinkt. Foto: Anne Günther (Universität Jena) - It is primarily the inhabitants of economically isolated places and regions who vote for right-wing populist parties - this is a common thesis explaining the electoral successes of AfD & Co. in Europe. A research team at Friedrich Schiller University in Jena has now found that high AfD vote shares in the last two federal elections can apparently be explained by a long-term decline in a region's relative prosperity. Since this loss of significance extends beyond the lifespan of the inhabitants of such seemingly disconnected places, a kind of collective memory apparently plays a role here. The Jena economists present the results of their work, which was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, in the journal ,,Journal of Regional Science".