Twenty-First Century Populism: The Spectre of Western European ...

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backs of the former Communists (who were firmly established in the East),
something it could scarcely have managed under its own steam.
The electoral vacuum created by the perceived defection of the Social
Democrats to the neo-liberal mainstream and the refusal of the SPD to
cooperate with the former Communists at federal level, coupled with the
simultaneous weakness of right-wing populism and extremism, offers great
opportunities for The Left Party, into which the PDS has now mutated, and
will continue to do so (Lösche, 2003). Whether the party can take them, of
course, depends primarily on its own agency, as in the case of the populists
on the Right. From the resolution of the leadership issue following the foreseeable
retirement of Gysi and Lafontaine to the culturally based differences
in mentality between the more idealistically minded WASG in the West and
the PDS with its pragmatic image in the East, to the internal power struggles
that are something of a tradition in the PDS, there are so many imponderables
and pitfalls that a firm prediction scarcely seems possible. It does
appear likely, however, that left-wing populism will continue to find a more
hospitable habitat than its right-wing counterpart in the German political
system for some time to come.
The outlook for populism in Germany
Periods of economic downturn, structural crises, anxiety about the future
and general pessimism create conditions in which populist formations on
the Right and Left may thrive. This applies in Germany too, where the party
system has hitherto been marked by a relatively high degree of stability.
Many authors ascribe the lack of success of right-wing populist parties in
Germany to the fact that populism is a constant in Germany, both within
the established parties and in the media − the tabloid newspaper Bild being
a prime example. And indeed the search for scapegoats for the fraught
economic situation in 2005 induced not only members of The Left Party
close to Gregor Gysi and Oskar Lafontaine, but also politicians from the
mainstream parties such as CSU party leader Edmund Stoiber to engage in
populist tub-thumping.
In Germany, then, it is by no means impossible to mobilize public opinion
on typically right-wing populist issues, from immigration policy and
law and order to criticism of the European Union. In the past, however, the
mainstream parties have managed to take the sting out of these issues or
have incorporated them into their own policy positions, thereby leaving
potential challengers with little room for manoeuvre. Moreover, right-wing
populist parties in Germany have faced two other obstacles: first, they operate
in an extremely sensitive area in which, because of the country’s Nazi
past, they are wide open to stigmatization by the public and the media.
Second, they have to deal with serious organizational problems, which can
at best be temporarily sidestepped through the presence of a charismatic