The Dark Side of Inspirational Pasts: An Investigation of Nostalgia in Right-Wing Populist Communication

In recent years, research found that populism employed a new strategy by using nostalgia, sentimental longing for the past, as communication tool to persuade citizens support their political agendas. populist campaigns, nostalgia is used affectively link (alleged) crises with cherished past. this article, we applied mixed-methods approach understand how populists exploit in and nostalgic rhetoric has potential people claims. Study 1, conducted case study based on qualitative content analysis of Alternative Germany’s (AfD) online election campaign 2019 Thuringia East Germany. The revealed was built around narrative 1989 peaceful revolution proud historical moment former German Democratic Republic while at same time creating sense crisis supposedly caused false post-reunification politics. To further investigate persuasiveness 2 statement from participants tended agree more statements if they contained (compared non-nostalgic control rhetoric). These findings suggest right-wing can effectively it may ‘sugarcoat’ messages.