The Republicans (Die Republikaner) of Germany is a right-wing party, which concerns itself mostly with the issue of immigration. It was founded in 1983 by former Christian Social Union members Franz Handlos and Eckhard Voigt . Former Waffen-SS sergeant and television talk show host Franz Schönhuber was at one time the party's leader. It is currently led by medical doctor Rolf Schlierer . In the 1980s the Republicans had several seats in the European Parliament as well as in the parliament of the German state Baden-Württemberg. Nowadays they only attract between 1 and 2 percent of the vote in Bavaria, and approximately 3.5 percent in Baden-Württemberg, thus fail to reach the 5 percent necessary to win seats in the parliaments.
Related works
- Hans-George Betz: Politics of Resentment: Right-Wing Radicalism in West Germany. In: Comparative Politics. Vol. 23, No. 1. (October, 1990) pp. 45-60. Betz argues that parties like the Republikaner appeal to the "bottom third" of the "Zweidrittelgesellschaft" (2/3s society), mixing intellectual nationalism with lower-class populism. JSTOR Link
- Hans-George Betz: The New Politics of Resentment: Radical Ring-Wing Populist Parties in Western Europe. In: Comparative Politics. Vol. 25, No. 4. (July, 1993) pp. 413-427. Here, Betz explores the ways that radical anti-system parties have attracted both xenophobic populists and libertarian entrepreneurs, in an alliance against the welfare state. JSTOR Link
