UC Berkeley

Political discourse is inherently abundant with metaphors, which speakers use to reframe complex issues to the public in more concrete, familiar, and approachable terms. As research has shown (Charteris-Black, 2004, 2005; Lakoff, 2002, 2004, 2010; Musolff, 2000), the different ways of metaphorically framing a subject can influence reasoning and decision-making. Thus, metaphors hold vast potential for manipulating the public by groups of authority. In the last twenty years, Europe has seen a rise in far-right parties entering government and securing seats in European Parliament. These parties have become powerful forces in Europe’s political landscape, garnering more voter support and polarizing public debate. This study explores the metaphorical expressions used by the German right-wing populist party, Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), to conceptualize relevant political issues before and after the 2017 federal election, in which they secured 12% of the seats, making them the third biggest party in the 19th German Bundestag. Building on two approaches, Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980) and Critical Metaphor Analysis (Charteris-Black, 2004, 2005), this study not only identifies and analyzes the conceptual metaphors and source domains utilized in the AfD’s discourse on topics such as Europe and the state of the European Union, the Bundestag, and immigration, but also examines shifts in metaphor usage over time. Consequently, this work argues that an analysis of the metaphorical depictions illuminates the underlying ideological foundations of the party and provides insights to better understand the role of such rhetoric in persuasion and manipulation in the political sphere.