Despite being officially classified as right-wing extremist, facing mass protests, and public distancing from other European conservative parties, Germany’s AfD continues to score record-breaking election results. What makes this party so appealing to so many? Cultural theorist Klaus Theweleit already argued in Male Fantasies (1977) that National Socialism gained mass traction not just through power, but through collective, unconscious desire. In his talk, Paul Kaletsch approaches the topic from a desire-analytical perspective, asking: How can we understand the relationship between media, affective attraction, and the popularity of far-right politics today — and what new forms of critique might this open up?

Paul Kaletsch is a visiting scholar at the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture (GCSC) in Gießen. His work brings together French theory, affect politics, and political philosophy. After completing his PhD at SOAS London on failed protest movements, he is now researching how the success of far-right politics can be understood through the lens of desire and subjectivity — beyond conventional explanatory models.

Event language: German.