Abstract

The article focuses on the identity transformation of “the people” in the right-wing populist movement PEGIDA as a social force shaping populist discourse in Germany. The methodical approach, assuming the people as the sum of heterogeneous individuals, is criticized due to the confusion and discrepancies arising between statistical and experienced realities. Following Laclau’s theory of populism, the people in PEGIDA are marked as “tendentially empty signifier” in the tension between populism and reductionism, depending on the given situation. The article’s research question is to what extent the identity of the people in PEGIDA becomes partially open in the framework of different populist discourses. In the first part, the essay introduces Laclau’s definition of the people. In the second part, the refugee crisis in Germany, the climate crisis, and the corona crisis are presented as exemplary cases giving rise to the identity transformation of the people in PEGIDA.

摘要

本文着重探讨右翼民粹主义运动PEGIDA中“人民”的身份转变，这是塑造德国民粹主义话语的一种社会力量。假设人们是异类个体的总和，这种方法性方法由于统计和经验现实之间的混淆和差异而受到批评。根据拉克劳（Laclau）的民粹主义理论，根据给定的情况，在民粹主义与还原主义之间的紧张关系中，PEGIDA中的人们被标记为“趋于空虚的指示符”。本文的研究问题是PEGIDA中人们的身份在多大程度上成为部分身份在不同的民粹主义话语框架内开放。在第一部分中，文章介绍了拉克劳对人民的定义。第二部分以德国难民危机，气候危机和日冕危机为例，介绍了PEGIDA中人们的身份转变。