The PEGIDA movement is the largest right-wing civil society phenomenon in recent German
history. During its peak the movement attracted up to 25.000 people at demonstrations in
Dresden and other cities. In his study Marian Sven Pradella identifies the ways in which
PEGIDA was able to unite heterogeneous social actors and how the movement was able to exert
massive influence on the German political sentiment. Methodologically he applies the
socio-cultural theories of Jeffrey C. Alexander and Ernesto Laclau Chantal Mouffe. Pradella
offers a new explanatory approach going beyond simply considering PEGIDA a 'political problem'.
Instead he unfolds the political background structures behind the movement and also reveals
theoretical problems one faces when combining Alexander and Laclau Mouffe.
