RESISTING THE FAR-RIGHT: EXPLAINING DIVERGENT COUNTERMOBILIZATION TRAJECTORIES IN TWO GERMAN CITIES*

This article explains the divergent trajectories of anti-far-right mobilization in two German cities: the campaign against the extreme-right movement Pegida in Dresden and its offshoot, Legida, in Leipzig. Drawing on a comparative case study, we argue that the interplay of three city-specific features—namely, activist coalitions, the city’s political identity, and elite support—account for the strength and cohesion of the countermobilization in Leipzig compared to Dresden. Our findings extend the growing literature on civil-society opposition to far-right actors by emphasizing the fundamental relevance of place for understanding variations in anti-far-right resistance. Local city contexts—understood as self-reinforcing combinations of mobilization structures and subjective understandings of contentious action—enable, constrain, and form the course of countermobilization campaigns.