Radikal rechte Kommunalpolitik als Territorialisierungspraxis – empirische Erkenntnisse am Beispiel der Freien Sachsen

Since 2021, the far-right micro-party Freie Sachsen has been acting as a political rallying point for the regional neo-Nazi scene in the German state of Saxony. In the 2024 local elections, it presented itself as a force opposed to the establishment, seeking to attack the democratic system from below. This strategy enabled it to gain seats in a number of local parliaments. This study examines the party's local political activities by analyzing Telegram posts and municipal council meeting minutes. This reveals a decisive contradiction between the party's self-portrayal as an anti-establishment force on its online channels and in its local work in municipal parliaments, where it has predominantly participated in consensual voting. This article argues that this behavior should be interpreted as a hybrid performative territorialization practice under the conditions of local concordance democratic settings, which serves to deterritorialize democratic actors at the local level, but at the same time maintains the potential for far-right normalization through its everyday presentation as a party of reasonable, pragmatic politics.