A study suggests that subsidies could be strategically deployed to lower the proportion of votes cast for the AfD party. According to an analysis conducted by the Bertelsmann Foundation and universities in Düsseldorf, Princeton, and California’s Davis, boosting infrastructure funding by just €100 per resident in specific areas correlated with a reduction of approximately 1.0 percentage point in the AfD vote share.
However, the research noted that this effect is most significant in districts where a high number of people are employed in CO2-intensive industries, such as steel or chemicals, or in places that manufacture CO2-intensive goods like combustion engines.
Dr. Jens Südekum, a Düsseldorf economist and one of the authors, emphasized the importance of perception. He stated that the goal should be to create a local impression of recovery and opportunity whenever an old industry declines.
Südekum argued that regional economic development initiatives should not solely focus on areas suffering from structural weakness. Instead, they should also be directed toward regions that are currently stable but where fears of economic decline persist. In his view, economic promotion represents “the most effective remedy against the AfD”.