This text presents a lite approach to the issue of fake news, considering the case study of the german populist and far-right party AfD and the spread of panic among Germans against immigrants and refugees.

It is consensual in our contemporary political studies that moral panic became central in the growth of populist and radical parties’ social alignment. This moral panic was born during the social disrupture of the 1960s. Minor groups and moral changes generated alarm in the majority groups, which started to look into them as a threat to the order and dominant values. In consequence, nationalist right-wing movements gained importance and space to operate. More than inner diversity, the struggle against immigration plays a vital role in their ideology and narratives. Border protection, criminality, terrorism, the situation of women’s rights, and the critics of multiculturalism became the vectors for their struggle to protect the culture and European identities since the 1970s.  Consequently, restricting immigration has been critical for radical right-wing movements. However, according to several reports, the success of anti-immigration politics was fewer due to the fact the States rarely can establish or determine the dynamics of migrations or the labor needs and also faces illegal chains and schemes.  More than labor issues, however, the desire to protect national identities with a protectionist cultural horizon generates support for populist parties. According to the European Social Survey on Right-Wing, Visegrad countries, and Portugal have higher cultural fears. In consequence, the debate on immigration is a code for cultural threat since ‘culture’ is considered static rather than a dynamic and plastic reality based on negotiations and hybrid events.  Thereby, we are now living in a tension between the legal and political will to protect minorities – in the frame of plural and liberal democracy and the rule of law – and the desire to reinforce the will of the majority and the national identities with its cultural basis.  Fake news as propaganda  It is now claimed and considerably consensual that pro-Russian propaganda is linked to migration-related fake news growth. There is a narrative that connects immigration to (a) terrorism, (b) criminality growth, and (c) the consequent…

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