RETURN TO THE POLITICALLY ABANDONED

Johannes Hillje is a political and communications consultant in Berlin and Brussels. He advises institutions, political parties, politicians, companies and NGOs. For the 2014 European elections, he worked as campaign manager for the European Green Party. Previously, he worked in the communications department of the UN in New York and in the heute.de editorial department of ZDF. In 2017, he published the book „Propaganda 4.0“ (Dietz Verlag). Hillje holds a Master's degree in Politics and Communication from the London School of Economics and a Master's degree in Political Science and Journalism from the University of Mainz.

Moderation Robert Misik, Author and journalist

Many people in structurally weak regions with a high proportion of right-wing populist voters feel abandoned by politicians.
This is the first study of its kind on the recent elections in Germany and France: 500 door-to-door interviews reveal the challenges respondents face in their everyday lives and why socio-political conditions - and not xenophobia - are often the cause of their discontent and fears for the future. Based on people's authentic accounts, the study „Returning to the politically abandoned“ decodes their patterns of interpretation and makes them accessible for recommendations for action aimed at regaining the trust of these population groups.
The conclusion: there are areas of „political abandonment“ in which people's trust must be earned anew - with a local presence and by recognising and solving the problems at hand.