On Tuesday, 27.05.2025, the following appeared in the Sächsische Zeitung published an interview with Prof. Dr. Nadine Jukschat on the Upper Lusatian Monday demonstrations and the shift to the right in the region. The interview is based on research conducted as part of several teaching research projects since the winter semester 2021/22 with students of the Master's degree program Management of Social Change at the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences, which were carried out in cooperation with the Oxymoron project of the Görlitz Adult Education Center on the one hand and with students of the Master's degree program in Cultural Studies at the University of Leipzig on the other. The interview focuses on the development of protests since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, their ideological shifts and their social function in rural areas.

In the interview, Jukschat describes how anti-democratic positions quickly became articulated during the course of the pandemic. Social uncertainty played a key role in this: "The vast majority of us are not virologists, so many things were difficult for us to understand and were not always explained well. There was obviously also uncertainty in politics and wrong decisions were certainly made. These ambiguities were met with simplistic explanations from actors such as the "Free Saxons".

The interview illustrates how right-wing extremist and conspiracy ideology actors were able to establish themselves around the demonstrations - in particular through strategies of trivialization and reinterpretation. For example, the classification of the demonstrations as right-wing extremist is ridiculed or the term "right-wing extremist" is reinterpreted positively - in the sense of being particularly consistent. Prof. Jukschat observes that parts of the movement deliberately present themselves as true defenders of democracy. However, this self-positioning is based on a shortened understanding of democracy: "Democracy means that we all have to participate and negotiate conflicts and cannot just delegate responsibility to politicians."

The research shows that the protest also has an inherent social function. Many participants were not primarily looking for political debate, but rather self-efficacy and community: "You applaud each other, experience self-efficacy, you meet each other."

At the same time, the continued existence of the protests is pointed out, despite dwindling numbers of participants and thematic shifts. Today, a "hard core" with links to right-wing extremist organizations is particularly visible. The social climate has changed noticeably in the wake of the coronavirus protests: The tone towards politics and the media has become harsher and anti-democratic narratives have become more normal.