We focus specifically on immigration. The findings show that elite polarization is the most important factor which pushes all parties—not just extremes—to use moral language, claiming the high ground by framing opponents as morally wrong.

Which politicians? We find that the radical-right challenger party AfD has the power to stir up negative moral-emotional language in public discourse. When the AfD increases negative moral-emotional language, the public debate follows suit

To study the diffusion of moral and moral-emotional appeals, we use fine-grained social media data (Twitter) over four years in Germany (2017–2021)

Our findings indicate that politicians do not follow the public. On the contrary, politicians set the tone of public debate.