The phenomenon of division and polarization in German climate discourse is becoming increasingly evident, with the Green Party and the Alternative Party representing the far left and far right positions on climate policy, respectively. The Green Party is seen as a climate friendly political party, while the Alternative Party strongly opposes climate protection policies. Voters who support climate protection are more inclined to identify with the Green Party, while voters who are skeptical of climate protection are more inclined to choose the party. Both the Green Party and the Choice Party benefit from climate protection issues, with the Green Party winning the 2021 election and the Choice Party becoming representatives of anti climate activists. This study aims to compare and analyze the climate narratives constructed by the Green Party and the Alternative Party, and explore the similarities and differences in their narrative types, argumentation structures, and value structures.

The Function and Structure of Narrative

Explored the function and structure of narrative in political linguistics. Narrative is defined as the symbolic presentation of events, including elements such as plot and characters, and is an important tool for political communication. Narration helps individuals understand and give meaning by establishing connections between events, enhancing persuasiveness, and influencing beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. Narrative persuasion is the process of conveying narrative information to influence the behavior of others. If the audience believes that the plot and characters are coherent and credible, they will use their imagination to immerse themselves in the event, and emotional involvement will make them accept implicit viewpoints and change their original attitudes. In times of public crisis, the persuasive power of narrative is particularly evident, as political parties reach consensus through storytelling. Narration also promotes the formation of individual and collective identity by positioning oneself within the plot based story to construct identity. Narrative is divided into surface structure (vocabulary level) and deep structure (values structure), including the subject, plot, and chapters. Values are embedded in the narrative structure, and analyzing the narrative structure reveals the structure of values. Narrative and argumentation are mutually inclusive and composed, with diverse relationships, such as stories with persuasive purposes, stories with entertainment but persuasive potential, stories with persuasive content included in the story, and narrative content inserted into non narrative information. Fichtel emphasized that emphasis should be placed on analyzing the deeper content of narrative, especially the structure of argumentation and values.

Two corpora and analysis methods

Introduced the corpus constructed by the author, including the basic and campaign platforms of the German Green Party and the German Alternative Party, as well as climate related press releases for 2022. These corpora reflect the political party's stance and policy plans on climate issues. The press release in 2022 was paid special attention because the Russia-Ukraine conflict and energy crisis made the relationship between climate protection and economic interests, energy security and social equity more complex. The research adopts a cyclic analysis path of shallow structure, argumentative structure, narrative type, and value structure, and uses MAXQDA software for text encoding to analyze elements such as characters, reasons, and consequences. The intersection of argumentation structure and narrative type analysis, combined with qualitative and quantitative methods, is used to discover the dominant position of narrative. Value structure analysis is based on Schwartz's theory of fundamental human values, defining and categorizing values related to climate narratives.

Comparative analysis of climate narratives between the Green Party and the Alternative Party

The Green Party's climate narrative emphasizes the climate crisis caused by human activities, advocates sustainable development and international cooperation, and focuses on ecological and security crises, as well as issues of justice. The Green Party constructs a climate crisis narrative through concrete descriptions, climate adaptation measures, time urgency, and spatial breadth, with supporting theories including crisis prevention and adaptation. The narrative of security crisis emphasizes the relationship between climate policy and global security, with supporting arguments including nuclear energy risks, energy security, and international peace. The sustainable development narrative focuses on ecology and economy, emphasizing renewable resources and redefining prosperity. The narrative of justice involves conflict issues in climate policy, with supporting theories including caring for the weak, climate justice, intergenerational justice, and inter species justice.

Four concluding remarks

The divisive nature of German climate discourse is reflected in the confrontational climate narrative between the Green Party and the Alternative Party. The Green Party emphasizes ecological transformation, viewing the climate crisis as a crisis of survival, justice, and security, while the Alternative Party denies human factors and regards climate policy as the source of security, democracy, and economic crises. This narrative difference has affected the support rates of the two parties, with the Green Party's support rate dropping to 14% since August 2022 and the Choice Party rising to 21%. The new government is facing challenges such as ecological transformation, energy crisis, and rising prices. The public's concerns about ecological transformation have exacerbated the fear of wealth inequality and social status decline. The climate narrative of the Green Party emphasizes crisis over opportunity, which contradicts its values of openness and change, leading to a decline in its support rate. The opposing narrative between the Green Party and the Alternative Party may exacerbate the emotionalization and moralization of climate discourse, hindering the advancement of climate protection policies and social solidarity.