Hate speech prosecutions against anti-immigration politicians often attract significant media attention. This research investigates how such legal actions impact electoral support through an experiment using manipulated TV news stories about a Dutch Forum voor Democratie (FvD) politician.

to assess the effects, we isolated mechanisms including multiculturalist attitudes and six mediators: anti-establishment views, immigration issue salience, perceived FvD effectiveness, legitimacy concerns, free speech backing, and party visibility. The experimental design allowed us to separate these influences clearly.

• Multiculturalism Matters: Among voters supportive of multicultural policies,

• seeing the prosecution news boosted approval for free speech

• increased belief in FvD's visibility

• Both factors significantly strengthened voting intentions for Forum voor Democratie. Voters exposed to such stories saw higher support for free expression and thought the party would gain more prominence.

This study provides crucial insights into how hate speech prosecutions influence elections, showing they can strengthen anti-immigration parties' appeal by enhancing perceptions of effectiveness and visibility.