The emergence and still ongoing success of populist right-wing parties in Europe is a process that can be observed in various states. Populist right-wing parties like the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) in Germany have created a discourse that neglects and even openly fight everything that results from gender equality politics, be it political paradigms like gender mainstreaming, gender aware language, Gender Studies departments or framework curricula that include gender and queer issues. Paired with national-oriented familialism and a strict opposition towards liberal abortion laws, the programmatic account on gender-related politics is a core issue for the AfD. At the same time, the AfD uses women’s right narratives to legitimate racist claims and anti-migration positions. What makes the AfD’s anti-feminism intersect with nationalism, racism and islamophobia.
While some research is done on behalf of the programmatic standpoints of populist right-wing parties, an analysis of the actual parliamentary practice in this area is still missing. It is important to reveal the impacts of the parliamentary representation of populist right-wing parties: Can populist right-wing parties initiate institutional, policy and discursive change? Hence, two main questions are at the center of this paper: In what way are anti-feminist positions of populist right-wing parties discursively present in the parliamentary practice? Moreover, how do involved political actors interact with populist radical-right parties, their positions and activities regarding gender-related issues in parliamentary contexts? A special focus will lay on state feminist actors and institutions, as they should enable emancipatory thinking and discourses, support networks of epistemic communities and activists and foster public awareness for gender equality.
Bringing together theoretical insights from interpretative policy analysis, party research and feminist theories of the state, the paper would like to examine patterns of populist right-wing parties contestation of gender equality and the normalization of anti-feminist discourses, and resistance by parliamentary and state feminist actors, using the case of the state parliament of Saxony-Anhalt (Germany).
