Countering Anti-LGBTQ+ Politics in Portugal

NOTE: this paper proposal should be added to the panel "Southern European Party Politics: A Laboratory for Resistance to or Resilience of Gender Equality Measures?" This study examines how Portuguese political actors have adapted their strategies to counter anti-LGBTQ+ politics since the radical right party Chega! entered Parliament in 2019. Portugal's transformation from being largely immune to populist far-right success to witnessing Chega's dramatic growth from 1 seat (2019) to 60 seats (2025) provides an ideal context for examining democratic responses to anti-gender mobilization in contexts of rapid political change. Chega's emergence has activated and amplified conservative attitudes within Portugal's religious world of morality politics, enabling a broader conservative coalition linking Chega with traditional center/right-wing parties (PSD, CDS-PP). This mobilization exploits the gap between Portugal's progressive legal framework and more conservative social attitudes, particularly regarding sexual diversity. Despite legal advances, significant segments of Portuguese society remain skeptical of LGBTQ+ rights (EVS, 2017; Eurobarometer 2023). We analyze how progressive actors have developed responses through two paradigmatic cases: the enactment of gender self-determination rights in the education sector (2019-2024) and the implementation of the "Citizenship and Development" school curriculum, particularly its components related to LGBTQ+ issues and sex education (2019-2025). These cases represent contentious morality issues where progressive and anti-gender actors compete over policy outcomes and democratic values. Our analysis explores three dimensions of resilience: (1) knowledge responses and counter-framing strategies; (2) coalition building between parliamentary parties and LGBTIQ+ organizations; (3) institutional leverage mechanisms, including presidential vetoes and Constitutional Court decisions. The study draws on legislative initiatives, party manifestos, parliamentary debates, media coverage from mainstream newspapers (2019-2025), and interviews. Preliminary findings reveal that while progressive coalitions maintained unity and deployed evidence-based counter-arguments, institutional constraints – particularly presidential veto power and conservative electoral majorities – ultimately limited their capacity to prevent policy reversals. Progressive actors systematically employed counter-framing strategies, including frame debunking, polarization-vilification (positioning opponents alongside international anti-democratic forces), and frame saving (constructing gender equality as fundamental to Portuguese democracy). The Portuguese case demonstrates that institutional democratic resilience may be necessary but insufficient for defending measures against anti-LGBTQ+ mobilization, particularly when such movements successfully capture mainstream conservative parties and leverage institutional veto points to constrain progressive policy implementation.