Cologne, Germany. New Year’s Eve 2015. Several dozen women are sexually assaulted, robbed and intimidated by a mob of men of Arab and North African origin. Investigations reveal that among the accused are several refugees who entered the country thanks to Angela Merkel’s open-door policy. The episode causes a wave of indignation and forces the government to toughen its asylum rules, an action that far-right parties across Europe take advantage of to justify their rejection of immigrants, who have become scapegoats for sexism and violence against women on the continent.
A decade later, the consequences of that event still reverberate in European politics. Now that far-right groups are gaining more followers and, therefore, more power (they already make up six governments in the EU), the strategy of instrumentalizing feminism to promote their xenophobic policies is already spreading in countries such as France, Italy, the Netherlands or Spain. This phenomenon is known as feminizationalism, a term developed by the Italian sociologist Sara R. Farris in the book In the name of women’s rights (Traffickers of Dreams, 2017). The concept has evolved since then, explains Farris, as ultra parties are “increasingly more intelligent.”
“[La ultraderecha] “They have understood very well that women’s empowerment is an issue that is here to stay and that there is no turning back from this battle. And by accepting this, they are trying to present themselves as more modern and moderate parties that defend our rights,” says the professor at Goldsmiths, University of London, via video call.
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There are many examples. In Spain, Vox says it will not be “complicit in the robberies, the machete attacks, or the rapes” that would be involved in the distribution of unaccompanied minors arriving in the Canary Islands. In Italy, the post-fascist Giorgia Meloni came to power in 2022 with a campaign focused on the rejection of immigrants, which recalls her sharing a video of the rape of a woman by an asylum seeker. In Germany, the AfD extremists spread the theory of the Great Replacement and propose promoting birth rates among German women.
The Italian far right took advantage of the fight between boxers Carini and Khelif to amplify its discourse
The rise of these discourses reached its peak in July, when the National Rally (RN) dreamed of entering the French government. Marine Le Pen, the leader of the RN since 2011, has promoted a profound renewal since she succeeded her father, Jean-Marie, who was expelled from the party after making statements apologetic to the Holocaust. The change of image involves presenting herself as a “feminist not hostile to men” and who supports abortion as a constitutional right. The numbers supported her method: she won the European elections on 9 June by a high margin. However, a cordon sanitaire in extremisfrom the left and the centre left their party in third place in the legislative elections.
For Farris, figures like Le Pen “have an opportunistic and completely instrumental approach to feminist ideals.” “If we look at the times they talk about gender issues, it always happens to promote their anti-immigration and anti-Islam policies,” adds Farris, who highlights that feminization cannot be understood without the extreme right’s rejection of this religion. In the Netherlands, for example, the ultra-right Geert Wilders won the elections in November with initiatives that ranged from the closure of mosques and Islamic schools to the prohibition of printing and distributing the Koran. Meanwhile, Le Pen spoke of the “Talibanization” of France, in response to a case of street violence.
French sociologist Charlene Calderaro says that, despite the fact that these groups claim to defend women, they are the ones who are most affected. In France, secularism – the religious neutrality of the State – can translate into restrictions for Muslim women, according to this expert: “The argument is used that measures such as the ban on the full veil are done in their defence and against supposedly sexist religions. [Los líderes] They say they want to emancipate them, but the effect is the exclusion of Muslim women from different spheres, such as school or work.”
But these cases are not limited to religion alone. Recently, the Italian far right took advantage of the controversy between the Olympic fight between boxers Angela Carini and Imane Khelif to amplify its discourse. Meloni called for a “fair competition”, while the deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, fueled the hoax that the Algerian Khelif was a trans boxer and that she was competing with “a woman”. [la italiana Carini]”It was an unacceptable madness.”
For Calderaro, she added over the phone that it is fallacious to describe the ultra-right parties as “liberators” of women.
A female face
The popularity of these parties has been accompanied by a makeover, with a woman at the forefront. The National Rally has done so with Le Pen; Brothers of Italy with Meloni; and Alternative for Germany (AfD) with Alice Weidel. The Italian historian Steven Forti points out by telephone that these figures present themselves as an option parallel to “a feminism that they themselves consider radical or extreme”, that is, progressive or left-wing.
The case of Weidel, co-leader of AfD, is quite illustrative: she is an openly lesbian woman, with two adopted children, who has taken the party from being a complete outcast to becoming the second in voting intention on 9-J, above the three governing parties (social democrats, liberals and greens). Her profile, however, “does not imply that AfD’s policies on gender, the LGBTI community or migrants are any milder,” adds Forti, author of Far Right 2.0. What it is and how to combat it (21st Century, 2021).
The clean face of the far right seems to be just a mirage or a political strategy. AfD still has not shaken off its Nazi past: its head of the list for the European elections was expelled for statements apologising for the SS and in Germany there is a tight cordon sanitaire around him. Another example is that of Meloni, who, according to Forti, “presents herself as a moderate conservative and very pragmatic in international politics”, but has not managed to curb the radical attitudes of members of her party. In addition, her government has promoted an ultra-conservative agenda with regard to abortion and the traditional family.
Vox, for its part, “is a little behind,” Forti stresses. Although the anti-immigration discourse has been a pillar of its programme for years, Santiago Abascal’s party has not managed to obtain the support of women in the same way that Le Pen or Meloni have done. Abascal has broken the government pacts with the PP over the distribution of migrant minors, whom he blamed for being responsible for “machete attacks” and “rapes,” an idea that echoes the Cologne attacks in 2015 and that still resonates in Europe.
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