Gender equality and family in European populist radical-right agendas: European parliamentary debates 2014

The chapter addresses the divergence and convergence of the framings of gender equality in nationalist and nativist discourses in the EP elections. It compares how representatives of populist radical right (PRR) parties in Denmark, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain, Croatia and Hungary, and Germany frame gender equality and family issues in relation to issues of migration and mobility in their electoral campaigns for the EP and during the first months of MEPs. The analysis shows that gender and family issues have become instrumental for new forms of nationalisms. Gender and family issues are part of the programs, campaigns and statements of the populist radical right, less prominently in the Nordic countries but quite centrally in the East, Central and Southern European countries as well as Germany. Meanwhile frames used by far right parties on gender and family contribute to exclusive forms of nationalist agendas, anti-colonialist claims, or nationalist demographic sustainability.