Protecting Women, Saving Europe: Polish Populist Radical Right Parties, Women MEPs and the Rise of Eastern Femonationalism

Despite the increasing political salience of migration and anti-gender backlash in Central and Eastern European countries, femonationalism – the use of gender equality and feminist rhetoric by populist radical right parties (PRRPs) to advance anti-immigration and nationalist politics (Farris 2017) – has not been yet studied in the context of the region. Against this background, I conduct critical frame analysis of European Parliament plenary debates to examine the ways in which women MEPs from two Polish PRRPs, Law and Justice and the Confederation, construct meanings behind the notions of gender equality and women’s interests and use femonationalist rhetoric. On this basis, I propose the concept of Eastern femonationalism. It is grounded in claims of moral and religious superiority over both the Muslim world and Western Europe. The West and the EU are portrayed as imposing secular values and moral depravity, and EU migration policies as threatening women’s safety.