The Threat of Far-right Political Parties to the European Union’s Gender Equality Policies & the Capitalist West

The populist radical right-wing Law and Justice party (PiS) in Poland have engaged with anti-gender, and culturally divisional politics including attacks on reproductive and sexual minorities rights’ (Tronina and Kazmierska, 2023). These attacks undermine the European Union’s (EU’s) endorsement of human rights through treaties and institutions. The politicisation of reproductive rights in Poland, for Buchanan and Keohane (2006) would threaten the membership of Poland within the EU. The 2015 election of PiS undermines the approach of the EU in the promotion of gender equality. Polarisation on the matter of reproductive health, would only maintain the politicisation of the issue, through divisive politics. The victory by the PiS demonstrated an increase in contentious rhetoric unleashed by the growing far-right in Europe, and effectively prefigured greater complications for the European Union, as represented by the British withdrawal from the EU, and the election of Donald Trump in the US.

The attacks on reproductive and sexual minorities rights in Poland by the PiS are accompanied by intentional backsliding in the endorsement of gender equality (Gaweda, 2021). De-democratisation processes by member state Poland, have undermined the progress of the EU in performance of gender equality practices. However, author Rawluszko (2019) argues that the backsliding on gender equality practices, is due to the elitist and technocratic conditions in which Europeanisation was imposed in Poland following the collapse of the Berlin Wall. To contrast, I would argue that the attacks on reproductive health and gender equality are influenced by groteaque socio-economic conditions that increase support for populist parties such as the PiS, as working-class minorities conflict with each other over cultural differences. As a result, the performance of the EU in the context of the promotion of gender equality in Poland, is de facto inadequate, and echoes the mishaps that the capitalist west has formed in their failure to address growing wealth inequality, as well as increasing divisions amongst the working class.

The support for populist parties in Europe is growing. Overtime, this will undermine the EU’s intentions of progressively unifying gender equality by 2025. The growing support for right-wing populism in contemporary Europe, challenges the liberal, democratic values and norms (Siim and fiig, 2021). Siim and Fiig (2021), suggest that as states politicise the topic of gender and homosexuality, this will increase support for right-wing populist parties in Europe, and allows thus party, once in power to perpetrate attacks on minority communities and surge cultural division between working class communities, such as migrants (Ibid). This reflects inadequately on the EU, suggesting that it is unable to protect the rights of women, as well as other minority groups. This strenuous approach to such attacks against several minority groups also leaves the EU vulnerable to examination, on whether it in effect protects gender equality in Europe.

To heighten effectiveness of gender equality treaties and endorsements, the European Union must immediately encourage de-politicisation of the topic on gender and other politicised cultural differences waged by the far right to stimulate conflict amongst the working class. The continued existence of political institutions, for Buchanan and Keohane (2006) merely depend on the perception of member state publics. Whilst this is true, some would argue that Europeanisation and the influence of western values over former Communist states is seen as elitist and bureaucratic, rendering it unfavourable (Rawluszko 2019). In response, the EU can instead adopt a culture that is both transparent and partisan with funding and encouragement of education on the topic. This means that instead of unfavourable Europeanisation, states such as Poland and Romania can develop gender equality through resources, education, and the power of democracy.

From the western perspective, the 2015 election of PiS posed a bigger threat to the protection of liberal capitalism than initially realised. Whilst it did not directly attack western interdependency, it posed as a precursor to increased realist adoptions of approaches to international relations, as seen through the election of Trump and the British exit from the EU. Whilst these two instances are argued to be economic mishaps from each respective electorates, there is no hiding from increasing support for other far-right parties such as the Brothers of Italy Party in Italy, led by Meloni, Alternative for Germany (AFD) led by Alice Weidel, Le Pen’s National Rally, Nigel Farage’s and Richard Tice’s Reform Party, and more, in Sweden, Netherlands, Austria and Hungary. This growth in support for the far-right must not go unnoticed by the liberal west, particularly the European Union, if wealth and national security is to be protected, as well as the integrity of western bureaucrats. However, the issue stems much deeper in time than the 2015 election of PiS. In the greater context, Karl Polanyi’s double movement criticised an understandably ‘utopian’ expansionist global market, but for Polanyi (1944), this would leave dystopian effects on liberal capitalism. Effectively, the capitalist west has imploded, leaving the gaping holes wide open for the far-right to exploit the working classes, this time, from a social perspective.

Bibliography

Buchanan, A. and Keohane, R.O. (2006). The legitimacy of global governance institutions. Ethics & international affairs, 20(4), pp.405-437

Gaweda, B. (2021). Europeanization, Democratization, and Backsliding: Trajectories and Framings of Gender Equality Institutions in Poland. Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society, 28(3), 629–655. https://doi.org/10.1093/sp/jxab023

Polanyi, K. (1944).The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time. New York: Farrar & Rinehart

Rawłuszko, Marta. (2019). And if the opponents of gender ideology are right? Gender politics, Europeanization, and the democratic deficit. Politics & Gender 17 (2): 301–23

Siim, B. and Fiig, C. (2021). The populist challenge to gender equality. In The Routledge Handbook of Gender and EU Politics (pp. 367-379). Routledge

Tronina, D. and Kazmierska, K. (2023). London School of Economics and Political Science. Abortion Rights and Election Campaigns:

The Case of Poland  https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/gender/2023/10/11/abortion-rights-and-election-campaigns-the-case-of-poland/