EU Austerity and Left and Right Populism: What Room is there for Feminist Politics?

The EU policy response to the 2008 economic crisis has been austerity politics. Instead of challenging neoliberal logics that underpinned the economic crisis, austerity politics has reinforced it and its unequal effects. The gendered and intersectional consequences of such response have been widely documented (Kantola and Lombardo 2017; Hozic and True 2016; Walby 2015; Karamessini and Rubery 2014). Yet, the political impacts of austerity politics in terms of populist response and their gender consequences are still to be explored. The EU neoliberal response has promoted a process of de-democratization where power has been shifted to new economic governance institutions. This context calls for feminist action at the political, civil society, and academic levels to expose the unequal consequences and to promote social justice in post-crisis recovery. Yet, the most visible response comes from the spread of populism across Europe. New populist parties embrace the people’s concerns and outrage against austerity politics and their impacts. In Europe we have different manifestations of populism, which come from political right and left. In this paper we explore two cases of populism, Spain and Finland, that represent these two sides, with Podemos (left) and The Finns (right) respectively. The challenges that populist forces pose to feminist politics are intriguing. How do gender and intersectionality shape populist responses? What room is there for feminist politics? What is the difference between left and right populism for gender equality policies? In this paper we will analyse Spanish and Finnish populist parties’ equality policies, gendered party practices, culture (habits, slogans, symbols), the kind of emotions they mobilise, and more generally the affective context they contribute to create. This post-crisis context poses general challenges in relation to democracy and gender equality. These come from the political projects of neoliberalism, conservatism, and nationalism. We argue that populism, both left and right, does not solve such challenges for gender equality but rather poses specific problems for feminist politics.