Opportunity Beckons: The Anti-Gender Movement at the European Parliament

The European Parliament is commonly viewed as the most progressive institution of the European Union, given its historic promotion of gender equality and LGBT+ rights. As such, it ostensibly represents an adverse venue for the anti-gender movement. This paper argues, however, that the EP is more hospitable to anti-gender organisations than extant scholarship recognises. Drawing on the concept of political opportunity structures, it distinguishes between three types of opportunities that the European Parliament offers anti-gender organisations: policy influence, mobilisation, and organisational legitimation. Most accounts of political opportunity structures focus on the ability of non-state actors to influence public policy. Yet it is here that anti-gender organisations, important victories notwithstanding, are least successful. Instead, they have taken greater advantage of the other two opportunities. Through an analysis of the advocacy of anti-gender organisations at EU level, the article demonstrates that they use the European Parliament to mobilise potential supporters, both inside and outside the European Parliament itself, consolidating their transnational networks and discrediting their adversaries, as well as to boost their authority by presenting themselves as experts and the legitimate representatives of social interests. In this sense, the European Parliament assists the advocacy of the anti-gender movement.