Feminist responses in the Hungarian Parliament

Operating in an increasingly consolidated autocratizing context the Hungarian Parliament defies procedural rules of democracy by expedite legislative processes, blocking venues for substantive debates and silencing opposition. Gender equality legislation is blocked, while anti-gender legislation is passed without meaningful debates. Yet, opposition is far from passive. In this context we argue that the Parliament becomes a protest arena in which MPs representing gender equality positions use various protests strategies to confront the regime and make their position visible to the regime and the wider public. We analyze feminist responses to anti-gender attacks in the Hungarian Parliament by looking at their strategies, practices and discourses. We rely on an extensive qualitative dataset including the analysis of feminist responses in two fields of anti-gender attacks: the ratification of the Istanbul Convention (2017-2020) and the Child Protection/Pedophilia Law (2020-21) and a series of interviews with oppositional MPs and staff. Our paper builds on literature on feminist responses to attacks on gender in formal politics combined with literature on formal politics in autocratizing or hybrid regimes. Pointing well beyond the struggle for gender equality our paper contributes to understanding the operation of parliamentary opposition in autocratizing contexts, and how such opposition may contribute to democracy struggles.