“#PasUneVoixFéministePourL’ExtrêmeDroite” : Analysing the nature and impacts of French feminist movements’ protest politics against the far right

The rise of far-right parties in Europe has become increasingly concerning and is posing significant challenges for democracies across Europe. Many reasons explain this phenomenon including the broadening of the electoral base due to the progressive closing of the gender gap as well as historically low levels of trust in political institutions. This issue is particularly vivid following the results of the recent EU Parliamentary elections which saw a significant shift to the right in many countries. In reaction, feminist movements have been increasingly involved in directly preventing ultra-conservative parties ascending to power and in leading mobilisations online, which is a key site to counter anti-gender discourses. Hence, in the context of erosion of trust in voting processes, feminist movements across Europe, through collective political action, create innovative forms of non-democratic engagement, participate in the redefinition of the media and political agenda and influence voting politics against the far right. The proposed paper thus maps and analyses the mobilising strategies and action repertoires of feminist movements against the far right, with a focus on gender as a structural driving factor for protest. It argues that there is a need to investigate the causal relationship between feminist mobilisations and the failure of far right parties to access power in specific electoral contexts. France is proposed as a case study, and more specifically the snap parliamentary elections that took place in June and July 2024. Following President Macron’s statement to dissolve the parliament, thus potentially enabling far right parties to acquire a majority, feminist groups immediately organised, formed coalitions, developed campaigns (with a strong presence on social media), canvassed, published widely-signed opinion columns, protested in the streets, deconstructed far-right discourses on gender in the media, etc. French feminists’ active involvement directly responds to the need to tackle anti-gender attacks by the far right on reproductive rights, homosexuality, trans-identity and same-sex marriage, gender-based violence and immigration, women in Islam, and gender roles within the family, etc. Indeed, the National Rally progressively sanitised its conservative discourse using gender as a key discursive frame, directly threatening the rights of women and gender minoritised persons. Following an intense and unplanned three-week-long campaign, the leftist coalition won the elections despite the far-right parties gaining more seats in parliament. The proposed paper will therefore analyse the action repertoires, political challenges and impacts of feminist organisations involved in this campaign in order to better understand the role of feminist social movements in encouraging citizens to go to the polls when their rights are the most threatened.