Varieties of Femonationalism in Far-right Female Leadership: Comparing Le Pen, Meloni and Weidel

This paper explores far-right women leaders from an ideological-discursive perspective, focusing on the complex interplay between femonationalist and (anti-)feminist elements in their politics on gender. Notably, European far-right parties have been characterised by the two apparently contradictory categories of ‘anti-feminism’ (opposition to feminism) and ‘femonationalism’ (strategic feminism tied to nationalism/nativism), which raises questions about the ambivalence of the far right’s posture on women’s politics. This is further complicated by the increasing presence of women leaders at the helm of European far-right parties, who may strategically adopt the language of gender equality to appeal to female voters, while typically not reclaiming the feminist label. In shedding light on this conundrum, this article fills a gap in the literature by focusing on the leaders of three significant western European far-right parties: Marine Le Pen (National Rally, France), Giorgia Meloni (Brothers of Italy), and Alice Weidel (Alternative for Germany). Based on a critical discourse analysis of party manifestos and social media (Twitter/X) data (2022-2025), we examine their strategic adaptations of feminist claims and frames. Emphasizing decisive differences between the three cases, the analysis reveals Le Pen’s anti-immigrant femonationalism, Meloni’s neoliberal national feminism, and Weidel’s transphobic anti-feminism. Overall, the article makes three contributions: First, we offer an analytical framework of studying femonationalism in far-right party politics. Second, we explain varieties of femonationalism in far-right female leadership rooted in differences in party genealogy and political culture. Third, we provide original empirical data and new insights into three important yet understudied cases of far-right women leaders.