Enemies of the State: Pathways to Violence Against Civil Society in Anti-Gender Politics

Across Europe, anti-gender movements are transforming feminist and LGBTQI+ activists into "enemies of the state," justifying escalating violence that threatens both civil society and democratic institutions. This paper examines how anti-gender politics creates conditions for violence against civil society actors, and how these dynamics vary with the degree of institutionalization of anti-gender agendas. Drawing on comparative data from the six-country CCINDLE project (Belgium, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Spain, and Sweden), we identify three interconnected pathways through which anti-gender politics enables and normalizes violence. First, discursive delegitimization positions feminist and LGBTQI+ organizations as existential threats to nation, family, and tradition—framing them as legitimate targets rather than democratic actors. Second, institutional exclusion deploys harassment, legal restrictions, and funding cuts to systematically remove civil society from policy processes, undermining inclusive representation and political voice. Third, policy regime erosion weakens gender violence prevention systems by marginalizing the civil society actors critical to norm-setting, implementation, and service delivery. Together, these pathways create environments where violence against gender equality advocates is perceived as justified, even necessary. While these dynamics operate across all contexts studied, they intensify dramatically in de-democratizing regimes where states actively orchestrate and legitimize such violence. In these settings, violence against civil society becomes a strategic tool for consolidating authoritarian power and advancing anti-democratic agendas. Our analysis reveals that anti-gender politics functions not merely as backlash against gender equality, but as a mechanism of democratic erosion that weaponizes violence to silence dissent and reshape the boundaries of legitimate political participation.