Petromasculinity as a Temporal Imaginary: the Case of the Motorists’ Party

Evidence suggests that personal identities, more specifically gender identities, foster a strong emotional response to climate change narratives. Researchers find that white cis western conservative masculine identity fosters strong feelings of fear and anxiety, which then translate into far-right populist inclinations, climate denial, and even anti-climate mobilization. This patriarchal masculine anxiety with attachment to fossil fuels has been termed petromasculinity. It shows that fossil fuels are not merely a source of energy, but contribute to identity-making, and that gender anxiety alongside climate anxiety are not separate dimensions of new authoritarian movements, but rather interconnected issues of personal attachment. This paper uses the framework of petromasculinity to analyse temporal imaginaries of the Motorist party in connection to climate change and gender roles. Motorists are a new populist party defined by their denial of climate change, inclination to patriarchal masculinity, and love for combustion engines. In recent elections, they gained seats in the European Parliament and the Czech Parliament. Populist Temporal Imaginaries Framework (PTIF) is an innovative analytical tool designed to empirically examine how populist actors and their followers construct and continually reshape their Populist Temporal Imaginaries (PTIs) over time. It captures the relational nature of political demands embedded in past experiences, present grievances, and future promises. This research analyses semi-structured interviews with elected MPs from the Motorist party, focused on their visions of the future. It answers two research questions: (1) how do gender anxiety and climate anxiety resolve in the imagined future of the motorist party? and (2) how does the resolution of gender anxiety assist the resolution of climate anxiety and vice versa?