Authors

Natasza Quelvennec¹;  ¹ EHESS / CESSP, France

Discussion

Polish anti-abortion campaigns, which culminated in reproductive restrictions in 2020, highlighted both local partnership between political parties and conservative movement during Poland's post-2015 illiberal turn, and transnational cooperation of so-called anti-gender mobilizations. The literature on democratic backsliding and gender issues emphasizes that gender is not just another topic addressed by illiberal actors. It serves as a “symbolic glue” that unites adherents of diverse ideologies, and even establishes an “opportunistic synergy” between political actors and civil society organizations. Opposition to gender - presented as the vehicle for the ideological colonization of peoples by a network of transnational elites - leads to criticism of the supranational and multilateral institutions that are behind its dissemination in national normative systems. Nevertheless, while contesting the legitimacy of these bodies, illiberal civil society organizations are inserting themselves into their institutional processes and appropriating their rhetoric. My contribution is devoted to national and transnational strategies of a Polish legal think tank which, while emerging from the conservative international, has managed to consolidate its positions both in Poland and within it. The analysis is based on a methodology including interviews, observations, documentary sources (media, judicial sources, websites, and social media) and prosopographic data. My study shows interconnections between European anti-gender networks led by its Polish circles to illiberal actors worldwide. Financial links, co-presence in international events and bodies, co-signatures of documents addressed to national and supranational institutions enable this anti-gender international to influence locally and globally public opinion, policy makers and judiciary process. As conservative elite supported by an illiberal government in Poland, Polish conservative lawyers use their national resources to consolidate think tank's European leader position within the anti-gender network, lobby and mediate between illiberal leaders of a global field of power, while benefiting from its transnational capital to strengthen its status in Poland. Through its study, I grasp dynamics of national and transnational connections of new players that have developed in Europe during the second decade of the 21st century in the wake of the “gender ideology” concept launched by the Vatican and Center European culture wars.