The Illiberal Alphabet: Anti-Rights Mobilization to Destabilize Democratic Europe
Mila Moshelova, Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski
Executive Summary
‘Anti-gender’ actors transform questions of rights into questions of security and survival. By redefining democratic participation and reframing human-rights commitments as threats to sovereignty, they sound an alarm for all democratic citizens. This paper examines the rise and consequences of ‘anti-gender’ mobilizations across Europe, exploring how opposition to gender equality, reproductive rights, and LGBTQI visibility functions as a broader strategy to challenge liberal democracy. Such mobilizations extend far beyond the immediate goals of a particular protest, campaign, or policy and have consequences beyond the groups they first appear to contest. What begins as opposition to reproductive rights or LGBTQI visibility quickly becomes a vehicle to target NGOs, academics, media, and courts as illegitimate, either as imposing foreign norms or as ‘foreign agents’. ‘Anti-gender’ actors are able to justify broader attacks by linking multiple issues under a single narrative. Thus, the fusion of policy areas should be seen not just as a characteristic but as a political instrument. Through it, rights claims are reframed as threats to sovereignty, morality, and democratic participation. The radical right, but also some mainstream actors, share a narrative portfolio of threats with anti-gender actors, which expands and adapts based on pursued goals. Using comparative case studies from Europe, the article looks at the variation in how anti-gender mobilizations translate into outcomes. It distinguishes between discursive activation, rollback of existing rights, and pre-emptive restriction, where discourse and institutional pressure are disproportionate to the rights recognized domestically and are used to prevent future expansions of equality or inclusion.
Download the paper HERE.
Suggested citation: Moshelova, Mila. 2026. “The Illiberal Alphabet: Anti-Rights Mobilization to Destabilize Democratic Europe.” AUTHLIB Policy Papers 3.
