Over the past 15 years, the resurgence of populist radical right parties (PRRPs) in European politics has garnered significant attention from scholars, particularly regarding their impact on party systems and competition structures. Existing literature highlights the structuring of party competition around pivotal issues such as immigration and European integration (Alonso and Claro da Fonseca, 2012; Hobolt, 2016; Downes and Loveless, 2018; Akkerman, 2018; Joppke, 2020). Scholars suggest that PRRPs have the potential to influence the positions of moderate parties (Albertazzi and Vampa, 2021; Mudde, 2014; de Lange, 2012).

This paper aims to investigate the extent to which the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) has influenced the stance of the British Conservative Party on gender and LGBTQ rights. Employing a qualitative content analysis approach, this study examines speeches, press releases, and articles from both UKIP and Conservative parties in the six months preceding the 2019 general election. Additionally, it involves 25 semi-structured interviews with figures from the Conservative Party, including MPs and advisors. The findings indicate an increasing alignment of Tories with UKIP’s stances, particularly showcasing a growing critical approach towards gender and LGBTQ issues. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of this shift.

Appeals to identity politics – both those of voters and of politicians – play an increasingly prominent role in (perceptions of) representation. For political parties, identities (whether demographic or derived from lived experience) can be key strategic points for the recruitment, selection, and nomination of competitive candidacies (e.g., Bjarnegård and Kenny 2016; Rahat and Hazan 2001). For politicians, the strategic use of identity markers can serve as a means of voteseeking by signalling trustworthiness, relatability, and the policy positions they would likely adopt if elected (Larrosa-Fuentes 2022; McDonald et al. 2020). And for voters, the perception of politicians’ identities can be, alongside party affiliation, a defining cue for how candidates are seen as reflecting the communities they represent (Kevins 2021). But how do these factor compare across different systems, when it comes time to select candidates for a simultaneous contest?

We exploit the natural institutional variation found in European Parliament elections in order to explore the link between politician identity, candidate selection and nominations during the 2024 contest. In doing so, we assess the extent to which parties select candidates that provide a descriptive 'fit' with the constituencies they represent, as well as how this quest to 'optimise representation' varies across the 27 different electoral systems used in the EP elections.

Our findings speak to the particular importance of gender for the selection and sorting of candidates, alongside other forms of visible identity - such as race, age, and national origin - when observing the 'fit' between candidates and the constituents that they are meant to represent.

2022 was a momentous year for female leaders in the populist radical right: in the Italian general elections, Giorgia Meloni at the helm of Fratelli d’Italia (FdI), and in the French presidential elections Marine Le Pen at the helm of Rassemblement National (RN) scored meaningful electoral results, despite different outcomes. This paper investigates the ways in which female populist radical right party leaders present themselves as female leaders as well as they frame gender-related questions. So far, the bulk of the theoretical and empirical literature on gender and populism has focused on populist parties’ variegated ideological stances and discursive styles on gender, leaving the analysis of populist leadership understudied. This paper contributes to the growing scholarly attention devoted to the case study of Le Pen’s female leadership and stance on gender issues, and of Meloni’s female leadership and gender-related posture. Theoretically, we innovatively rework the existing concepts of hegemonic femininity and of ‘strongmen’ to create the concept of ‘strongwomen’. Methodologically, we use qualitative discourse analysis of the TikTok and Twitter accounts of the two female leaders. We find varying degrees of hostility against abortion and non-binary gender identities, and unanimous promotion of the ‘traditional’ family, plus the rejection of surrogacy. Meloni and Le Pen are emblematic ‘strongwomen’: while championing women’s rights and extolling their female qualities of compassion and motherliness, they adopt toughness and assertiveness typical of charismatic leaders to push for the pre-eminence of the heterosexual family over LGBTQ+ rights and abortion rights and deploy nativist and masculinist tropes when imposing the view of immigrant women as in need of salvation, and immigrant men as perpetrating women’s oppression.

After the Second World War, as Luxembourg abandoned its neutrality and engaged in international multilateralism and European integration, it adopted a new foreign policy that enabled women to embark on diplomatic careers, as Members of the European Parliament (I.e. Astrid Lulling, Colette Flesch, Erna Hennicot-Schoepges), of the Commission (I.e.Viviane Reding), or as technocrats and experts (Martine Reicherts). Analysing the involvement of women in European and international relations in Luxembourg is a complicated task given the absence of systematic archive sources (the diplomatic archives of the Luxembourg Foreign Ministry deposited in the National Archives only cover the period up to 1973) and the fact that the topic has thus far received little attention in international and national historiography. In this context, oral history is not only a novel methodological tool; it is also the most appropriate source considering our objectives years remained exclusively male-dominated. The recruitment of the first female diplomat in 1973 (Arlette Conzemius) was preceded by the emergence of Luxembourg’s first female politicians in international relations as elected members of parliament (Astrid Lulling and Colette Flesch) or ministers (Madeleine Frieden-Kinnen). These forerunners paved the way for other women to pursue diplomatic, political and public careers at European and international level. By conducting an oral history project (2021-2025) consisting of semi-structured filmed interviews with remarkable women from a range of backgrounds (political, diplomatic, economic, trade union, cultural, technocratic, civil society, etc.), we will attempt to elucidate their role in the sphere of European and international relations in Luxembourg by tracing their careers, their achievements and failings, their synergies and networking, their role as mentors for future generations, and the continuity of female Luxembourg leadership in their various fields of expertise. This paper will use the original oral history accounts to show how women defended the vital interests of Luxembourg and Europe on the world stage.