A fragile shield for protecting civil rights : the European Union in the eyes of Italian feminists

Abstract

The article explores how feminist and LGBTQI organisations frame the European Union (EU), the claims they address to the EU institutions, and the actions they put in place at the continental level. Challenging previous beliefs of a linear increase in the Europeanisation of progressive social movements, this study reveals a more complex picture. Heavily affected by the economic and political crises, Italian women and LGBTQI activists share the radical criticism of EU austerity policies put forward by labour and youth movements. Nonetheless, they reject any option for breaking down the EU, as they conceive of it as a source of multilevel opportunities and a field for struggles from below, in which mechanisms of cross-national horizontal diffusion have facilitated the return of mass protest. While chances to realise the ‘other Europe’ project are perceived as low, activists hope that the EU is a potential ally against domestic conservatism.