With the far-right defeated in France, we need feminism more than ever

For once, I would like to start this newsletter on a personal note. I want to say thank you to all the French people who voted against the far-right and its programme of hate, fear and division on Sunday.

Like many immigrants in this country without the right to vote, I watched the last few weeks of campaigning in France with a sense of growing dread: from Macron’s defeat in the European election, to his “gamble“ in calling for immediate legislative elections, to the devastating result in the first roundin which the far-right National Rally finished first. I did what I could: I wrote, I read, I marched, I tried to sound the alarm about the risk a far-right government would pose.

And last night, when the exit polls were released at 8pm showing a victory for the New Popular Front left coalition, I felt hope for the first time. Hope, relief and gratitude to my neighbours, to my friends, to the people who don’t agree with me and the people who do – to everyone who turned out in record numbers to say no to the racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, homophobia, transphobia and misogyny of the National Rally.

The struggle is far from over. The National Rally finished third, but it gained more than 50 seats in parliament and won the votes of more than 8 million people. The party will remain a significant force in Europe, where it has many far-right allies around the continent – allies that wish to ban abortion and gender transition, allies that target queer families. The open prejudice that was unleashed during this violent campaign will not be easily forgotten.

France’s republican front has triumphed once again, and I am eternally grateful. But there is more work to do. The far-right will not go away on its own: National Rally leader Marine Le Pen has said her party’s victory has merely been “deferred”. To avoid catastrophe in future, France will need to continue to counter extremism wherever it is found. The fight is not over yet, and with more women than ever voting for the far-right, we will need feminist answers in the years to come.

Luckily, there are feminists around the world who have experience standing up to the forces of extremism, and they have much to teach us, wherever we are, and whether we can vote or not. I spent last week writing to some of these activists for their advice about how to continue to take on the far-right in France.

Debora Diniz knows all too well the dangers of far-right forces. She received death threats for testifying to Brazil’s Supreme Court in a hearing on decriminalising abortion, and was forced into police protection and eventually exile for her work. She is considered to be the first person forced into exile under the hard-right government of Brazil’s Trump-like Jair Bolsonaro.

“There are two main lessons I take away from the hard times of Jair Bolsonaro in power in Brazil. The first is how the far right works by spreading fear, and how it can paralyse feminist courage and creativity,” she said. But: “We cannot change unjust norms through fear.”

“The second lesson is to ignore the false prophecy of backlash against feminist agendas,” she said. The mass protests in Brazil on the eve of elections under the banner “Not him“ recall the feminist mobilising we saw on the streets of France ahead of the first round of elections last month. “Backlash is a controlling narrative against our drive for mobilisation and political participation,” Diniz says. Bolsonaro lost power in 2022 to the left-wing Lula da Silva.

Philosopher Marcia Tiburi also left Brazil due to far-right death threats, living in exile in Paris. “I spent four years in France suffering over the situation in Brazil and now I’m in Brazil suffering over the situation in France,“ she said. “Bolsonaro has left a legacy of horrors and characters just like him in the national congress … That France managed to halt the advance of horror yesterday is something to celebrate, but we must remain vigilant.“

We will also need to build networks across Europe, says Zsofi Borsi, the co-founder of Lazy Women, a Hungary-born collective with a mission to bring non-Western European perspectives to mainstream feminist discourse. In her native Hungary, the far-right president Viktor Orbán has presided over anti-LGBT laws and restrictions on abortion care, as well as demonising migrants. His party is joining a far-right bloc with the National Rally in the EU parliament.

“Whether it’s a ‘war’ on immigrants, George Soros, EU, or on gender, in Hungary, Orbán’s propaganda machine has been feeding the population with different enemy figures, systematically breaking down the public’s tolerance for diversity and civil society as a whole,” Borsi says. With far-right forces uniting across Europe, she says feminists will need to do the same. “Building networks of solidarity between small feminist organisations to elevate each others’ voices both locally and in the region – where many neighbouring countries face similar challenges – plays a crucial role.”

For the past decade, the feminists of Argentina have been world leaders in changing their society for the better. Activist Verónica Gago was one of the major voices of the #NiUnaMenos movement that protested against gender-based violence beginning in 2015, kicking off a new wave of global feminist discourse that encompassed the “green wave” of abortion rights which swept Latin America. But the recent election in Argentina is proof that feminist gains can never be taken for granted: in a span of just a few months, the ultra-right-wing President Javier Milei has overseen a decimation of these hard-won victories.

“The extreme right in government means an absolute setback in the conditions of possibility of our struggles,” Gago said. “As feminists, our commitment is to fight against fascism with all our strength. That is what we are doing here. It is essential to strengthen transfeminist struggles. We need to continue to organise and, above all, to build and expand alliances.”

In recent years, India has witnessed the rise of Hindu nationalism and far-right ideologies. But the recent election saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s nationalist Bharatiya Janata party lose its parliamentary majority for the first time since 2014. Teesta Setalvad is a feminist activist, journalist and founder of Sabrang Trust and Citizens for Justice and Peace. She has been a long-time campaigner for the victims of the 2002 Gujarat riots and has been detained for her activism by the government.

“The far right in different countries, contexts and cultures have an eerie, even chilling similarity,” she said. “It is more than time to forge international alliances.”

“India has been there, seen that and is slowly (hopefully) emerging, though scarred and wounded … We wish our sisters in France luck as we ourselves struggle to breathe slightly easier while threatened by dark clouds in India still.”

Millions of people in France, and those watching us around the world, are breathing easier today. Once more, the far-right were at the gates of power. One more, they were turned away by a population that chose hope over hate. Once more, feminists led the way. From today, the struggle continues, but remember: there are more of us than there are of them. 

Thank you to Agustina Ordoqui, Mariana Fagundes and Bhanupriya Rao for their assistance with this article.

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Impact is a weekly newsletter of feminist journalism, dedicated to the rights of women and gender-diverse people worldwide.

This is the English version of our newsletter; you can read the French one here.