By Ruth Gazsó Candlish and Tatev Hovhannisyan
At the Feminist Futures Workshop in Budapest, activists, researchers and politicians from across Europe gathered to discuss a pressing question: How do democratic movements continue building futures under anti-democratic conditions? Ruth Gazsó Candlish and Tatev Hovhannisyan reflect on why feminist resistance today is becoming as much about rebuilding democratic life as it is about opposing backlash.
Hope was a difficult word in Budapest this spring. At the first Feminist Futures Workshop held in March 2026, more than 130 feminist activists, researchers, politicians, journalists and civil society actors from 15 countries spoke openly about exhaustion, shrinking civic space, online harassment, democratic decline and the growing normalization of anti-gender politics across Europe. From attacks on LGBTQ+ rights in Hungary to the growing influence of far-right politics in Sweden, many participants described a political atmosphere defined by hostility and fear.
As Mieke Verloo, a Dutch political scientist and coordinator of the CCINDLE project, warned during the opening session, anti-gender politics has become inseparable from broader authoritarian trends across Europe. “What we found,” she noted, “is that it is really getting worse and worse with every coming year.” Yet despite this, the conversations returned repeatedly to the same question: How do movements continue imagining and building futures under conditions designed to produce hopelessness?
The answers emerging from Budapest were striking. Across Europe and beyond, feminist movements are no longer only resisting attacks on rights and freedoms. They are building networks of care and collective action that sustain forms of democratic life under pressure. The workshop, organized by the EU-funded Co-Creating Inclusive Intersectional Democratic Spaces Across Europe (CCINDLE) project and the CEU Democracy Institute, became a space for confronting what feminist resistance now demands under conditions of democratic erosion.
Beyond the “Culture War”
One of the strongest themes running through the discussions was the growing recognition that anti-gender politics can no longer be understood as isolated cultural debates. Across Europe, participants described how attacks on reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ communities, academic freedom and feminist organizations have become deeply intertwined with broader anti-democratic projects.
Andrea Krizsán of the CEU Democracy Institute argued that feminist movements are now responding not only to anti-gender politics, but to democratic erosion itself. These attacks, she noted, “undermine capacities” but also reveal “strength, creativity, care, which are all fundamental contributions to struggles for democracy.”
Research presented by the CCINDLE project showed how feminist actors inside political institutions are developing coordinated strategies to counter anti-gender mobilization. Petra Meier, professor at the University of Antwerp, described how feminist parliamentarians across Europe are using knowledge, coalition building, and institutional reforms as forms of resistance.
Drawing on experiences from Sweden to Poland, activists and politicians spoke not only about policies and strategies, but about what it feels like to continue organizing under relentless pressure. Several common themes emerged throughout the discussions: exhaustion and persistence, fear and solidarity, vulnerability and collective power.
Care as Democratic Infrastructure
Across the discussions, care emerged as central to feminist resistance. Conny Roggeband, professor at the University of Amsterdam and Senior Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies, described how feminist and queer organizations across Europe are creating “alternative spaces and practices that challenge oppressive structures.” From providing shelter and legal aid to migrants in Italy and Spain to building alternative financial support networks for trans communities in Belgium, feminist activists are stepping in where public systems are failing. In Poland, feminist groups continue providing information about safe abortion access despite severe restrictions.
“These are not radical fringe activities,” Roggeband stressed. “It is a matter of life and death.”
Under these conditions, care has become far more than mutual support: “Care is not just a footnote to feminist politics,” Roggeband argued. “It’s the infrastructure that makes feminist politics possible.”
Feminist organizations are also creating alternative forms of public knowledge, from legal literacy campaigns to grassroots storytelling projects countering disinformation around gender and sexuality. In Belgium, storytelling has become a crucial tool for “humanizing trans experiences and expanding empathy around them.”
At the same time, speakers openly acknowledged the emotional cost of this work. Feminist activists across Europe continue operating under shrinking funding, constant online abuse, burnout and political hostility. “When we asked activists about the future,” Roggeband reflected, “they said: ‘What future? We are focused on the now. We are focused on survival.’”
Reclaiming Public Space
The workshop also highlighted the continued importance of visibility and collective presence in democratic life. Across Europe, feminist movements remain visible and politically powerful in public spaces. From mass strikes in Poland to demonstrations in Hungary and Spain, protests are not only moments of resistance. They become spaces where solidarity is practiced publicly, and isolated struggles become collective ones.
Across the discussions, coalition-building emerged as both a necessity and a challenge. Feminist organizations are working alongside labor movements, racial justice groups, LGBTQ+ organizations, climate activists and broader pro-democracy actors. As Carnegie Endowment scholar Saskia Brechenmacher noted, many feminist organizations now explicitly frame their work as part of broader democratic struggles. “Actually, we care about voting rights,” she explained, describing how feminist organizations recognize democratic participation itself as a precondition for gender equality work.
At the same time, participants acknowledged that coalition-building is not always easy. Internal tensions around inclusion, strategy, resources and representation remain very real within feminist movements themselves. But Roggeband cautioned against interpreting these tensions simply as weakness. “These are tensions of a politics that takes seriously the question of who gets to be included in the world we are building.”
The Futures Feminists Are Already Building
The discussions in Budapest challenged the assumption that feminist movements are merely defensive actors reacting to backlash. Instead, participants described feminist organizing as a space where new political practices are being tested.
“We don’t want illiberal democracy,” Roggeband argued. “But we also don’t want liberal democracy.” The challenge, she suggested, is not simply to preserve existing institutions, but to rethink democracy itself beyond neoliberal individualism and exclusionary politics.
Brechenmacher argued that one of the central political challenges ahead lies in rebuilding broad democratic coalitions around care and collective survival. This is becoming especially urgent in digital environments shaped by disinformation and algorithmic radicalization. “The goal,” she said, “should be to depolarize issues around gender equality and make sure these become common-sense ideas.”
Participants spoke candidly about exhaustion and democratic erosion. Yet the discussions resisted political despair. As Polish activist Natalia Broniarczyk of the Abortion Dream Team put it during the workshop: “Hope is not something movements wait for. It is something you build.”
At a moment when democratic politics across Europe is organized around exclusion and distrust, feminist movements are insisting on a different political logic: one rooted in care, solidarity and interdependence. Their significance lies not only in resisting democratic erosion, but in rebuilding democratic life itself.
If you would like to hear the discussions in full, you can watch the recorded workshops in full here:
Workshop 1. Feminist Resistance to Anti-Democratic Politics
Workshop 2. Feminist Politicians & Activists on Resisting Backlash
Tatev Hovhannisyan is an award-winning investigative journalist and Academic Director at the Oxford School for the Future. Her work focuses on democratic backsliding, anti-gender movements and women’s rights across Europe and Eurasia.
Ruth Gazsó Candlish is a policy advocate and researcher based at the CEU Democracy Institute. A former trade unionist and senior equality policy officer, she works on disability, gender, access to politics, and institutional change.
This article is published under the sole responsibility of the author, with editorial oversight. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the editorial team or the CEU Democracy Institute.
