Analysing femonationalist discourses in campaign spots

Abstract

This article examines how populist radical right parties in Spain deploy femonationalism in electoral campaigning by instrumentalising gender equality and women’s rights to legitimise exclusionary, nativist agendas. Drawing on a qualitative analysis of campaign videos, produced by Plataforma per Catalunya and Vox, between 2011 and 2025, the study shows how women are portrayed both as nation and symbolic border: typically framed as passive bearers of “Western” values allegedly threatened by racialised “others”, and only exceptionally as active political subjects. Gender equality is framed as an already-accomplished achievement rather than an emancipatory project, enabling a cultural boundary of rejection in the name of purported democratic values. The videos racialize sexism by projecting misogyny and gender violence onto foreign populations, thereby diverting attention from structural inequalities, normalising domestic policy inaction, and facilitating xenophobic policy claims. These narratives are reinforced through securitisation and moral panic, including the construction of external enemies, victim-perpetrator reversal, and the portrayal of mainstream parties as complicit, positioning the populist radical right as the sole actor capable of protection. The article concludes by highlighting the need to extend this research beyond audiovisual material to other campaign artefacts and comparative contexts.