Conference Program

In the contemporary landscape of democracy under threat, this paper explores how the radical right is evolving from a phase of institutional normalization toward a complete model of power consolidation, here defined as a potential “fifth wave”. By using gender as a “symbolic glue”, these forces are building broad anti-liberal coalitions that effectively reshape democratic discourse and institutional practices. The research focuses on the Italian case study of the “DDL Zan” bill against homo-transphobia, analyzing the public debate as a crucial site of ideological struggle and a paradigm for the cultural hegemony of the conservative bloc.

The study employs a mixed-method approach, combining quantitative word-frequency analysis with qualitative frame analysis on a corpus of 163 press articles published in 2021 across diverse ideological outlets (including Avvenire, Il Manifesto, Il Fatto Quotidiano, and Corriere della Sera). The findings reveal that the opposition to the bill successfully aggregated a remarkably heterogeneous bloc, ranging from radical right parties like Lega and Fratelli d’Italia to centrist formations and influential extra-parliamentary actors such as the Vatican. This coalition achieved discursive dominance through three interconnected strategies. First, it transformed gender into an empty signifier to mobilize resentment against globalism, promoting cultural homogeneity over individual rights. Second, it employed a selective form of homonationalism that tolerates binary identities while marginalizing non-binary and TQI+ subjectivities as threats to the natural order. Finally, it operated a populist reversal where minority protections were depicted as an "ideological dictatorship" threatening the majority’s freedom of speech.

The analysis demonstrates that the defeat of the DDL Zan was not merely a legislative failure but a successful exercise of hegemony that anticipated the current Italian political landscape. This research contributes to political sociology by illustrating how the gender battlefield is strategically used to redefine democratic boundaries and normalize anti-egalitarian ideologies.