Abstract
Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) have recently witnessed a surge in protest, mobilization, and debates about marriage, abortion, gender, and feminism. This politics of morality has been notably more successful in the east than in the west of Europe: Most CEE countries have legally or even constitutionally precluded any chance of adopting same-sex marriage, some have rejected the Istanbul Convention, and many parliaments have debated 'gender' in a hostile manner.
The rising conservative voice in politics appears to signal a sort of illiberal, conservative turn in post-Communist EU Member States. Most research on morality politics thus focuses on the conservative backlash in CEE or global conservative religious networks, while leaving particular Central European political dynamics aside.
This article intends to shift the focus from the ideological or religious aspects of conservative mobilizations to the role morality politics has played in the context of increased political competition on the right and the rise of populism. Looking at actors, strategies, discourses, and the timing and context of individual types of mobilizations in CEE permits the analysis of the political logic of morality politics and especially an exploration of the instrumental nature of conservative mobilizations in detail.