Reimagining Democracy: Feminist Experiments Across Europe

Activists across Europe are reimagining democracy from the ground up. Faced with hostile institutions, restrictive laws, and deepening inequalities, feminist movements are building alternative democratic practices rooted in care, solidarity, and collective liberation. From grassroots abortion support networks to trans-inclusive healthcare, from border solidarity to intersectional coalitions, activists create spaces for survival, resistance, and transformation when formal politics fails them.

Click on the map below to explore the different practices and experiments that activists have developed in each country. Each entry provides a short description accompanied by quotes from activists themselves, offering insight into how they are prefiguring new democratic futures across Europe.

The full report can be found here.

EU

Strategic coalitions

Activists form strategic coalitions with parties inside the EP. ‪One interviewee mentioned the importance of navigating the political landscape of the EP, especially by having knowledge on the political groups and knowing who to approach. In practice, this means that far-right parties are not contacted, and the EPP is the last one to be contacted, suggesting that their allies in the EP are the political groups that hold gender equality, feminism, LGBTIQ+ rights and minority rights as pillars of democracy.

“Whenever we do any activity with the European Parliament, we have to consider very carefully whom to approach.”

Using existing frameworks

Some interviewees mentioned the use of existing measures, instead of creating new innovative practices. For instance, the reliance on existing legal frameworks, such as strategic litigation, highlights a pragmatic approach to countering anti-gender sentiments.

“I would say [what] helps, you know, [is] that we still have, fortunately, really, I would say, a good legal framework regarding the protection of LGBT people.”

Debunking ‘anti-gender’ myths through storytelling

Several interviewees mentioned an experienced-based and story-based activism as a way to debunk anti-gender claims and counterbalance the fear their narrative generates. One interviewee expressed how in their views there are many potential responses to anti-gender forces, and many require talking about personal experiences and stories of LGBTIQ people and families. This approach has the objective of demystifying own queer experiences, own lives and own stories to debunk the fear constructed by anti-gender actors around what they call an ‘LGBT ideology’. Opening about own people’s stories and disseminating them around would also have the effect of counter-balancing anti-gender claims that they represent a majority, and, essentially claim to hold the power of the majority, as one interviewee put it.

“- What do you think works?
– Well, I think, you know, not to be too pathetic about it, but I think that talking more about personal stories, more about, stuff like real examples, real families, real experiences to have more visible faces, people in the media, you know, because all those narratives that we are fighting against are based on lies and on fear.”

“But also lots of them, you know, are just people that want power, and they don’t care, you know, in what way they will get it.

And they found out that you can scare easily people with, I don’t know, transgender topics or with, you know, this feminist agenda of whatever they say that will happen.

So I’d say that, you know, the anti-gender movement is just, you know, like a very, very far right conservative group of people that want power, and then that in doing so, they are finding different ways how to gather people from different ways of life to find such people and find ways to disrupt whatever they can disrupt.”

Spain

Self-care and collective wellbeing

The provision of emotional support was not limited to people seeking assistance, but it was also underlined as something needed within their activist circles. The hardships of engaging in activism was accentuated by all the interviewees, as well as the necessity to engage in self-caring activities and centre their own collective wellbeing.

“And then, in terms of managing social media and all that, it’s true that for a while I’ve been the one mostly taking care of everything. And we also play with the idea that, in the end, we all have health issues, both physical and mental health, so we’re really trying to focus on care, on respecting each other’s timing. For example, if we had planned to run a campaign today for the International Day Against LGTBIphobia, we talked and said, ‘Look, we just can’t handle it right now. Let’s take care of ourselves, make a simple, gentle post, and do the campaign later when we have more time.’ So that’s the approach we’re taking, more about focusing on care, on how people are doing, trying to respect each other’s pace without getting upset or criticising if someone can’t make it or can’t do something.”

Non-hierarchical structures

In the responses, we identify four novel activist practices.

In some of the organisations, interviewees argued that they favoured a more horizontal approach of reaching consensus amongst themselves so no one felt left out by the majority vote.

“Yeah, I also want to highlight the fact that we’ve approved or embraced a lot of things we’ve seen actually work, and that it’s also really valuable to take our time to figure out what works best for us as an association and as a group. Before, having roles or sticking to a hierarchy, or even trying to be fully horizontal, just wasn’t working for us. So now, I think we’re doing much better, as I was saying, no hierarchies, working through consensus, checking in with each other, and prioritising how we’re doing as individuals. We also experienced this a lot, especially with the Trans Law; we were at our limit, like: ‘We need to get this out, we need to do this.’ And now things are a bit calmer, we’re still fighting to be included in the Trans Law and to be recognised, but from a more compassionate perspective towards ourselves. Like, we exist in all kinds of ways, not from perfectionism, not from hierarchy or rigid binaries, right? It’s more like, there’s a spectrum, and we’re flowing within it. I think we’re doing much better than we were a year ago.”

Building a network of friendly professionals

Identifying “friendly” individuals within administrative structures, the healthcare system, or law enforcement was described as particularly valuable, as such relationships offer the most effective means of self-protection.

“I went, and to this day I still have a strong relationship with the young people who, back then, were basically the leaders of their faculties, and who are now professionals in their own fields and part of this network I’m talking about. So I have contacts who are much younger than me, who came from those assemblies, they’re the same age as my daughter and so on, and they’re doctors (does that mean in contrast to te young ones? So maybe then say, and there are also?, psychologists, people from the humanities, so we have friendly contacts to go to and seek support from if needed”.

Belgium

Support networks

Establishing networks of support, connecting people who are still exploring their transness to people with more experience.

“So this is a trans organization that has senior buddies and junior buddies. So someone who is newer is connected to someone who has a lot of experience. They can ask for advice, or help, ask about anything really.”

“Holding space” or “making space” – creating safe spaces for trans people

The work of caring for trans and queer communities was often described as “holding space” or “making space” for trans and queer people in reaction to the lack of space trans people have in society to be themselves. This could be the creation of physical trans-friendly spaces, such as a party.

“making nightlife a nicer space for us,” making spaces that are needed, be it a physical space or an emotional space to dance, to move, to be together and to be angry.”

Describing a weekend that integrated movements and sports with fundraising and awareness an activist explained “It’s how you can also move your body for your own liberation, but also just to move- and do something for other people.”

Some trans-friendly spaces were established virtually, like chatrooms where questions can be asked or the organization of physical events is facilitated: “And then we somehow, through having this conversation [on the server], we decided we were going to reclaim the Pride, and then a few people got organizing.”

The figure of “holding space” was also employed to describe conversational room for other trans people to talk about their experiences: “I think when I talk to trans people or people that I think are trying to tell me they’re trans […] I leave more space for the person to bring their own experiences.”

Crowdfunding

Raising funds for trans people in precarious positions to help cover general living costs.

“So the thing that we do is that we collect the money. We have a bank account and we also can have money in cash, so we have boxes with cash where people can put cash in different places, like bars who want to help us, or people who organize funding parties. And then we give it to people in need of money, for example, if they need to pay some basic bills, electricity bills, water bills, internet bills, all kinds of things. So this is called ‘SOS Facture’”

Education

According to trans activists, improving trans people’s position in society entailed the education of cisgender people on trans issues: “education is the ultimate form of activism. Because a lot of hate stems from ignorance.” This education is done through storytelling and embodied knowledges. Educating cisgender people also implied a form of care for the audiences: for their audience to be able to receive their message, the participants explained that they have to be as open as possible. One activist conceives this targeted messaging as: “I’ll meet you where you’re at.”

“How will I get you at the place where you start listening to me out of principle? Because you know it is important. Or how will I point you to the principles you already have?”

‪Several people referred to humanizing trans topics as a crucial strategy in their teaching:

“sharing your own story and the experiences of people in a human way.”

“questioning the stereotypes and questioning what media say about us and help also deconstruct like false ideas about trans people and transness by using personal testimonies.”

‪The motivation to educate cisgender people was mainly related to improving the circumstances for trans and non-binary people: “But for that one person maybe in that class who is a trans person themselves or who struggles with their sexuality or something […] And the people around that, they contribute to that.”

Sweden

Community care

In light of the political situation in Sweden, which activists define as relatively hopeless in the sense that they did not see that the immediate future would bring a feminist or antiracist turn in politics, many turned to their immediate communities for resistance and caring practices. This often included an acknowledgement of feelings of hopelessness, and that there was a potential of transformation evolving from this shared sense of hopelessness, but also alliances between different marginalized groups.

“When I talk to many friends who feel hopeless, when I feel very hopeless and broken by everything that happens, I still try to feel the feelings. Like I said, you can cry, scream, be angry, be very sad. And try to be in that anger. And find others who also feel hopeless but still feel I must do something. And just get organized. It doesn’t have to be anything super big. It could be, I don’t know, that you read something. You read a book together and discuss it. About alternative futures. Angela Davis writes great stuff. And bell hooks too. You can start by creating change within yourself, if you think that society is so hopeless. I don’t know where to start. But give yourself the opportunity to learn about different strategies and different ways of thinking to then be able to apply it to society, when organizing in different groups, larger groups. Yes, I believe very much in community and organizing. And let yourself be angry.”

“What I see is a terrible death for our planet, I see far-right fascism, but I also see so many damn connections between different sides. For example, just one concrete thing, that in the midst of the ongoing genocide that Israel is carrying out, queers have refused to give in, and have said that “this should not be done in our name”. And they have built an alliance with both queer Palestinian comrades but also with the general Palestinian movement. For example, seeing the trans flag waving next to the Palestinian flag, for me that is a such a beautiful thing. I hate flags in general. I think they are absurd. But when they become symbols that we can unite under, I love it.”

Challenging mainstream notions of democracy

Many activists are sceptical of the notion of liberal democracy, arguing that it had been merged with exclusionary notions of “Swedish values”, and had essentially become an empty signifier, which anyone could use without any real meaning or accountability. In light of such critique, some activists also highlighted their own organizational practices of more horizonal forms of decision-making.

“The rhetoric that politicians use is so fucking sick. That they can sort of use nice words that sound like it would be democratic. But once you start to sort of scratch the surface: How democratic is it really to close borders? How democratic is it really to have these stop-and-search zones? How democratic is it really? That NMR [a neo-Nazi movement] and right-wing people get permission to burn Qurans? Or that NMR walks in front of the synagogue in Gothenburg? How democratic is it really?”

“I would say that we work in my group with a fairly democratic, inclusive way, for decision-making and so on. We work quite a lot with feminist meeting practices. That means that you have a lot of rounds, so that everybody gets a chance to speak. That means that we may strive for consensus. But still, we work a lot with a qualified majority. In other groups I have been in, you have “check-in rooms”, where we check what everyone feels and thinks in the group. You try to have a power-critical perspective. How is everything in the group? How is power distributed in the group? We all carry traces of both internalized oppression, social structures, and the oppressive orders we live in. Instead of having a meeting chair, you can have meeting facilitators.”

Hungary

Operating from the peripheries

Some individual feminist actors have decided to operate on the peripheries of the feminist movement or within movements that are not specifically feminist in their focus, instead focusing on housing, disability, Roma rights, sustainability, education, etc.

And then, within this proliferation, there is also the redefined, let’s say care-based feminist perspective on the situation of women, or on the kind of society we want. I think this is actually a growing standpoint, but it’s still very weak, because the mainstream women’s movement is reluctant to embrace it. […] there are lots of feminists who, in my view, are perfectly fine feminists, but they are already moving forward with this care-centered approach. In this new space, I think environment, care, women’s issues and many other things converge, because it’s care-based.

[Name of the organization] is really a success story. Women’s organizations often resent the LGBTQ community, saying “that’s what’s trendy now.” But it’s not my fault that young people are more interested in that! So feminism has to be brought into the LGBTQ space, and that’s something I did many times […].

So I think right now feminist struggles can achieve very little. In a generally oppressive system it is extremely difficult to function as a truly feminist organization. Honestly, I’m glad that I don’t work in a feminist—or women’s—organization, because I feel like: what perspective could there be right now? At this moment? When there are so many other forms of oppression that also need to be addressed.

Online Spaces

Online spaces have absorbed a portion of feminist activism, providing a platform for discussions, organizing, and raising awareness on various issues. These digital spaces can offer greater accessibility, allowing activists to reach broader audiences and to do activism from emigration, but they also come with challenges such as online harassment and risk of fragmentation.

Originally, we created the […] Facebook group because we were protesting against transphobia present within both feminism and the LGBTQ community, and we wanted to create a feminist space where transgender people wouldn’t be stigmatized. I had this vision of a space where a mother with one or two children could talk with a drag queen, and they could get to know each other. Or, for example, a religious person could talk with a gay person, or an atheist gay person… These kinds of dialogues happened in the group, so it became very diverse, and at group meetings, we received feedback like one girl saying that after reading things in the [group], she began to address the abuse she had experienced, started her healing process, and sought help… So, I see that we achieved classic feminist goals with [this group], not just LGBTQ ones…

Relocation

For many feminists, creating safer spaces also takes the form of physical relocation. Several activists have already moved abroad while continuing their engagement, while others are preparing or keeping the option open to leave if necessary. Relocation thus emerges as both a strategy for survival and a way to preserve activism under increasingly restrictive conditions in Hungary.

Yes, I’ll never forget this. Many Hungarian feminists—not only those connected to CEU—simply leave the country. A few years ago, during the student protests, I’ll never forget: at the time I was teaching, standing in front of Parliament, and a young man gave a fiery speech about fighting for the freedom of education. Then he added: “Unfortunately, from September I won’t be fighting with you, because I’ll be studying in England—but you should keep fighting.” I couldn’t stop laughing, and in fact, we never heard from him again. I don’t even remember his name. To me this shows how easy it is to leave the country—and many people do. In principle, nothing prevents one from continuing activism from abroad, since most of our work is online. But in practice, that happens less often, or only for a while, and then it fades away.

Italy

Protest

Protesting is a widespread practice in Italian contentious gender politics and entails a various types of actions, including:

demonstrations organized across the country on days with high symbolic relevance, such as the 8th of March (Global Transferminist Strike), the 17th of May (International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia), the 8th of September (International Safe Abortion Day), the 20th of November (Transgender Day of Remembrance), and 25th of November (International Day for Elimination of violence against women);
national demonstrations to stand against the rollback of rights, such as the national demonstration for safe abortion organized in Ancona in 2023;
local demonstrations co-organized with other groups to counter local attacks by far-right groups or local administrations, as well as to stand in solidarity with other communities;
vigils and marches against anti-gender and pro-life organizations, such as during the World Congress of Families in Verona 2019;
alternative pride parades to denounce processes of commodification of LGBTQIA+ struggles through the increased presence of corporations as sponsors and, more recently, of these sponsors complicity with the Palestinian genocide.

Protesting entails not only a reactive dimension to protest against, but also a prefigurative dimension to protest for the construction of a different future by re-imagining the present.

“But the protest is also a collective act of liberation, where we can dance, chant, and be free in the streets – streets where we’re usually not allowed to be free. So, I’m not saying that the future is an eternal March 8th, but yes, in a way. I want bread and roses, meaning I want to be happy, I want to be free to walk through the streets with my comrades in a world that isn’t constantly trying to kill me, or deny me work, or silence me in every possible way. And I want that not just for me, not just for us, but for everyone, for tuttu [translator’s note: ‘tuttu’ is the gender-neutral rendering of the Italian term ‘tutti’, everybody, which in Italian is gendered in the male plural form] for all subjectivities.”

Counselling for trans* people

Trans* organizations engage in direct social actions aimed at providing trans* individuals with legal, psychological and healthcare counselling to shield trans* individuals from possible and probable attacks, aggressions, and invalidation, as well as to direct them to trans*-friendly professionals and healthcare institutions. In doing so, they often collaborate with health institutions at the regional and provincial levels, such as hospitals, clinics, health centers. These collaborations take the shape of agreements (sometimes formal, some other informal) that allow trans* organizations to direct their care recipients to specific institutions and professionals. Furthermore, trans* organizations also organize self-help groups (gruppi AMA – Auto-Mutuo-Aiuto) to provide trans* people with safer spaces in which they can share their experiences, support and advice each other.

“Our main activity is the help desk, run by volunteers. We strive to adopt a peer-to-peer approach: its purpose is to welcome young LGBTQIA+ people, provide information, and offer support. It is not a psychological counseling service, but having the opportunity to talk with someone who has gone through the same or a similar journey still creates a supportive space.”

Mapping

Mappature (mapping processes) are transversally carried out to create and diffuse grassroots information on professionals, hospitals, health centers and institutions that are (not) friendly to be people in need of an abortion and LGBTQIA+, in particular trans* individuals. Within this framework, for years, several organizations have collected information on these aspects and published it online, in the form of lists or through specific websites. While doing so, they have also collected the stories recounted by individuals who wanted to share both positive and negative experiences with the healthcare systems, as well as with professionals. Maps are hence made of lists of (not) friendly professionals and institutions, but also chart direct experiences of individuals dealing with these actors. These narratives aim at providing marginalized communities with shared knowledge that not only safeguards them from aggressions and attacks, but also that allows them to go beyond pathologization and discrimination. By doing so, mapping opens a space for different stories to be recounted, for victim blaming to be deconstructed and for new imaginaries to be envisioned.

“One of the elements that I believe is important to bring in is mapping. […] It’s one of the practices that has been more useful. Mapping in what sense? Mapping, for example, of health centres or hospitals that have staff that is not, perhaps, trans-excluding, but has trained personnel. Or even mapping of hospitals and health centres that have problematic staff, in order to possibly avoid them for those people who rightly don’t want to deal with that, but also to report it.”

Less widespread practices

Reappropriating spaces and institutions

Although less common, Italian trans-feminist organizations report attempts to reappropriate spaces and institutions through a range of transformative and imaginative practices. These practices include, for instance, occupying, even if temporarily, hostile healthcare centres and contaminate it with alternative knowledge coming from the grassroots and from communities directly affected by transphobia, through the dissemination of fanzines and QR codes; subvertising to shed light on institutional white-washing; and occupying buildings to provide self-managed healthcare to trans* people and individuals in need of an abortion.

“We have started to provide help to people in the services [for trans affirmation paths]. And then we started creating a series of fanzines and other fun things to put in the public healthcare centre: stickers, QR codes linking to interesting articles or things we were doing – all useful things. Then, in the latest period […] we said this is a political space indeed, but it is also a place to stay and be oneself.”

Inclusive walks

One organization organized so-called ‘inclusive walks’ in various municipalities to raise awareness among local administrators and policy-makers about the structural challenges faced by disabled individuals in the country, with a particular focus on the mobility barriers embedded in the design of Italian cities.

“In these municipalities we organized universal inclusive walks. What do they consist of? We put some administrators in wheelchairs, we blindfold others and have them accompanied by a blind person, and sometimes we even simulate a hearing disability by simply giving them earplugs. In this way, along the walk, they can experience firsthand the difficulties one encounters when living with these different types of disabilities.”

Scotland/UK

Care

Activists develop practices of looking out for each other, showing care towards the communities that they are part of or work with.

“(…) when we prioritise taking action, to the extent that we completely underprioritise looking out for each other, we ended up in a situation where the next six months, like one action. From almost monthly to like one? Um. And, that, coinciding with that, not looking after each other at all.”

Single-issue focus

Some organisations have a strong ‘single-issue’ focus which they see as helpful for organising and to avoid distractions.

“I think [the organisation’s] strength, and this is why I was so passionately against expanding it to homeowners. Is that we have a razor-sharp focus on a specific slate of issues. So for example, when lockdown happened, it was really clear what we needed to do. It was obvious that we needed to stop evictions. That was like, it was really clear. But if we’ve not been a tenants’ union, there wouldn’t be that obvious.”

“(…) when we set up the Whatsapp group, y’know, the things that have come up, that we feel we should be involved (**), all the Palestine protests, or, um, earlier on a few years ago, like Black Lives Matter stuff, there will be huge protests where people go, oh, this is the anti-raids groups, they will agree with us, we should post in the Whatsapp. And we are, just very consistent with going, we can share things on our social media, but we are not using that group for that. And being quite single issued, it almost helps rule out what we think we should get involved in, which helps also, to not burn us out.”

Avoid perfection

Being able to work with people who do not have the exact same views as you, especially when there is more need to have a strong front against fascism.

“I think it is kind of a problem, that struggle for perfection. And uh… yknow, if you don’t agree with me 100% I cannot work with you. And I see that so many times and its like, its difficult to build a unified, that’s why I like trade unions, in trade unions you have to work with people you don’t like. Who you don’t, y’know, members of different parties… they are not Tories obviously.”

“In the sense that we are all autonomous members in this and we all work to it, and, if we’re too tired to do a stall this week? Don’t do the stall this week. If we, don’t have enough-, we’ve missed meetings in our monthly meetings because we’re like, well there’s not quite enough people. Shall we meet, maybe me and another person to go through some actions? Ok. Like, we’re pretty, we’re pretty relaxed about our limitations. Which I guess I’ll put in the successes, which is that this exists because we’re relaxed about our limitations.”

Poland

Civil disobedience

Civil disobedience is an expression of opposition to political actions, manifested through individual motivations to engage in activist practices, serving as an impulse for collective action.

“I’m quite a typical example of someone who got into activism probably through something the community identified as rebellion, and then it just became a form of resistance against what was happening. I come from a very Catholic, very conservative family, from a smaller town, one that is extremely queerphobic.”

“The first strikes, street protests of any kind that I ever witnessed were during the Women’s Strike, and I was so deeply impressed by all those women who went to the streets then. Because, after all, coming out to protest in a small town is a total act of courage, no matter what anyone says about it.”

Social disobedience refers to actions situated at the margins of the law, interpreted as practices undertaken within a legal ‘grey zone’ and understood as an expression of opposition to ‘unjust laws’.

“Non-governmental organisations in Poland working in the area of supporting refugees and migrants are essentially doing the job the state should be doing.”

“[Name of the collective] performs the work that the state itself should be doing, namely ensuring access to abortion for all people, rather than leaving this responsibility to activists.”

“To join activism, you need to understand that it involves risks. For example, here we don’t include people for whom the potential legal consequences would cross an important boundary. If someone is planning an academic, political, or other career in fields where background checks matter, they would unfortunately need to step away. It’s a potential scenario, but it’s always a possibility.”

Network-building as a strategy of coping within a criminalized reality

“But it’s a sort of an informal coalition of many different sub-organisations and informal collectives. It was formed in response to the situation at the border, initiated mainly by large organisations that had previously been working on migration issues in Poland, though not on humanitarian aid, as such organisations didn’t really exist before.”

A specific form of network-building: the creation of ‘octopus’ structures

“We deliberately create a bit of confusion by calling ourselves different entities, precisely to make it harder to track us [laughs]. There are quite a lot of organisations, but at the same time, it’s like an octopus with numerous tentacles. (…) There is group that chose visibility, and that decision stems from protecting those who can’t opt for visibility because they live in anti-abortion communities, don’t want to create conflicts within their families, or fear stigmatisation. That’s why we organised it this way.”