Hijack or release? On the heuristic limits of the frame of instrumentalization of religion for discussing the entanglements of populism, religion, and gender

ABSTRACT

In the Manichaean discourse of the radical-right populist parties, both religion and gender play a role in the discursive process of ‘othering’. At the same time, on some occasions, populist discourse also mobilises Christianity and gender equality against immigrants, which has been interpreted through the frames of hijacking or instrumentalization. In this paper, I advance two arguments: first, I illustrate the relevance of the literature on secularisation to finetune the analysis of the entanglements of populism, religion and gender, to overcome the ‘hijacking’ frame; second, I make a plea for a socio-constructivist perspective, which pays attention to how the actors make sense of their religious-political engagement and try to avoid paternalistic interpretations. Empirical analysis focuses on the discourse of the supporters of Matteo Salvini, the leader of the Italian radical-right populist party Lega Nord, on Instagram, showing the intersections of religion and gender.

KEYWORDS:

• Populism
• religion
• gender
• Italy
• digital media
• Instagram

Acknowledgments

I wish to thank the anonymous reviewers, Cristian Norocel, David Herbert, Hande Eslen-Ziya and the participants to University of Stavanger Fringe Talks, Anna Carola Freschi and the participants to the University of Siena Lunch Seminars for their helpful comments, suggestions and criticisms.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. This article is concerned with the most diffused interpretation of ‘instrumentalization’. According to another perspective, the RRPPs’ discourse is instrumental insofar as it selectively mobilises only certain aspects of Christian political discourse (Diotallevi 2016).

2. https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/2018-03/elezioni_politiche_2018_-_analisi_post-voto_ipsos-twig_0.pdf

3. https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/06/20/papa-dont-preach-Italy-matteo-salvini-pope-francis-vatican-immigration-league-lega/

4. I excluded the posts in which the religious element was not central to the image such as, for example, pictures of Salvini with a crucifix in the background.

5. ‘Religious hierarchy (roles or perceptions of recognized religious or community leaders), religious structures (community structures, patterns of practice, or official organizations), religious ideology (commonly held beliefs, ideas of faith, or shared identity) or religious texts (recognized teachings or official religious books such as the Koran, Torah, or Bible)’. (Campbell 2007, 1048).

6. In turn, this echoes the changes in the political regimes of truth, including the relevance of political ‘honesty’ and the judicialization of politics, which, however, exceeds the scope of the article.