The resilience of the European Union's values: article 2 TEU and subnational gender dissidence in Poland
The resilience of the European Union's values: article 2 TEU and subnational gender dissidence in Poland

Summary/Abstract: The values of the European Union (Art. 2, TEU) protect Member States against democratic backsliding with a strong focus on the rule of law. In Poland, the Law and Justice (PiS) party, in power from 2015-2023, threatened the rule of law and gender equality, while advocates for gender equality fought to safeguard these principles. Using this example, this article explores structural and social-normative factors that enable or hinder gender concerns' access to the EU, starting at the subnational level. Gender representation and policies in Poland's 2018 local elections and their bottom-up translatability to EU institutions show that the resilience of EU values depends on national provisions. Furthermore, the role of the European Commission and the Court of Justice of the European Union in supporting gender equality and the rule of law display how bottom-up dissidence and top-down EU approaches interact in developing resilience against democratic backsliding in EU Member States. These dependencies show that Member States have a responsibility in providing the conditions for gender dissidence to flourish. This can be achieved through the promotion of educational diversity and the development of legal frameworks that allow traditional gender norms to be challenged at the local, regional, and national levels.

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