ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the book’s theoretical framework, mapping out the core categories, the methodology used and the material analyzed. It outlines the concept of opportunistic synergy, explaining how ultraconservative forces use and abuse the term “gender” and how they cooperate with right-wing populists, aiming for a wide-scale elite change. An overview of existing conceptualizations of populism and the “populist moment” is provided. The book defines populism as a dynamic process, wherein different actors frame their positions juxtaposing the people vs elites, and varying ideologies are employed to saturate this frame. The key role of affects and emotions in right-wing populism is examined, including anger, shame and pride. The idea of a necessary symbiosis between neoliberalism and conservatism is challenged: it is argued that right-wing populists gain support by mobilizing resentment against neoliberalism, both as an economic paradigm and as a cultural project based on economization and individualism. Anti-gender movements build a sweeping equation between feminism and individualism; an equivalence that may have stronger resonance in Eastern Europe than in most Western contexts.
