‘Strongwomen’ lead Europe’s far right. This political scientist investigates
Macho, male leaders lead authoritarian movements worldwide. A Northeastern professor analyzes why Europe’s far right finds success with ‘feminine, nurturing’ leaders
There is an image that comes to mind when you think of a far-right leader: It’s a man. He’s strong, he’s firm, he’s very authoritative. That’s the image projected by Russia’s Vladimir Putin, U.S. President Donald Trump and Turkey’s longtime leader Recep Erdoğan, explained political scientist Marianna Griffini. But in Europe, two of the most successful far-right leaders are mothers who build their public persona by posting TikToks where they hold flowers and decorate Christmas trees with hot pink baubles.
Meet the “strongwoman.” This new archetype of the far-right was recently described by Griffini in a paper that analyzed messages posted on social media by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Marine Le Pen, president of France’s far-right National Rally, and a runner-up in the country’s 2022 presidential election.
“Strongwomen are women leaders on the far right or radical right who mix some typically feminine traits with traits that are typical of strongmen” Grifinni, an assistant professor in international relations and anthropology at Northeastern University London told Northeastern Global News. Traditional strongmen are authoritarian leaders who present themselves as tough and commanding, she said. “Strongwomen express these traits, too, but are reported as compassionate, caring, feminine, nurturing, and maternal.”
As part of their study, Griffini and her coauthor analyzed hundreds of TikTok and X posts by Meloni and Le Pen in the run up to their elections in 2022, along with their political manifestos, to describe their shared attributes and their crucial differences.
Griffini spoke with NGN about how female leaders are reshaping Europe’s radical right, what TikTok reveals about populist appeal and whether upcoming elections could make 2027 the year of the “strongwoman.”
The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What prompted you to analyze these messages and manifestos?
GRIFFINI: In 2022, we were witnessing the rise of women at the helm of far-right parties. Both France and Italy held elections that year, in which Meloni became Prime Minister and Le Pen got to the final runoff in the Presidential election.
There has been a lot of analysis about the traits of strongmen leaders and we were asking: can we adapt this understanding we have of male leaders to analyze women leaders of the far right? We analyzed party manifestos and their personal social media accounts, including TikTok, which has received less attention in academic literature. Compared to manifestos, social media communication is personalized, which was particularly interesting because a personalized kind of politics – in which leaders make direct and unmediated appeals to voters – is very typical of radical-right populism.
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What do these two “strongwomen” have in common and where do they differ?
GRIFFINI: Both Giorgia Meloni and Marine Le Pen mix some typically feminine traits with traits that are typical of strongmen like Trump, Putin, and Erdogan. Both create gender hierarchies that claim that a woman’s primary role is defined by motherhood and women should be subordinated to men within a traditional heterosexual family. But they do differ. Meloni is also more anti-abortion and more restrictive in terms of rights for LGBTQ+ people, for example making it illegal for same-sex parents in Italy to adopt.
In the posts we analyzed, Le Pen is more liberal on these issues. In contrast to Meloni, she is more likely to claim her policies aim to protect migrant women from being oppressed by migrant men, for example by banning cultural practices like the hijab.
It’s important to say that strongmen are characteristically authoritarian – leaders like Putin have eroded democratic checks and balances to centralize authority. Meloni and Le Pen, meanwhile, are still holding elections, still abiding by democratic principles.
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What did TikTok tell you?
GRIFFINI: On TikTok, where politicians communicate through short videos, there’s a kind of “hyper-personalization,” because you can see them and listen to their messages packaged in easily consumable bits.
Georgia Meloni used to have a series called Gli appunti di Giorgia (“Giorgia’s Notes”) where she recorded herself explaining some of her party’s policies or stances, to try to appeal to ordinary people on a gut level. It had a very direct style that aimed for emotional impact, for instance, generating fear of immigrants, disgust at opponents or distrust for social elites. This is typically populist but these videos also allow strongwomen to portray themselves as maternal figures, such as Le Pen visiting a country fair and being offered a bunch of flowers by a local schoolgirl, and Meloni decorating a Christmas tree that’s all pink, with pink baubles, alongside her daughter.
Has the U.S. far-right played a role in the emergence of these figures?
GRIFFINI: The Tea Party [a conservative, populist political movement that emerged in 2009] and [2008 vice presidential candidate] Sarah Palin are mentioned a lot in the academic literature along with this notion of hockey moms and Mama Grizzlies, which portray women as fierce defenders of children and traditional values.
If we look at the female figures appointed by Trump, they often have this hyper-feminized aesthetic. They have high heels, blow-dried hair, heavy eye makeup, and visible cosmetic enhancements, which all depict them as both powerful and hyper-feminine.
Both France and Italy are set to hold elections next year. Could 2027 be the year of the strongwoman?
GRIFFINI: In Italy, Meloni’s party Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) is topping the polls. The traditional hardcore far-right voters were typically men but she has managed to broaden her electorate, partly thanks to mother-friendly policies and services, such as affordable nurseries and benefits for working mothers. The so-called “far right gender gap” has been narrowing – more women are voting for these parties and women are more represented in these parties – although their policies often specifically target mothers rather than women in general.
Marine Le Pen is also leading the polls but her situation is less clear. Last year, she was found guilty of embezzling European Union funds and given a four-year sentence which would have prevented her from running in 2027. But in July, an appeals court reduced the length of the sentence, clearing the way for her to run again. If she becomes president, this figure of the strongwoman will become even more prominent.
