Selective Equality: Social Democratic Parties and the Referendums on Same-Sex Marriage in Eastern Europe

One of the core principles of social democracy is equality between citizens. However, in Europe, several social democratic parties have recently supported referendums against same-sex marriage. This article aims to examine the factors which drove left-wing parties to disregard the principle of equality by comparing the four most recent same-sex marriage referendums—in Croatia, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia—between 2013 and 2018. The results of the qualitative analysis indicate that this behaviour can be explained by a combination of electoral decisions, government strategies and other ideological components.