Punishment over transformation: the depoliticization of gender-based violence under Italy’s far-right government

The article examines how Italy’s current far-right government is reshaping discourse and policy on gender-based violence through processes of depoliticization and the selective appropriation of feminist language. While existing scholarship has analysed anti-gender mobilizations and the appropriation of feminist claims by nationalist actors, this contribution focuses on gender-based violence as a key site of discursive and epistemic redefinition. Drawing on the concept of the anti-gender regime, the article argues that state responses do not dismantle anti-violence policies but rather reconfigure their underlying assumptions, transforming how violence is understood, addressed, and governed. Through a qualitative analysis of recent legislative initiatives, including the so-called Femicide Decree and a draft law introducing mandatory informed consent for gender and sexuality education, the paper identifies four mechanisms driving this shift: the symbolic use of criminal law, the individualization of social problems, the populist reframing of violence, and the strategic deployment of procedural tools to marginalize dissent. Rather than denying gender-based violence, these policies redefine it as an individual and moral issue while limiting structural and educational approaches to prevention. The article contributes to debates on gender and far-right politics by showing how the reframing of feminist issues has become a central dimension of contemporary democratic backsliding.