Ghosts in the closet: anti-gender rhetoric and conspiracy theories in Georgia’s European Union accession

‘Anti-gender’ has become a rallying cry for many populist radical-right parties and movements across Europe and the world. Georgia’s ruling party, ‘Georgian Dream’, is no exception to this. However, ‘Georgian Dream’ has gone further by undermining the country’s European Union (EU) accession with anti-gender conspiracy theories. This article does not ask whether this is a reasonable or legitimate strategy. Instead, it puts the focus on the asymmetry between internal EU decision making and the expectations expressed vis-à-vis EU accession candidates. It finds that misgivings experienced by some EU member states in the Council of the EU are now directly feeding into the rhetoric of EU-hostile third-country governments.