Anti-Discrimination Policy in an Era of Populism

In the 2014 book, Legislating Equality, we examined the development of anti-discrimination policy in Europe, which closely mirrored European Union deepening in the 1990s. In the 1980s and early 1990s, racist acts of violence and the stunning success of radical right political parties across Europe catapulted the issues of immigration, xenophobia, fascism, and racism to the forefront. The European Parliament was only beginning to take on a more important role in the supranational structures that were under construction during the 1980s, but it would play a key role in the development of an anti-racism agenda and what would ultimately become racial anti-discrimination policy for the European Union. In this paper, I will revisit developments in anti-discrimination policy and the role of the European Parliament in the context of the increased support for populist parties in Europe and the success of Donald Trump in the United States. For example, how has the increase in representatives of anti-immigrant politicians in the European Parliament impacted policy and legislation related to discrimination?