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Key findings:

• 81 % of respondents experienced psychological violence – the most common forms were threats of violence (61 %), intimidating behaviour, and verbal attacks (56 %), 53 % encountered sexist or sexualized remarks
• 42 % of respondents experienced sexualized violence, mainly in the form of sexual harassment
• 11 % reported experiencing physical and economic violence
• age as a risk factor – younger respondents (aged under 40) experience all forms of violence to a greater extent
• threats and intimidating behaviour are more likely to be directed at those women MPs who work on human rights issues
• self-censorship – 28 % of female MPs limited their public activity due to fear of hate speech and attacks
• gender-based difference – 89 % of respondents believe that attacks on women politicians differ from those on male politicians and are often more sexualized and personal
• low reporting rates – particularly regarding threats and sexualized harassment
• dissatisfaction with the effectiveness of existing tools – 27 % of respondents consider protective mechanisms insufficient
• the online space was identified as the primary setting for hate speech

Key findings:

• high prevalence of online hate – nearly half of women politicians report that online attacks discourage them from public appearances
• categorization of hate speech (unique to the Czech context) – sexism (questioning competence, attacks on motherhood); objectification and sexualization; threats of sexual violence and physical harm; dissemination of disinformation, personal data, and manipulated quotes
• main triggers for attacks – criticism of Russia, support for Ukraine, expressing opinions on migration, feminism
• weak legal response – courts often question the public nature of social networks, the reach of the content, or the intent of the perpetrators
• case study – attacks on Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Markéta Pekarová Adamová, includingthreats and publishing her address
• recommendations – strengthen legal definitions of online hate, improve prevention, education, and the responsibility of platforms and state institutions

Main findings and identified gaps:

• no systematic tools for data collection and a lack of relevant studies or research
• however, from the information available, the following conclusions:
  • women in politics in the Czech Republic are frequently targeted by various forms of violence, especially psychological and online violence
  • the online space is the dominant setting for VAWP
  • significant age differences exist in experiences with violence
  • low reporting rates hinder effective legal protection
• substantial data gaps
  • no systematic monitoring of VAWP at regional and local levels
  • lack of research on the impact of violence on election candidates, municipal politicians, and women in unelected positions
  • absence of regular statistics collected by the police or courts specifically addressing VAWP
  • intersectional aspects of violence (ethnicity, age, orientation) are not being tracked
  • lack of comparative analysis with other EU member states

Key findings:

• nearly 90 % of women in the national parliament, the Bundestag, reported experiencing online abuse in 202
• almost 70 % have also faced misogynist threats and comments, i. e., attacks specifically because of their gender

Key findings:

• political violence online contributes to psychological violence and often converges with physical violence
• more than two-thirds of female respondents across all levels have experienced gender-based forms of violence online, including sexist remarks or misogyny as a form of semiotic violence
• almost a quarter (24 %) of politically active women have been threatened with sexualized violence such as threats of rape (whereas only 3 % of men participating in the study share those experiences)
• nearly every second politically active woman (45 %) is affected by gender-based and sexual harassment offline
• gendered differences are most apparent when it comes to threats of physical violence, such as beatings or murder, such threats have been described by 43 % of women, 10 % fewer than among the male respondents
• cyber violence carries over into the analog sphere: 71 % of politicians have experienced at least one incident of offline violence in addition to cyber violence, moreover, 45 % of female respondents who experienced violence online have also experienced sexual and gender-based violence, including sexual harassment, offline – with the instances being related to being politically active
• roughly 20 % of women receive unsolicited pictures of genitals online; another 25 % are afraid that they might be confronted with fake intimate pictures (sexualized deep fakes) or actual recordings of intimate situations disseminated without their consent
• almost 50 % of women (from all political levels) surveyed felt that online violence affected their political activity negatively
• moreover, 49 % of women politicians who experienced cyber violence have at least thought about declining a position/running for a specific office because of a likely increased exposure to threats online and offline
• some, roughly twice as many women as men, have considered quitting politics altogether
• only 24 % of women respondents feel like their institutions (e. g., parties) have sufficient resources to deal with digital violence, and 38 % do not have any information on whether or not there are any resources or support mechanisms available
• when it comes to the needs of people affected, the majority of women (2/3) said that they did not feel sufficiently prepared to deal with digital violence and its consequences
• additionally, 59 % would like to see support in the form of more solidarity within their party or communities
• only 24 % of women respondents feel like their institutions (e. g., parties) have sufficient resources to deal with digital violence, and 38 % do not have any information on whether or not there are any resources or support mechanisms available
• women seem more likely to try to distance themselves mentally from the incident (83 % of women compared to 78 % of men)
• almost half of the women affected online choose to confront the perpetrator or suspect
• judicial responses are often perceived as inadequate, which leads to judicial training and increased political will to act being a common recommendation
• for digital violence, 29 % of women in politics identified attacks as coming from politicians from other parties, 16 % even from within their own party
• about 30 % of respondents have filed criminal complaints, and an additional 8% have filed complaints under civil law
• although the majority of people affected do not seek legal redress for various reasons, some underrepresented groups tend to make more use of those avenues, e. g., politicians with a so-called migrant background or from lower socio-economic classes
• hurdles and resources for those groups might be particularly scarce, but the necessity is evidenced by HateAid’s 2023 transparency report: 522 criminal complaints, 117 legal warnings, and 33 civil suits were filed using their solidarity-based model of litigation funding
• one of the biggest challenges that remain, however, is identifying the perpetrator(s), in cases of online violence, harassment often occurs anonymously through private profiles or pseudonyms; sometimes it is even carried out by bots or trolls (as reported by 54 % of women respondents)
• online violence, as another pervasive form of violence, usually peaks during electoral campaigns, although it affects most male politicians, too
• protection measures for newly campaigning candidates are often described as inadequate; there is a need for (party) resources to be allocated for prevention courses, measures, and assistance in managing incidents
• online, politically active women frequently receive comments and reactions that center on specific markers such as their religion (as well as age, appearance, and relationship status)
• regarding other minoritized genders, few studies provide data for non-binary respondents or consider the third option for gender identities in Germany (“diverse”), the majority of respondents who self-identified their gender as “diverse” experienced cyber violence, thirty-one percent even received threats of physical and sexual violence

Key findings:

• psychological violence appears to be the most commonly experienced form of violence, which coincides with EU-wide data on violence against women in politics
• 32 % of respondents have experienced violence during their political career, and of those that suffered some type of violence 29 % experienced cyberviolence
• only 29 % of those affected by violence had reported experiencing different types of violences, which may not only undermine their personal well-being but also their potential participation in politics *

Key findings:

• women mayors and district administrators are significantly more affected than men (38 % vs. 28 %)
• full-time politicians, even at the local level, were more affected than voluntary or part-time politicians (39 % vs. 20 %), especially in urban areas (40 % vs. 29 % in rural areas)
• women politicians are more affected by threats against members of their family
• across all genders, 83 % of respondents to among mayors and district administrators feel that their personal safety and political career are threatened by disinformation or “deep fakes”
• 81 % of those affected suffer from psychological and/or physical consequences
• 26 % report verbal or written offenses that relate to their physical appearance, 11 % specifically relate to their gender as a reason or point for verbal and written abuse
• 25 % politicians affected ignore the incident
• overall, 75 % of mayors and district administrators surveyed consider it necessary to implement further measures to protect local political officials and elected representatives
• in 79 % of cases, the suspects in the most recent incident were known to those affected, fifty-two percent of the suspects appear to be repeat offenders, ost suspects (78 %) were male, between 40 and 59 years old, and residents of the respective municipality
• women mayors and district administrators were significantly affected by violence during the 2024 European Parliament elections and regional elections in the East German states of Thuringia, Saxony, and Brandenburg, most commonly, verbal harassment and slander, destruction of property, threats of violence, and discrimination were reported, moreover, incidents of stalking, sexual harassment, and sexualized violence, as well as threats of rape
• the political climate and culture of discussion are described as rougher in the eastern part of Germany (the territory of the former GDR), more mayors and district administrators report on attacks online and offline in East Germany than in West Germany (45 % vs. 33 %)

Key findings:

• the total budgets available for successful candidates show that women in the CDU, on average, have more than € 10,000 less available than male candidates in their party
• particularly, funding secured via donations is, on average, 13.000 € less than for men in the CDU
• when parties themselves contribute to financing campaigns, men, on average, get twice as much as women in the CDU
• typically, candidates are expected to include their personal capital
• successful women candidates in both the CDU and SPD contributed more private capital than men, although the differences here are lower than in the other two sources of campaign funding (between € 1,300 for women in the CDU and € 1,600 for women in the SPD)

Key findings:

• roughly a third of local politicians in cities above 100.000 inhabitants admit to having changed their behavior because of threats and assaults; 26 % have even done so without having been targets of violence themselves
• more significantly, this affects women, people from minoritized backgrounds (e. g., people of color or with a statistical “migration background” – according to the Federal Statistical Office of Germany (DeStatis), a person has a migration background if they themselves or at least one of their parents were not born with German citizenship), and people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds more strongly
• women (as well as people with a so-called “migration background” or from lower socioeconomic classes) are significantly more likely to change their behavior because of threats and attacks against them or their loved ones
• women seem to be less likely to stay silent (10.4 % vs. 18.4 % men)
• more women than men seek advice from family members and friends (69.8 % vs 59.3 % of men) or from party colleagues (67.5 % of women vs. 56.7 % of men)

Key findings:

• in 2023, political violence against women for misogynistic reasons, and in which the perpetrator could be identified, was overwhelmingly (72.8 %) committed by men over the age of 30
• in 2023, 180,715 female victims were recorded in the field of domestic violence – 5.6 percent more than in the previous year
• in sexual offenses, 52,330 female victims were recorded, an increase of 6.2 percent compared to 2022
• 17,193 women were affected by digital violence, 25 percent more than in 2022
• police recorded 938 homicides of women, nine more than the previous year, the homicides of 360 women and girls were completed, and 247 of these victims were victims of domestic violence
• in the case group of human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation, 591 female victims were registered, 6.9 percent more than in the previous year
• politically motivated crimes against women are covered as a subsection under hate crimes – misogyny, the number of recorded misogynistic offenses has increased by 56.3 % compared to the previous year; 45 % of all misogynistic crimes were committed out of a right-wing motivation, and another 42.2 % cannot be attributed to a motivation under the categories of the monitoring, nine percent of all politically motivated misogynistic crimes were registered as violent crimes
• in 2023 and 2022, 37.7 % of offenses were committed online
• for politicians from lower economic classes, although, overall, women seem to file charges less than men (22.6 % vs. 27.7 %)
• physical violence seems to be experienced more frequently by politicians from lower socio-economic classes than by colleagues from other classes in urban areas
• although only a tiny number of non-binary local politicians have been surveyed in 2022, 77 % (10 out of N=13) have personally been targets of insults, threats, and even physical assault ‘

Key findings:

• the President of the previous legislative period, Bärbel Bas (Social Democrats, SPD), has commented on a significant deterioration of the discussion climate since the party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD – on May 2, 2025, the party was classified as an extremist right-wing party by the German Domestic Intelligence Services (BfV), the party subsequently filed a lawsuit and an emergency appeal, which led to the BfV suspending the classification for the time being, a final decision on the classification needs to be made by a court) entered the Bundestag in 2017: “It has become more aggressive, it has become more discriminatory towards the MPs themselves. And I think that‘s a big difference compared to previous years.”
• she added that one of the consequences of testing the waters with sexist comments, discriminatory, and disrespectful language is a shift of the boundaries towards what can publicly be said, ultimately, this would also result in action that goes beyond verbal attacks

Key findings:

• political violence recently spiked during electoral campaigns
• ultimately, there seems to be a shift occurring where more MPs and prominent politicians are affected rather than “just” local representatives

Key findings:

• within the German super election year of 2024, reported attacks against political representatives spiked 30 % compared to the previous year
• among the reported crimes against elected officials, party members, and campaign volunteers, insults and bodily harm follow property destruction as the most common offenses

Key findings:

• verbal attacks against politicians have been publicly framed as part of the job, covered by free speech, or even as a legitimate expression of frustration from isolated individuals who have taken it too far, if a person, specifically a woman, could not handle it, they were considered the problem
• 16.8 % of women interviewed have received sexist comments online (whereas only 3.1 % of male respondents received such comments)
• it might be more difficult for women to acquire the means for electoral campaigns when running for mayor as well as at the regional and national levels, this more indirect form of discrimination, however, is often due to underlying gendered dynamics of poverty and resource allocation as well as a perceived legitimacy or entitlement to fundraise for one’s own benefit
• younger women politicians (under the age of 45) receive the highest number of sexist online attacks (35.7 %)

Key findings

• although members of the AfD are themselves victims of political violence and attacks online and offline at a large scale, many of the affected victims form other parties identify the AfD as perpetrators or allude to them as drivers of an increasingly discriminatory and misogynist political climate in the Bundestag, 64 % of female MPs received misogynist threats in 2021, mostly online 36 % of MPs experienced attacks against their offices or private homes, although this number was summarized along with physical assaults

Key findings:

• politicians and activists face extensive and organized harassment
  • ranging from misogynistic smear campaigns and sexualized disinformation to threats and doxxing
  • often amplified through social media platforms, especially Facebook, hese platforms have failed to implement effective moderation or fact-checking mechanisms in Hungary, allowing the spread of gendered abuse with impunity
• many of the most prominent critics of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s concentration of power are women, which makes them frequent targets of digital hate campaigns, as the authors put it, “it comes as no surprise that they have been at the center of his online disinformation and hate campaigns, which in turn are becoming an ever more prominent aspect of Hungary’s slide towards authoritarianism (page 4)”
• Orbán’s own 2015 statement —“women cannot stand the stress” of politics — is cited as a high-level example of sexism in Hungarian political culture, the government has responded to criticism about gender imbalance by engaging in what the report calls genderwashing — appointing a few highly visible women, such as President Katalin Novák, who are fully aligned with its anti-gender ideology and promote a traditional, heteronormative vision of society (page 9)
• Hungarian MP Zita Gurmai describes the current political environment as “extremely violent, ”where“ ad hominem attacks are the norm, not the exception”, according to the report, this toxic atmosphere deters women from entering or remaining in politics, thus eroding democratic participation and gender equality (page 13)
• gendered disinformation has become an ever more common tactic in Hungary to attack “strong, empowered women,” reports Anna Fejős, a sociologist who has researched online hate speech in Hungary, including women in politics, as well as women’s rights and LGBTQIA+ rights activists (page 15)
• the most common disinformation narratives against women in politics in Hungary involve being untrustworthy (e. g., being a foreign agent – often somehow tied to George Soros – or having misappropriated public funds for personal gain) or unqualified (e. g., stupid, superficial or a weak puppet for powerful male leaders on the left), as a result, the women targeted “are simultaneously depicted as ‘ugly’ and ‘stupid,’ but also ‘dangerous,’ in the sense that they aim to destroy conservative norms
• according to Fejős, these disinformation campaigns build on sexism in society and perpetuate gender stereotypes that promote “conservative roles for women,” and attack those who dare to deviate from the “norm (page 16)”
• targeted most viciously are women in opposition politics, particularly those who defy Orbán’s actions, support LGBTQI+ rights and women’s rights, fight against racism or call out anti-Semitic behavior