Main Findings
- Overall, 71% of all respondents, both globally and in the five countries, reported having experienced violence from the public, whether online, offline or both.
- Violence is heavily concentrated online, with between 65% and 77% of MPs in the five countries reporting online abuse.
- The most common forms of public intimidation overall reported by MPs are insults and degrading language, the spread of false or misleading information, and threats.
- Most respondents believe that the situation is deteriorating. In Argentina and the Netherlands, 8 out of 10 MPs reported an increase in violence over the past five years.
- Online violence is frequently triggered by elections, high-profile legislative debates or polarizing political or cultural issues.
- Women are more affected than men: 76% of women MPs across the case studies reported exposure to violence, compared to 68% of men.
- Women are disproportionately affected by gendered and sexualized forms of violence, especially online.
- MPs who belong to minority or disadvantaged groups – including racial minorities, people with disabilities and LGBTQIA+ communities – face even greater exposure to online violence.
When the public turns hostile: Political violence against parliamentarians
If the approach is just “look for evil people and then destroy them”, or “if politicians piss the people off, and they’ll come for their head”, it’s likely to produce more evil through the fear that it creates. A good political system is predictable – politicians should know that if they do evil (clearly defined in law), it will become public, and it will have consequences (again, clearly defined in law). This should also apply to all powerful people, not just politicians.
At the end of the day, the goal is to control and counteract certain ambitions, not to create fear.