Defend every inch of democracy

In his State of the Union address, Joe Biden said that, in his opinion, democracy and freedom in the United States are under attack like never before “since President Lincoln and the Civil War.”

Is right.

The possibility of a Trump return to power is a huge risk.

Biden also highlighted the threats that democracy faces elsewhere.

Indeed, the global outlook is not promising.

The annual study by

The Economist Intelligence Unit

(published in February) recorded, once again, a deterioration in global democratic quality, aggravating an almost uninterrupted path of decline since 2015.

As far as the EU is concerned, the report's verdict for Western Europe – a category that includes much of the bloc – was one of stability between 2022 and 2023, but the region remains clearly below the peak quality reached in 2008. Overall , apocalyptic visions are unjustified.

But there is no room for complacency.

The reasons for concern are multiple.

On the side of government action, beyond extremes such as Hungary's brutal authoritarian drift, we are witnessing the emergence of disturbing episodes, such as the maneuvers of the Slovak Prime Minister, Robert Fico, who has just closed the special anti-corruption prosecutor's office, or those that have won Greece a European Parliament resolution expressing concerns about press freedom, police treatment of migrants and wiretapping of political opponents.

On the voters' side, we saw very strong abstention rates in the last elections in France and Italy, a clear symptom of disengagement.

A study published at the end of February by the Pew Center (with some 31,000 respondents in 24 countries) provides other valuable data about democratic disaffection.

Among them, two very interesting ones about Spain: it is the country of the 24 under study in which the percentage of respondents who consider that politicians do not care what people like them think is highest (85%, compared to an average of 74%);

and it is one of the countries in which, compared to an equivalent X-ray done in 2017, the percentage of those who favorably consider a Government of technicians instead of politicians has increased the most (it was 49% in favor and the same number against then ; now 65% see it well, and only 34% see it badly).

On the voters' side, of course, we must also take note of the rise in extremist voting.

Today, in Germany, AfD, a party with extremely disturbing components, is second in voting intention.

On the left, a formation skeptical of climate change and reluctant to support Ukraine is taking shape.

In Italy, Meloni is governing more pragmatically than some thought, but it is a fact that the political landscape is dominated by eccentric forces and not particularly reassuring in terms of prospects for reinforcing an unsatisfactory democracy (lower quality, according to the EIU , than those of France, Germany or Spain).

The diagnosis has no secrets.

Many are disgusted with how European democracies have handled phenomena such as globalization or immigration.

Serious episodes of corruption outrage.

Polarization, fueled by social networks, is rampant, making consensual and moderate political action difficult.

Slowness and ineffectiveness of democratic responses in an increasingly turbulent, changing and dizzying world create frustration.

Of course, there are lights on the horizon.

EU democracies responded in solidarity to the pandemic crisis.

Poland managed to free itself at the polls from the promoters of a terrifying authoritarian drift.

France has just sent a wonderful message by rising above the often pathetic partisan trenches to enshrine by an overwhelming majority in the Constitution the right of women to abortion.

But the threats are serious, we cannot help but see that we incubate viruses, that the defense of democracy requires constant effort and a generous and courageous disposition.

In a forum recently published in this newspaper, the president of Brazil.

Luis Inácio Lula da Silva defended that “the response to attacks on democracy is to improve people's lives.”

You are of course right.

Public services that guarantee social cohesion, as he promotes in his country, are essential.

It is also important to respond to attacks on democracy, such as Russia's in Ukraine, with tanks.

If he is not sending tanks or sanctioning the aggressor, at least equidistances between the aggressor and the attacked, which he has publicly marked, should be avoided.

Democracy cannot be taken for granted.

You have to defend it inch by inch.

We are all called to do this, each one within their capabilities.

In the EU there is a lot of internal work to be done, especially to overcome the disease of a festering polarization, far from collective interest and verifiable data, which some encourage without scruple, and in which many others end up feeding the spiral.

But there is also a way to defend against external threats.

There is one—Russia, with military support from Iran and North Korea, and political-economic support from China—that demands that we not look the other way.

Subscribe to continue reading

Read without limits

Keep reading

I am already a subscriber

_