|
|
“Brexit and the new administration in the U.S. have emboldened anti-democratic populists in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans,” said Nate Schenkkan, project director of Nations in Transit. “A critical mass of leaders in the region openly reject the idea of liberal democracy. Populism increasingly is combining with crude ethnic nationalism in a way that threatens peace in Europe.”
Freedom House researchers score countries on a scale of 1 to 7 in seven categories — national democratic governance; local democratic governance; electoral process; independent media; civil society; judicial framework and independence; and corruption — with 1 being the best score and 7 the worst.
Hungary scored the lowest ranking in terms of democracy in the Central Europe region and Poland recorded its lowest score since the project was started. [...]
“Viktor Orbán of Hungary and Jarosław Kaczyński of Poland openly deride the idea that democracy requires independent institutions or constraints on majority rule,” Schenkkan said. “There is no more important theater for the defense of democracy than Central Europe.”
In the Balkans, Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia and Serbia all dropped down the rankings but Montenegro and Kosovo’s democratic performance improved. Macedonia saw the biggest drop and came close to its 2001 ranking, when “there was violent ethnic conflict in the country.”
According to the 2017 report, the “bright spots” were Ukraine, Romania and Kosovo.
“From the lowest starting point in the Balkans, over the past decade Kosovo has made progress towards consolidating statehood and building its own institutions,” Schenkkan said.