*Europe’s political approach to the coronavirus pandemic has divided down stark east-west lines, a Guardian analysis has found.*
*Five of 18 eastern European countries have registered major violations of international democratic freedoms since March 2020, according to research conducted by the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute, compared with none of 12 western European countries.*
*The research also shows that eastern European countries have been more likely to turn to abusive enforcement, disinformation and discriminatory measures, with the most common violation being restrictions on the media.*
*The worst violations were observed in Serbia, which recorded a violations score three times higher than the European average. Under a special regime implemented in a declared state of emergency, refugees, migrants and asylum seekers were selectively targeted and put under strict 24-hour quarantine, controlled by the military. They were banned from leaving the centres, while support staff were prevented from entering.*
*Belgium was the only western European country where moderate misconduct occurred. The country recorded ethnic profiling during the pandemic, according to the V-Dem Institute, with abusive police practices disproportionately affecting minority ethnic communities.*
*The death of a 19-year-old man of north African descent during a police chase prompted anti-racism protests, with people demanding justice and accountability. Later, the UN committee on the elimination of racial discrimination (Cerd) issued a report expressing concerns about the discriminatory police-related acts.*
*Experts say such actions often follow Covid-19 measures set by the government and do not have a clear basis in the rule of law.*
*Dr Joelle Grogan, a senior lecturer in law at Middlesex University, found that experts from 24 out of 27 EU countries reported at least some concern regarding restrictive measures falling outside the legal powers of the government.*
*However, even if “nearly all countries struggle with balancing the rule of law with the intense pressure to act in an emergency”, she said this did not mean we should be equally concerned about all countries.*
*The Guardian analysis also revealed how some east-central European governments with a history of undermining democratic principles have exploited the pandemic to further spread anti-democratic practices.*
*In Slovenia, the government placed financial and legal restrictions on NGOs and changed environmental legislation under one of its coronavirus stimulus packages. As of 23 June 2021, the country was added to a watchlist of countries experiencing a rapid decline in civil liberties.*
*“Since the government came to power, it has used Covid-19 as a pretext to try to pass measures which affect basic human rights,” said Civicus, the global civil society alliance.*
*The Polish parliament recently passed a media bill that disfranchises TVN, Poland’s main private network, continuing the government’s push to control the media. The level of risk to Poland’s democratic liberties is more than three times that of the European average.*
*According to Grogan, there was deep concern for the “rule of law crisis with many EU states systematically undermining and dismantling democratic institutions”.*
*Alongside Hungary and Poland, substantial democratic declines were observed in Serbia, Turkey and Slovenia since 2010.*
*While democratic regimes remained rather stable in most of western Europe, four eastern European countries shifted down from liberal to electoral democracies, according to the V-Dem Institute. Two others – Hungary and Serbia – shifted down from electoral democracy to electoral autocracy.*
*For Grogan, the risk lies in democratic infringements in the name of emergency response becoming normalised. “The risk of normalising emergency is that ordinary expectations of what rights we can exercise without conditions are forgotten, and what decisions government should only make with permission are ignored: we can say we have a democracy, but not live in one.”*
*There is hope, however, since she argues authoritarianism fundamentally relies on public support. “For ordinary people – protest, objection and education [are] the best resistance against anti-democratic trends.”*
*About the data
The liberal democracy index, developed by the V-Dem Institute, evaluates the degree of democracy and the strength of democratic institutions in a particular country, with scores from 0 to 1. It measures the quality of elections, suffrage rights, freedom of expression and the media, freedom of association, constraints on the executive, and the rule of law. Comprised of several minor indices, it aims to provide a comprehensive assessment of a country’s quality of democracy.*
This is an arbitrary metric no matter how you look at it. I hate to open a can of worms, but some people would call things like travel restrictions and mask mandates “undemocratic” while others would call the lack of them the same. And there’s frankly no way to know what the maker of this map is and is not calling “undemocratic.”
Also, I have no idea if that “selectively targeting refugees” thing is true, but the fact it’s singled out means it’s being overweighted because silly politics. Although, residents also said quarantine in Serbia was akin to martial law, extremely severe but also extremely short-lived. Same for the Poland matter, where the riots in response appear to be used as to gauge how “undemocratic” it was.
Also Russia and Belarus weren’t democracies to begin with.
Dutch police is literally shooting at people, yet we are the problem
My right to life is more important than my freedom of movement and therefore I prefer some restrictions on my freedoms to maintain my rights it’s that simple really, to say it otherwise your freedoms extent to the extent where they infringes on another persons rights.
If democracy is the public getting to have one vote on some broad based no topic which they actually know absolutely nothing about for the most part created by public relations firms with loose connections to a political party in order for a political party to gain public acceptance in passing policies that would benefit a multinational company or any company for that matter that sponsors them. Then well I don’t want it to be honest.
Basically democratic means more Liberal
Lol you didn’t get the right traction on your first post so you made a duplicate and pasted article in the comments. Wow low effort.
Lol yeah the democratic west, “democraticly” beating and shooting at protesters. I want out of this insane union.
I looked at the report and Croatia is red because “Croatia did not declare a state of emergency or disaster, and instead used existing legislation… to implement emergency measures”.
That is the highest “bad” score. Other lower bad scores are based mostly on violence towards migrants.
8 comments
Link to the original article:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/29/eastern-european-countries-adopt-authoritarian-measures-covid
*Europe’s political approach to the coronavirus pandemic has divided down stark east-west lines, a Guardian analysis has found.*
*Five of 18 eastern European countries have registered major violations of international democratic freedoms since March 2020, according to research conducted by the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute, compared with none of 12 western European countries.*
*The research also shows that eastern European countries have been more likely to turn to abusive enforcement, disinformation and discriminatory measures, with the most common violation being restrictions on the media.*
*The worst violations were observed in Serbia, which recorded a violations score three times higher than the European average. Under a special regime implemented in a declared state of emergency, refugees, migrants and asylum seekers were selectively targeted and put under strict 24-hour quarantine, controlled by the military. They were banned from leaving the centres, while support staff were prevented from entering.*
*Belgium was the only western European country where moderate misconduct occurred. The country recorded ethnic profiling during the pandemic, according to the V-Dem Institute, with abusive police practices disproportionately affecting minority ethnic communities.*
*The death of a 19-year-old man of north African descent during a police chase prompted anti-racism protests, with people demanding justice and accountability. Later, the UN committee on the elimination of racial discrimination (Cerd) issued a report expressing concerns about the discriminatory police-related acts.*
*Experts say such actions often follow Covid-19 measures set by the government and do not have a clear basis in the rule of law.*
*Dr Joelle Grogan, a senior lecturer in law at Middlesex University, found that experts from 24 out of 27 EU countries reported at least some concern regarding restrictive measures falling outside the legal powers of the government.*
*However, even if “nearly all countries struggle with balancing the rule of law with the intense pressure to act in an emergency”, she said this did not mean we should be equally concerned about all countries.*
*The Guardian analysis also revealed how some east-central European governments with a history of undermining democratic principles have exploited the pandemic to further spread anti-democratic practices.*
*In Slovenia, the government placed financial and legal restrictions on NGOs and changed environmental legislation under one of its coronavirus stimulus packages. As of 23 June 2021, the country was added to a watchlist of countries experiencing a rapid decline in civil liberties.*
*“Since the government came to power, it has used Covid-19 as a pretext to try to pass measures which affect basic human rights,” said Civicus, the global civil society alliance.*
*The Polish parliament recently passed a media bill that disfranchises TVN, Poland’s main private network, continuing the government’s push to control the media. The level of risk to Poland’s democratic liberties is more than three times that of the European average.*
*According to Grogan, there was deep concern for the “rule of law crisis with many EU states systematically undermining and dismantling democratic institutions”.*
*Alongside Hungary and Poland, substantial democratic declines were observed in Serbia, Turkey and Slovenia since 2010.*
*While democratic regimes remained rather stable in most of western Europe, four eastern European countries shifted down from liberal to electoral democracies, according to the V-Dem Institute. Two others – Hungary and Serbia – shifted down from electoral democracy to electoral autocracy.*
*For Grogan, the risk lies in democratic infringements in the name of emergency response becoming normalised. “The risk of normalising emergency is that ordinary expectations of what rights we can exercise without conditions are forgotten, and what decisions government should only make with permission are ignored: we can say we have a democracy, but not live in one.”*
*There is hope, however, since she argues authoritarianism fundamentally relies on public support. “For ordinary people – protest, objection and education [are] the best resistance against anti-democratic trends.”*
*About the data
The liberal democracy index, developed by the V-Dem Institute, evaluates the degree of democracy and the strength of democratic institutions in a particular country, with scores from 0 to 1. It measures the quality of elections, suffrage rights, freedom of expression and the media, freedom of association, constraints on the executive, and the rule of law. Comprised of several minor indices, it aims to provide a comprehensive assessment of a country’s quality of democracy.*
This is an arbitrary metric no matter how you look at it. I hate to open a can of worms, but some people would call things like travel restrictions and mask mandates “undemocratic” while others would call the lack of them the same. And there’s frankly no way to know what the maker of this map is and is not calling “undemocratic.”
Also, I have no idea if that “selectively targeting refugees” thing is true, but the fact it’s singled out means it’s being overweighted because silly politics. Although, residents also said quarantine in Serbia was akin to martial law, extremely severe but also extremely short-lived. Same for the Poland matter, where the riots in response appear to be used as to gauge how “undemocratic” it was.
Also Russia and Belarus weren’t democracies to begin with.
Dutch police is literally shooting at people, yet we are the problem
My right to life is more important than my freedom of movement and therefore I prefer some restrictions on my freedoms to maintain my rights it’s that simple really, to say it otherwise your freedoms extent to the extent where they infringes on another persons rights.
If democracy is the public getting to have one vote on some broad based no topic which they actually know absolutely nothing about for the most part created by public relations firms with loose connections to a political party in order for a political party to gain public acceptance in passing policies that would benefit a multinational company or any company for that matter that sponsors them. Then well I don’t want it to be honest.
Basically democratic means more Liberal
Lol you didn’t get the right traction on your first post so you made a duplicate and pasted article in the comments. Wow low effort.
Lol yeah the democratic west, “democraticly” beating and shooting at protesters. I want out of this insane union.
I looked at the report and Croatia is red because “Croatia did not declare a state of emergency or disaster, and instead used existing legislation… to implement emergency measures”.
That is the highest “bad” score. Other lower bad scores are based mostly on violence towards migrants.
Strangest thing, Spain has no violence towards migrants score at all, even though entire world could see [this](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/FD26/production/_118560846_tv067407227.jpg)