WARSAW, Poland (AP) – U.S.-based pro-democracy group Freedom House said Tuesday that a “spectacular breakdown of democracy” has been taking place in Poland and Hungary, two countries that stood as models of democratic change after the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe.
Hungary now has the lowest democracy score in Central Europe, and Poland’s score is falling, the watchdog organization said in a report. It cited attacks by populist leaders in both countries on constitutional courts and the system of checks and balances, as well as the transformation of public media into “propaganda arms.”
“The spectacular breakdown of democracy in these countries should serve as a warning about the fragility of the institutions that are necessary for liberal democracy, especially in settings where political norms have shallow roots and where populists are able to tap into broad social disaffection,” the report said.
The downward spiral began with the election in 2010 of Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his ruling Fidesz party, according to the report. Together, they have re-written the constitution, taken over the courts, eroded critical media, attacked civic society and stoked anti-migrant feelings, Freedom House said. Orban himself has declared that he is building an “illiberal democracy” modeled on Russia, China and Turkey.
The civic society attacks played out dramatically Tuesday, when Hungarian lawmakers approved a bill targeting Central European University. The university in Budapest is funded by George Soros, the liberal Hungarian-American billionaire whom Orban sees as an ideological foe.