At a recent conference of the U.K.’s self-described National Conservatives, senior Tory MPs and a Cabinet minister espoused views that align with those of European far-right parties. It’s an indication of how strong these factions, which just a decade ago remained at the outer fringes of the Conservative Party, have now become.
Around the world, democracies are suffering from voter apathy, political polarization, anti-establishment sentiment and abuses of majoritarian rule that have facilitated the spread of autocracy. Now countries are increasingly experimenting with a new way forward: citizens’ assemblies put together by random selection.
EU officials are still digesting the result of Turkey’s general election, which saw the presidential race head to a second-round runoff. While President Erdogan’s antagonism toward Europe has won him few friends in Brussels, many are also wondering if the runoff might present a case of “better the devil you know.”
Spain’s landmark law on sexual crime made explicit consent—or the lack thereof—the benchmark for determining guilt in rape cases. But the law had an unintended consequence: Hundreds of convicted sex offenders’ sentences were reduced on appeal, leading to public outrage and infighting within the leftist governing coalition.
The aftermath of Romania’s post-communist transition, particularly the struggle to overcome corruption, left a toxic legacy that hampers Bucharest’s ability to exert influence over EU decision-making to this day. But Romania’s reluctance to be proactive in policy debates within both the EU and NATO has now become problematic.
At the annual G-7 summit this week, Western leaders have to decide what vision of global leadership they want to project. Beyond showing unity in opposition to Russia’s war on Ukraine and China’s military and economic assertiveness, it’s unclear what the G-7 will say about resolving the issues currently plaguing non-Western states.
Europe’s eyes are focused on Liverpool in the U.K. this week, as the city hosts the 67th annual Eurovision Song Contest, the most-watched annual live television event in the world. In the past, Eurovision has always tried to keep politics out of the contest. But the war in Ukraine has changed all that.
The European Commission has proposed harmonizing national criminal laws against corruption and increasing anti-corruption penalties across the European Union. But some Eastern European member states, like Hungary, Poland and Romania, have bristled against the EU interfering in their national practices.
Something strange is happening in liberal democracies’ relationship with social media platforms—specifically with TikTok, which is being banned or threatened with bans in democracies around the world. It is commonplace for authoritarian regimes to ban such platforms, but this is relatively new and dangerous territory for democracies.