Brussels Reporter
  • Home
  • Brussels
  • Europe
    • Europe

      Protests and celebrations take place worldwide ahead of…

      March 7, 2021March 8, 2021

      Europe

      Video shows Myanmar police beating prone man

      March 7, 2021March 7, 2021

      Europe

      Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine batch suspended in Austria after death

      March 7, 2021

      Europe

      Eurovision song protest: Orthodox Christians demand withdrawal of…

      March 7, 2021March 7, 2021

      Europe

      Escalating violence ups pressure for Myanmar sanctions

      March 7, 2021March 7, 2021

  • Globe
  • Lifestyle
  • Business

Brussels Reporter

  • Home
  • Brussels
  • Europe
    • Europe

      Protests and celebrations take place worldwide ahead of…

      March 7, 2021March 8, 2021

      Europe

      Video shows Myanmar police beating prone man

      March 7, 2021March 7, 2021

      Europe

      Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine batch suspended in Austria after death

      March 7, 2021

      Europe

      Eurovision song protest: Orthodox Christians demand withdrawal of…

      March 7, 2021March 7, 2021

      Europe

      Escalating violence ups pressure for Myanmar sanctions

      March 7, 2021March 7, 2021

  • Globe
  • Lifestyle
  • Business
Home Globe Will the Croats, marked by mistrust, give in to populist sirens?
Globe

Will the Croats, marked by mistrust, give in to populist sirens?

by editor May 6, 2019
May 6, 2019

On the eve of the vote for the European Parliament, a group of European historians sent a dramatic open letter to the public, warning that the EU project is in disrepair and falling apart. The narratives of nation states which were dominant in the past are no longer sustainable, we need to recognize our pluralism, not to give up the feeling of unity, they write.

No politician has missed this opportunity, so French President Emmanuel Macron sentan open letter to European citizens, advocating for the “European renaissance” and against “nationalism that exploits the anger of citizens”.

Both of these letters should motivate citizens to participate in the upcoming elections. But is this really going to happen, especially in the Member States from Eastern Europe? During the last European elections in 2014, for example, the participation rate in Croatia was one of the lowest in the EU, onlyy slightly over 25 percent.  Even worse was the participation rate in the Czech Republic – 18.20% – and Slovakia – 13.05 percent (the lowest rate) –  while Poland and Hungary scored slightly better, where participation rate was 23.83 percent and 28.97 percent, respectively. All these countries had a much lower participation rate in elections than the Western Member States. Why are their citizens not motivated to vote?             

The truth is that the EU is most often referred to as a “policeman”, i.e. alerting Member States to corruption or failure of the judiciary or some other irregularity. When it comes to EU funding, Croatia is at the losing side for an obvious reason: There are not enough people who know the mechanisms of the EU funding, hence the country cannot fully reap the benefits of available EU funds.  On the other hand, the EU is not too popular because it is apparent that instead of real support for democratization, rule of law and anti-corruption measures in this region, the EU has chosen stability and has agreed to work with authoritarian, corrupt regimes.  

However, there are problems that do not have so much to do with external circumstances, as with psychology.  In general, citizens do not like to vote and hardly decide to go out for elections, even for national elections.  And this is actually the most interesting part because they are directly concerned when they vote for national elections, while the EU is still far and large.  The participation rate in the general parliamentary elections in Croatia was about 52.59 percent in 2016.

Could it be said that the voters are lazy? No, they more probably do not see any sense in voting.  From the perspective of a regular voter, the so-called “ordinary man”, the experience of almost three decades of life in this kind of democracy tells him the following: Vote or not vote, you will be dealt the same hand.  One party is like the other, because all of them are against us the ordinary people. They only promise and when they come to power, they start to behave quite differently. They all lie and steal.

It is an obvious mistrust of political elites as well as of democracy itself – a phenomenon known in other Eastern European countries.  The worst thing is that the citizens are right, the fact is that some political systems are called democratic and they have basic democratic institutions.  Yet, the power functions are the same as in the old authoritarian system, so democracy exists only as an empty form.


The Eurobarometer shows that 79 percent of respondents in Croatia have no confidence in political parties, and 64 percent of them are not satisfied with the functioning of democracy in the country.  This is what makes voters unwilling to vote, who think that voting is a procedure that nobody is obliged to do unless it is obligatory. It should not be forgotten that democracy has never reigned in these parts of the world and that authoritarian traditions are not easily dispensed with in political terms.  They are especially to be dispensed with in psychological terms, and this is reflected on these elections as well. 

It should be added that many citizens of the former Socialist countries are supportive of strong leaders.  In a democratic process, you need to listen to various ideas and programmes, weigh the arguments and make decisions.  Democracy is complicated, but if there is a leader you believe, you do not need to do anything. In Eastern Europe, Vladimir Putin is actually becoming more and more popular as the followers of Viktor Orbán or Jarosław Kaczyński are growing.  This phenomenon of illiberal democracy was completely unpredictable.  And what is particularly worrying is the fact that it is a fruit of democracy itself (albeit a transitional one).

Perhaps the substantial difference between the attitude towards voting in the east and west of the EU, which obviously still exists, is best demonstrated by a recent Eurobarometer survey: More than half of the Slovaks will not vote for the European elections because they think their voice “does not mean anything” – while voters in Denmark are convinced that their voice is not only important, but voting is their democratic duty.

Everyone who was convinced in 1989 that Socialist states had changed enough to move the political system so that the transformation of society could be successful, was very deceived.  This did not take into account the time factor. The system can change overnight – but not habits, traditions, customs, and everything we call the mentality of a region, or of a country like Croatia.  Sociologist Ralph Dahrendorf wrote that it takes six months to change the political system, it takes six years to transform the economic system and it takes sixty years to change the society.

That is why EU elections in these countries will be extremely interesting.  In Croatia, not only the voter turnout will be an interesting indicator, but also the answer to one of this election’s most burning issues: The Europe-wide surge of the nationalist right. Does the swing towards authoritarianism at all bother Croatian voters? Or will they rather contribute to further increasing right-wing influence in the EU? If the future of the EU depends on voters in Croatia and Eastern Europe, it is poorly written.  

Source link

previous post
Museum for Natural Sciences will exhibit new dinosaur
next post
Will the Croats, marked by mistrust, give in to populist sirens?

Related Posts

Yasukuni Shrine: Japan’s ex-PM Abe visits controversial memorial

September 19, 2020

Heatwave sweeps Australian cities and raises bushfire danger

January 25, 2021

Trini Lopez, singer and Dirty Dozen actor, dies...

August 12, 2020

China-US comedians: 'We hope jokes travel faster than...

August 23, 2020

Jake Paul: YouTuber charged with criminal trespass and...

June 4, 2020

Beirut explosion: Angry residents demand answers after blast

August 6, 2020

Lockerbie bombing: New suspect soon to be charged...

December 16, 2020

Russian hackers target US election again – Microsoft

September 10, 2020

Coronavirus: Fracas on Brazil’s Copacabana over Covid-19 ‘graves’

June 11, 2020

Turkey earthquake: Search for survivors continues

October 31, 2020
Promotion Image

Recent Posts

  • Huge explosions rock Equatorial Guinea's main city
  • Protests and celebrations take place worldwide ahead of International Women’s Day
  • Video shows Myanmar police beating prone man
  • French MP and billionaire Olivier Dassault dies in helicopter crash
  • Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine batch suspended in Austria after death
Promotion Image

GO!

Lifestyle

  • Scientists are using satellites to count elephants from space for the first time

  • France: Hospital workers demand more resources to fight COVID-19

  • Alexei Navalny: Millions watch jailed critic's 'Putin palace' film

  • Covid vaccine: WHO warns of ‘catastrophic moral failure’

  • Belgium looks good in white

Popular Posts

  • 1

    Amazon directs customers to vaccine misinformation, study finds

    March 5, 2021
  • 2

    Dakar disorder after arrest of Senegal’s main opposition leader

    March 5, 2021
  • 3

    QAnon Shaman: 'I regret entering that building with every fibre of my body'

    March 5, 2021

Editor’s Choices

  • European Parliament will set up vaccination centers for MEPs, staff and locals

    January 21, 2021
  • Why ‘equal access’ to coronavirus vaccines is failing poor countries

    January 20, 2021
  • Merkel era may only just be beginning

    January 16, 2021

Opinions

  • Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine batch suspended in Austria after death

    March 7, 2021
  • EU seeks closer cooperation with US on vaccine supplies

    March 6, 2021
  • Picnic time! Belgium begins easing coronavirus restrictions

    March 5, 2021

@2018-2021 - Brussels Reporter (www.brusselsreporter.com). All Right Reserved.