Over the years, journalists have helped steer the EU, one question, one leaked report and one tenacious investigation at a time <a target="_blank">(Photo: Shada Islam)</a>
Over the years, journalists have helped steer the EU, one question, one leaked report and one tenacious investigation at a time (Photo: Shada Islam)

EU and the World

Von der Leyen’s ‘democracy shield’? Practice what you preach first

By Shada Islam,
Brussels
,

Democracy, like Humpty Dumpty, has had a great fall. It lies broken in many once-proud democracies.  

Experts talk grimly of a worldwide pandemic of democratic backsliding in both “low-performing and high-performing” democracies. 

Governments — and yes, those in Europe as well — are curbing civic space, expanding surveillance, restricting dissent, undermining media independence and scapegoating migrants in plain sight.

Economic and social inequalities have been widening for decades amid housing shortages, rising energy and living costs, corruption and political polarisation. 

As citizens’ trust in government sinks to historic lows, the far-right has zoomed in to expand its popularity and outreach. 

Some culprits are not difficult to identify.

Donald Trump and his acolytes have  taken a sledgehammer to democracy in the US. In India, Narendra Modi has undermined democratic norms and here in Europe, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán continues to centralise power.

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Over the years, journalists have helped steer the EU, one question, one leaked report and one tenacious investigation at a time (Photo: Shada Islam)

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Author Bio

Shada Islam Shada Islam  is an EUobserver columnist, and independent EU analyst and commentator who runs her own strategy and advisory company New Horizons Project. She has recently won the European Woman in Media award and the Media Career Award 2023 for her outstanding work and powerful voice on EU affairs and focus on building an inclusive Union of Equality.