freedom
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Relevance beyond the crisis: New pressures to curb individual rights
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has allowed governments to enact authoritarian emergency legislation, with no guarantee that the curtailed civil rights will later be returned to the population. China’s example shows what could await European countries if the coronavirus crisis becomes a political tool to exert more control over the masses. Meanwhile, many isolated citizens are threatened with fines and jail rather than receiving the help they need.
Central Europe is headed for turbulence, not Putinization
Recent political developments in Hungary and Poland have been interpreted as portending a reversal of westernization. If history is any guide, this perception is wrong. It is true that the region appears headed for institutional turbulence that could foster growing political and economic volatility. But a more serious upheaval is ...
Refugee crisis tarnishes EU’s ‘moral superpower’
European leaders have long known that the main danger posed by the refugee influx is political backlash. This threat was explicitly recognized by Guenther Oettinger, Germany’s representative to the European Commission, during a press conference on December 30, 2015. “The European Union has learned to overcome crises,” he said. “But ...
New opportunity to get Turkey right emerges
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is back in the driver’s seat after his ruling party scored a decisive win in the November snap elections. While Mr Erdogan has never been a favourite of Western decision makers and opinion shapers, his renewed mandate makes him a useful partner in efforts to ...
