May this signal a global turn around.
Nationalism is like strong licquor: only good in very small quantities.
Unfortunately it comes just after Slovaks put a pro-russian-imperalism mafia-friendly and democracy-averse corrupt nationalist in charge of the country - in coalition with a far-right party that is so unconcerned with disguising their fascism that they are only one swastika away from co-opting all the Nazi symbolism.
Also Italy put a Mussolini fan girl in power
A Mussolini fan who is weirdly fine with European integration, but a Mussolini fan nevertheless.
The extreme right has realised for a few years now that they can work together and dismantle the EU from the inside.
Which, if they managed, would be a rare achievement of European collective action.
Doesn’t the EU have safeguards to twart down such “regimes”?
There’s article 7, but it’s deeply flawed, because it requires unanimity from the remaining members. So if 2 countries have authoritarian governments then they can protect each other. For the last few years it has mostly been Poland protecting the Hungarian government - by far the worst backsliding in democracy in the EU. Now Fico is going to Orban’s best friend.
In practice this leaves removing funds from the EU budget as a way to punish governments that are against democracy and the rule of law, but that’s not been very effective and feels a bit icky.
