What will happen if we don’t do anything about the crisis of democracy? Speech text by Mathilde SUCHET, FENELON

Have you heard of the “Doomsday Clock”? Scientists around the world use it to measure how close we are to “midnight”, that is: to the end of the world. Today, it is set at two minutes to midnight. Why? The main reason is the failure of our leaders to deal with the threat of nuclear war and with the economic and political chaos caused by global warming. How are people reacting to this desperate situation?

A survey carried out in France in April 2019 for franceinfo found that only 29% of those interviewed considered European construction a “source of hope” (compared to 61% in 2003). Most think that the EU is “inefficient” in dealing with terrorism, employment, and immigration among others. What preoccupies these people most is not the future of the EU, but purchasing power, immigration and terrorism. People are losing faith in Europe and its institutions…

To work, the European Union needs the people of the continent to have a strong sense of solidarity, of pride in their cultural diversity, of having shared values and a common destiny on which to build lasting peace and prosperity… But, people feel threatened by anything they imagine might compromise their economic security. Extremist and populist parties gain influence by exploiting people’s fear of change, of foreigners. The solution these parties promote is nationalism and strong leadership, in other words, a rejection of others and of democracy.

Paul Lewis wrote in The Guardian in March 2019 that 2.5 billion of the world’s citizens have leaders who are more or less “populists”. The figure has never been so high and it is continuing to rise. Leaders of populist parties exploit the suspicion and anger against social elites to gain more power; more power to these leaders means less power to the people. You may think that it is only happening in other parts of the world, but of the 46 leaders that are categorized as “populists”, 18 of them were European! Take Hungary for instance: the ruling party there is anti-Semitic and ultra-nationalistic, fueling hate by threatening its opponents, attacking the media, and even vilifying the Central European University. Can someone please explain to me why Hungary is still a member state of the EU?

Are we going back to the 1930s? Aziz Huq and Tom Ginsburg, professors at the University of Chicago Law School, say that an increasing number of developed countries (for example Hungary and Poland) are no longer robust democracies; they are sliding towards autocracy. This phenomenon is called “democratic backsliding”. In 2017, research group Freedom House published a report indicating that 25% of countries in the world suffering from democratic backsliding were European: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Spain.

I fear more democracies will be replaced by authoritarian regimes like those in Brazil, China, or Russia. We may, indeed, end up living under totalitarian regimes. This will mean no freedom at all. War and civil conflicts will become part of our daily lives. Women’s rights will be reduced and discrimination against minorities will increase. We will end up completely brainwashed by propaganda, constantly watched by Big Brother.

Do we want to live in a world of hate and fear? Well, if nothing is done about the state of the world, it can only get worse.

Democracy is on the verge of collapse… Can we save it?