Interview Ramona Strugariu, Member of the European Parliament – Renew Europe, Romania.
Q. Throughout the pandemic, democratic standards have worsened around the world, examples of such developments coming from within the European Union as well. What tools and plans does the Union have to reverse these trends, at least within its borders?
We have a lot of work to do. Some worrying situations have become critical, and I am specifically referring to Hungary and Poland here.
The trend of deterioration for our democracies is very rapid. It is speeding up unless we intervene, and I fear that we might end up with a blitzkrieg against democracy. Not necessarily overnight, but in a very short period of time. That is why I am asking myself sometimes whether we are equipped enough to respond to that or not. And the answer is: rather not. Why? What Viktor Orbán is doing to Hungary for example is not happening since yesterday, it is happening since around 2010. This example was followed by Poland, which acted similarly against the judiciary, and expanding on
other areas, the latest development being a ban on abortion which is a step back to the Medieval Ages. The reason they did it was that they realised at some point that they can act with impunity, and that the European Union is not exactly equipped with those tools to be able to efficiently and rapidly respond to such breaches on the rule of law. We ignored to deal with the issue for a number of years, but let’s take a look at the instruments that we do have.
Read the full interview on Eastern Focus.
