More than half of the world's democratic countries have fallen behind in the last decade, and Serbia is one of the 10 countries with the biggest decline in democracy, according to a report by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Support (IDEA).
For five years in a row, the number of countries moving towards authoritarianism has been approximately three times higher than those moving in the democratic direction, reports the independent Serbian portal "N1".
The number of countries with a democratic system is decreasing and from 2020, Serbia, Mali and Ivory Coast are no longer democracies, based on the report titled "The State of Democracy in the World in 2021".
"This report highlights the democratic collapse in Serbia, because after serious problems with the 2020 elections, it can no longer be considered a democracy. This calls into question Serbia's membership in the European Union," said Adam Bodnar, dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Poland, in the introduction to the report on Europe.
Serbia in the group of states with a hybrid regime
also
Serbia, Turkey and Russia, the countries with the least democracy
The report recalls that for the first time in 20 years, Serbia is no longer in the category of democracies, but of hybrid regimes.
"Serbia, which has been lagging behind since 2013, has finally become a hybrid regime in 2020. During that period, the ruling Serbian Progressive Party restricted and discredited civil society and imposed restrictions on media freedom," it said. report.
In a paper on democracy in Europe, IDEA points out that the quality of democracies has stagnated or declined over the past two years, also due to the pandemic crisis.
"In the Western Balkans and other Eastern European countries, old vulnerabilities have been further exacerbated by the pandemic," the report continued.
According to the report, freedom of expression and media were threatened even before the pandemic, and during the pandemic it went a step further. Some countries, including Serbia, have used the perceived risk of misinformation about the pandemic to further stifle free speech.
The pandemic was also a major test for free elections, and intensified online campaigns increased the importance of disinformation, foreign interference and data misuse.
Failure to hold free elections and the pandemic
The electoral environment in Serbia in 2020 was characterized by deep political divisions, boycott of parliament and elections, and social polarization, with a "dangerous fusion" of state and party resources and the use of pandemic communication to obtain electoral benefits.
also
74 percent of the world lives in autocracy, Kosovo in the zone of democracy
Due to the boycott of the parliament before the pandemic, and then the boycott of the parliamentary elections, because the opposition parties asked for the postponement of the elections until equal and fair conditions were ensured, Serbia marked a significant drop in the criteria for free elections.
The Serbian parliament, the report says, did not exercise proactive and substantive oversight of the executive.
Violence against women and domestic violence increased during the pandemic, and Serbia is in the group of countries where the number of women seeking help has increased the most.
Among the countries that recorded the largest decline since 2010, as measured by all 16 democracy criteria assessed in this report, are Serbia, Poland, Slovenia, Hungary, Turkey, Nicaragua and Brazil.
Three hybrid and two authoritarian regimes in Europe
"The number of countries in which democracy is declining has never been greater than in the last decade. Now 70 percent of the world's population lives either in undemocratic regimes or in countries with declining democracies. The percentage of the world's population living in strong democracies is only 9 percent," the report states.
According to IDEA, in Europe there are three hybrid regimes (in Serbia, Russia and Turkey), two authoritarian regimes (in Azerbaijan and Belarus) and 39 democracies.
The report specifically points to the deterioration of democracy in EU members such as Hungary, Poland and Slovenia, where the pandemic has "exacerbated the ills accumulated over the last decade".
also
V-Dem publishes the Democracy Report: Kosovo "electoral democracy" and Serbia "electoral autocracy"
"The pandemic teaches us that we need not only a vaccine against Covid-19, but that we very much need a vaccination against anti-democrats," the report states.
Kosovo is not included in this report.
