Across central and eastern Europe, voters’ tolerance for the alleged shenanigans of their rulers seems to be running out
One of the biggest offenders is Poland. First the government in Warsaw stacked its constitutional court with pliant judges and then got them to rule that the Polish constitution can override the European treaties—an assault on a basic principle ofmembership. Viktor Orban, Hungary’s long-serving prime minister, has bullied political opponents, critical media outlets and gay Hungarians, among others.
Sleaze, meanwhile, is smothering economies across much of the former Soviet empire. The most motivated citizens vote with their feet and seek a better future in the West, hollowing out the places they leave behind. That can become a self-reinforcing dynamic, giving a boost to conservative, rural, populist outfits, such as Law and Justice, Poland’s ruling party, Mr Orban’s Fidesz or, the Bulgarian group headed by Boyko Borisov, a former prime minister and prime figure in various scandals.
Until this month, there had been only the odd flicker of resistance amid the gloom of bad government. One came in 2019, with the election of Zuzana Caputova, an environmental and anti-corruption campaigner, as president of Slovakia. Last year another activist was elected president of nearby Moldova . And earlier this year Mr Borisov failed to win a fourth term as Bulgaria’s prime minister—although his opponents have not yet managed to form a government.
October has seen a refreshing change of pace. On the 9th Andrej Babis, the Czech Republic’s plutocratic leader, fared badly at the polls. He now looks set to be ousted as prime minister by a rival coalition . One of the factors that seems to have led to his defeat was his appearance in the Pandora papers, a trove of documents revealing public figures’ use of shell companies, tax havens and other tricks of the footloose rich. Mr Babis, like Mr Borisov, denies any wrongdoing.
The same day, in an unrelated corruption scandal, the chancellor of Austria, Sebastian Kurz, resigned after his coalition partners threatened to bring down the government if he did not. Mr Kurz also insists he has done nothing wrong. .. Hungary’s six main opposition parties, generally as much at each other’s throats as at his, have at last managed what they had previously always failed to do: to form a united front.
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