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Rule of law declining across EU, report warns (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by HowRu68 to c/[email protected]

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However, in similarly long-established – so resilient – democracies where far-right parties are in power, or influencing power, such as Italy and Sweden, Liberties said deterioration of the rule of law, while gradual, risked becoming systemic. In more recently re-established EU democracies, such as Slovakia, Slovenia and Poland, it said the rule of law “can swing rapidly - either towards recovery or decline”.Measures such as infringement proceedings or conditional freezing of EU funds could and should be deployed, he said, but Brussels was “like a bystander. They fail to realise some governments are deliberately destroying checks and balances.”

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[+] nivenkos -32 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Weird they blame the far-right, if anything the rule of law was collapsing before due to widespread crime and criminals acting with impunity, as well as austerity hitting law enforcement capabilities.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 months ago (1 children)

"Rule of law" refers to everyone being treated the same in the eye of the law, a basic democratic principle (as opposed to e.g. the king being allowed to do whatever they want).

It's not about whether and how much the law is broken in general.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago

The actual report also doesn't limit itself to the far right btw, according to the article:

In France, the report said, last year’s pension changes were “enacted in a manifestly undemocratic legislative process” after the government used special constitutional powers, while journalists in Germany now faced criminal prosecution if they published judicial decisions that are not publicly accessible.

[–] HowRu68 10 points 9 months ago

Good point about the increasing crime rates and mafiastuff ( also hitmen murdering political targets), and the downsizing of the police force.

There seem to be several interprations of civil rights. The general definition ( safety& crime etc) and the political definition. But I'm no expert.

This report is more about civil & political rights, the democratic process & the checks & balances. Like how many laws were passed without consulting the cabinet/ public etc. And there seems to be a direct relationship between far right and infringement of civil/ political rights.

One could wonder whether the downsizing of police and the increasing crime rates, has led to far right (in whatever form) insurgency. One could even wonder that, if this fact was known beforehand, how much of it is happenstance. Because it's a classic scenario right out of certain books. But that's an elaborate more difficult discussion.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Far right is authoritarian and segregation of rights is at core.