Democratic freedom declines in Poland, globally: report
PR dla Zagranicy
Victoria Bieniek
17.01.2018 08:30
Poland has fallen four points year on year in a Freedom House report on democratic freedoms which said “democracy faced its most serious crisis in decades” in 2017.
Photo: flickr.com/włodi
The US human rights organisation's report said that democratic freedoms such as free elections, minority rights, freedom of the press and the principle of rule of law improved in 35 countries but declined in 71 countries.
The report found that 39 percent of the global population, or some 2.9 billion people, enjoyed democratic freedoms, while 37 percent of the global population did not, and 24 percent of the population enjoyed only partial democratic freedom.
Poland received 85 points out of a possible 100 and was classified as “free”.
The report said that in Poland, “populist leaders continued to consolidate power by uprooting democratic institutions and intimidating critics in civil society”.
“Smears of the opposition appeared in public media... and [Poland] passed laws designed to curb the activities of nongovernmental organizations,” the report said.
“Poland’s ruling party also pressed ahead with an effort to assert political control over the judiciary, advancing laws that will affect the Supreme Court, the local courts, and a council responsible for judicial appointments,” it added.
The report also said: “Reverberations from the 2015–16 refugee crisis continued to fuel the rise of xenophobic, far-right parties, which gained ground in elections in France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Austria”. (vb)