Democracy scores declined in 2016 in more than half of the 29 countries surveyed in Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans and Eurasia, according to Freedom House, a U.S.-based pro-democracy watchdog organization.
This is the second-biggest decline in the annual report’s 22-year history and is attributed to the rise of populism in the “Nations in Transit” region, where “leaders are openly attacking liberal democracies.”
Hungary, under Prime Minister Viktor Orban, has the lowest ranking in Central Europe, according to the Freedom House report.
Orban “has created a kind of model for member states, even for the European Union, to reject democracy,” Nate …read more
Source: Voice of America
