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Disease, Debt, and Dictatorship: Strains on the EU

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European flags at European Parliament | Disease, Debt, and Dictatorship: Strains on the EU | Featured

The economic and public health emergency brought on by the pandemic is putting a major strain on the European Union during one of its weakest times.

Haves and Have-Nots

The coronavirus crisis, and its tremendous impact on Europe’s economies and healthcare systems, is rehashing old acrimony among the EU’s member countries.

Once again, Italy faces off against Germany, with a frustratingly familiar dynamic. As in 2008, Germany has the money to lend Italy but is reluctant to do so without additional provisions. As in 2008, Italy is angry with the proposed terms of that loan, doubly so, given the circumstances today. This is not the result of irresponsible financial management, Italy’s government contends. They believe the disease that is gripping the continent and the world has caused it.

Though the European Commission is rolling out stimulus and stabilization measures, many countries are either left wanting more or reluctant to pitch in, depending on which end of the need spectrum they find themselves on. Countries like Austria and The Netherlands, remembering previous bailouts, want to see tough conditions imposed on loans to EU countries. Meanwhile, Spain and Italy believe they are being punished for a pandemic that has spiraled out of control.

The conflict among the EU states illustrates a phenomenon seen around the world during this crisis. In the face of any crisis, but especially a pandemic, countries tend to look inward. With each foreign entrant, a potential carrier of disease or an added toll on the healthcare system, a sense of international community is hard to conjure. In such circumstances, cooperation between nations becomes difficult. To illustrate, most of the European Union has closed its internal borders.

In a pandemic, people want their country to care for its citizens first. They believe helping the rest of the world should come later. National identities become stronger, and liberal values fall a few notches on nations’ priority list. For similar reasons, autocracies thrive during pandemics.

Hungary: Dictatorship on the Danube

Authoritarians around the world have used the coronavirus to justify greater curtailment of citizens’ rights. Pandemics offer an excellent pretext to push the dictator’s playbook: mass surveillance, xenophobia, limited freedoms, and control of the media. Hungary, a country that was already drifting toward autocracy, has become a de facto dictatorship during the COVID-19 crisis.

Prime minister Viktor Orbán recently secured his right to Putin-level power in the country, allowing him to rule indefinitely by decree. Citing the needs for central leadership during the health crisis, Orbán immediately introduced sweeping new laws and executive powers, including retribution for any criticism of the government.

The government has already seized the opportunity to enact laws totally unrelated to the pandemic. Instead, they authorize laws that are the European strongman's favorites. One such law bans transgender identity, requiring that the gender assigned at birth remain unchanged for all citizens.

Naturally, the EU feels overwhelmed and upset by these developments, which couldn’t have come at a worse time. Hungary is now the first and only non-democracy in the bloc, a violation of the spirit of the union as free, democratic states. For now, the European Union appears content to merely dole out criticism. Perhaps they're waiting for the lifting of the collective strain of coronavirus before developing a strategy to address Hungary’s upheaval.

A Test of Resilience

To understate, it’s been a challenging few years for the European Union. From the painfully slow departure of the United Kingdom to the migrant crisis caused by wars in the Middle East, the EU’s footing was none too sure to begin the new decade. The emergence of a likely dictatorship in a member country, coupled with a pandemic with hundreds of thousands of confirmed cases, was the last thing needed. The months and years to follow will be a tremendous test for the bloc’s resilience.

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