Anti‐populist Protests (East Central Europe)

Abstract

In many East European countries, publicly manifested liberal values seemingly lost their ground in postcommunist politics. As argued elsewhere, this liberal influence probably ended first in Russia, during the major economic crisis at the end of the 1990s. The political context began to transform in other East European countries too, bringing to power what has come to be called populists. The concentration of power, in Hungary even in the form of a new constitution, control over the judicial system, and limiting the watchdog function of the media and civil society, form the common denominator of their program in Central Eastern Europe, and this often provokes protest reactions. While in Poland and Hungary they focused on cultural issues, such as abortions and the fate of liberal education, forming the self‐proclaimed conservative revolutions having taken place in the two countries, in Czechia and Slovakia they were concerned mostly with corruption and the conflicts of interest of the political elite. In general, anti‐governmental protest issues in East Central European countries mirrored the policies and perceived missteps of the populists in power.