Europeans on democracy's frontlines offer advice to Americans: never give up
With the new Trump “So my advice to Americans is never relax, always be on guard, democracy is not given, not even in the landera likely to pose unprecedented challenges the message from Europe’s fragile democracies is: stay united and safeguard your institutions
Julian Borger in Belgrade
Mon 3 Feb 2025 05.00 EST
Europeans who witnessed democracy crumble before their eyes have some words of advice for Americans now entering the second Trump era and worrying about the durability of their rights and freedoms: stay united, safeguard your civic institutions and never, never give up.
Citizens of central and eastern Europe are long accustomed to receiving counsel from a multitude of well-meaning US organisations on how to protect their fragile democracies following the fall of the Berlin Wall. Now, after just 10 days of Donald Trump’s executive orders and civil service purges, the advice is beginning to flow the other way.
When Serbians toppled the dictator Slobodan Milošević in a revolution in 2000, they had left autocracy behind, but the country’s fragile democracy has shrunk steadily over the past few years under the current president, Aleksandar Vučić. Their lesson is to take nothing for granted.
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“I never liked the metaphor of the frog in a slowly boiling water, but it applies very well to our situation,” Srđan Cvijić at the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy said. “One decision at a time, our regime has stripped Serbia of its democratic system. It didn’t come overnight. First they captured the media, then the judiciary, then other independent institutions, then they started rigging the elections, and finally they are trying to strip us of the right to freedom of assembly.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/03/europeans-democracy-advice-trump-americans
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