Politicians in several Eastern European countries are taking advantage of the influence of US President Donald Trump’s rhetoric to intensify their attacks on civil society and undermine the rule of law, human rights groups warn.
In Hungary, but also in Serbia, and more recently in Slovakia and Georgia, human rights NGOs and independent media that criticize the government and expose corruption are being discredited and financially stifled.
In the face of these attacks, many organizations had found moral and financial support, especially in the US.
Following Donald Trump’s return to the White House and his own challenge to democratic norms in the US, however, nationalist leaders have been able to capitalise on his rhetoric and actions to justify their crackdown on civil society.
The Trump administration's positions and policies "are being used in real time by autocrats and dictators across Eastern and Southeastern Europe to justify and deepen their crackdown on independent media, NGOs and human rights defenders," says Dave Ellsroad of the Human Rights House.
As soon as he returned to power in January, Donald Trump froze US foreign aid, claiming that the USAID was "run by radical lunatics" and dissolved it.
Billionaire Elon Musk, who supported him financially during his campaign and is now one of the most influential figures in the presidential entourage, described the agency as a “criminal organization“ that should be “put through the mill“. He does not hide his sympathies for the far right in Europe and often interferes in political debates on the Old Continent.
“Financially strangled“
Miklos Ligeti, head of the legal department of the Hungarian branch of the anti-corruption NGO “Transparency Without Borders“ (Transparency International), points out that Donald Trump's statements are “so encouraging that they are used in Budapest, Belgrade, Bratislava or Banja Luka“.
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has funded a huge number of independent organizations in countries like Hungary, where these groups are “financially suffocated“, the analyst explains.
And just as the financial aid dries up, local authorities are stepping up their attacks.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán hailed the abolition of the USAID as “a breath of fresh air“ and plans to ban NGOs receiving US funding.
He announced a series of legislative measures and sharpened his tone, calling his political enemies, judges, the media and NGOs “stinking bugs“ and promised to “liquidate the entire shadow army“.
“Justification“
The inspiration from the other side of the Atlantic is also palpable in Georgia. The Georgian parliament has adopted a copy of the American Foreign Agents Registration Act, which observers say could be used against civil society.
The law, according to the European Commission, is “fundamentally incompatible“ with EU values.
In Serbia, which has been rocked for months by protests against government corruption, the authorities have explicitly referred to statements by Donald Trump and other American politicians to justify the raids on a number of NGOs.
“Independent voices are being lost“
Pavol Szalai of the organization “Reporters Without Borders“ also condemned attacks on media outlets that have received funding from the United States Agency for International Development.
He expressed regret for the double punishment that these media outlets are being subjected to, deprived of funding and increasingly subject to intimidation.
The Republika Srpska within Bosnia and Herzegovina is an example of this, according to Bojana Mižić, project manager at Capital.Ba, an independent online daily that focuses on economic issues and corruption.
“This is the worst possible situation that civil society organizations have ever experienced since the post-war period,“ she told AFP. “Independent voices are being lost“, added Mižić.
“We fear that journalism serving the public interest in some countries will not survive this blow, as these media outlets are withdrawing [...] they will be replaced by propaganda“, points out Pavol Szalai.
translation from French with abbreviations: Alexey Margoevsky, BTA