New Autocrats in Eastern Europe
December 10, 2018 5:21 AM   Subscribe

The New Autocrats by Griff Witte (@griffwitte) is a photoessay about the Czech Republic, Poland, Rumania, and Hungary.
posted by kingless (8 comments total) 14 users marked this as a favorite
 
epony-tragic
posted by lalochezia at 6:10 AM on December 10, 2018


This photo is haunting me. The past is holding the future hostage.
posted by ragtag at 6:29 AM on December 10, 2018


CZ too? This is awful.
posted by ocschwar at 6:49 AM on December 10, 2018


The past is holding the future hostage.

We are living squarely in Gramsci's "time of monsters".
posted by ryanshepard at 7:55 AM on December 10, 2018


Thanks for posting this. I recently began reading Robert Kaplan's 'Eastward to Tartary' and I expect this will make for a depressing epilogue.
posted by kmkrebs at 7:58 AM on December 10, 2018


The judicial takeovers are especially worrying because we see exactly that happening in the US under Trump, to an even worse extent than the Bush years.
posted by tobascodagama at 9:18 AM on December 10, 2018 [3 favorites]


The judicial takeover is happening in my country (Poland) right before our eyes and it's just unbelievably open and obvious.

Imagine one third of the Supreme Court forced to resign and new judges appointed by the government. A new disciplinary chamber of the Supreme Court to punish judges. Allowing petitions to reverse final court rulings up to 20 years back.

It's just heartbreaking.
posted by M. at 12:13 PM on December 10, 2018 [5 favorites]


Poland and the rest of Eastern Europe would be even more screwed if not for the EU reversing some of the worst judicial meddling and providing a venue of appeal - everyone still wants that sweet EU Cohesion Fund money. Thankfully the right-wing idiots are well, idiots, and the lovely incident of the fricking chief of our SEC equivalent outright asking for a 40-million bribe from a bank CEO is getting more and more airtime. Elections next year. Fingers very crossed the opposition get their act together.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 1:33 AM on December 11, 2018 [1 favorite]


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