Freedom House publishes report: Albania, Kosovo partially free

According to the Freedom House report, the Balkans are among the regions that have declined, but have also made some progress. Albania and Kosovo continue to remain partially free, and have fallen by one point and two points respectively.

Albania from 67 points last year, has 66 points this year with a drop in the category of rights of collection and organization, related to two events. “We saw a decline in freedom of assembly, due to violence between protesters and security forces in May, during the demolition of the National Theater building. Another cause for concern was when in December police killed a citizen who had violated the curfew order. “These contributed to the decline in the category of freedom of assembly,” said report co-author Amy Slipowitz.

Kosovo suffered a two-point drop from a total of 56 to 54, attributed to the decline in the categories of electoral process and political pluralism. “It had to do with the approval of Prime Minister Hoti’s government by a one-vote majority of a convicted MP,” said Amy Slipowitz, co-author of the report and director of research at Freedom House. The irregularity of this process brought down.

“It was also the fall in the category for the opposition because the old political guard orchestrated the fall of Albin Kurti’s government of the Vetëvendosje party,” said Ms. Slipowitz. Despite the decline of the region, Montenegro and Northern Macedonia have increased, even by 3 points more than last year. Northern Macedonia is one of the countries mentioned for significant growth in the report.

“The reformist government of Northern Macedonia was re-elected and its institutions have largely recovered from the damage caused by former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski,” the report said. 2020 was a year where the coronavirus pandemic prevailed in the world not only as a health crisis and the United States suffered a significant decline in the level of democracy. Fredoom House says the consequences are being felt around the world.

“When democracies decline, or show weakness, it gives authoritarian actors something to mention and space to claim that democracy is an inferior system,” said Sarah Repucci, co-author of the report, vice president for research and analysis at Freedom House. Freedom in the United States fell by three points and has dropped by 11 points in the last decade, a deep decline that already puts the country closer to states with weak institutions like Romania and Panama.

The biggest damage he says to American democracy, Ms Repucci says, was President Trump’s attempts to overthrow the will of American voters and his baseless allegations of election fraud. Citing the events of January 6 as an example, experts from the Freedom House organization, which has measured the level of freedom in the world for decades, say that propagandists around the world use exactly this argument against democratic countries.

“President Biden’s administration must prioritize the consolidation of democracy, we must repair long-term weaknesses and not focus on short-term solutions,” said Ms Repucci. However scholars note that the fact that the judicial system functioned showed the strength of democracy.

Freedom House cites as one of the main concerns China’s role both in concealing the scale of the pandemic and in its efforts to expand its influence in the world. Despite declining levels of freedom, Freedom House concludes that democracy in many parts of the world has continued to demonstrate its resilience, as protests in countries such as Malawi, Myanmar and Russia have shown./VOA

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