A court decision from Poland’s Law and Justice party marks a grave challenge to the rule of law in Europe
FOR THOSE worried about the health of European democracy, the departures were all the more welcome for being so unexpected. After a decade in which populist governments have undermined the rule of law and moulded the state to their advantage across central and eastern Europe, two leaders accused of manipulating the political system lost power on the same day.
Mr Kurz denies that he broke any laws or had any knowledge of the scheme. He will stay on as head of the party in parliament, and his replacement as chancellor is a close ally, Alexander Schallenberg. He might even have tried to stick it out, had not his coalition partners, the Green Party, threatened to bring the government down if he stayed. Austrians are sharply polarised in their views of Mr Kurz, but he is likely to attempt a comeback.
Mr Babis spent the last weeks of the campaign imitating Mr Orban’s EU-bashing rhetoric. He has imitated Mr Orban’s techniques of media control too: Agrofert owns publications with a 25% share of the print news market. But the Pandora Papers got heavy coverage and may have tipped the balance in the election. Turnout was high, especially among young people and in cities where the opposition is strong. Spolu , an alliance of centre-right parties, got 27.8% of the vote to ANO’s 27.1%.
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