Janusz Bugajski: SUMMER OF PROTESTS

Albania is not alone. The protests, demonstrations, and boycotts that have rocked the country in recent weeks have been replicated in several other European states. However, the reasons for mass actions are many and varied, although in most cases they reveal a lack of public accountability by government officials even in established democracies.

Georgia has witnessed the most intense recent street protests. Amid growing opposition to government corruption and incompetence, mass demonstrations were triggered by the government’s invitation of a Russian politician,Sergei Gavrilov, to chaira conference on Christian Orthodoxy in the Georgian parliament. His speech in Russian from the parliamentary speaker’s chair deeply insulted many Georgians who vehemently oppose Moscow’s continuing occupation of 20% of Georgian territory.

Police used tear gas and rubber bullets to prevent protesters from storming parliament and hundreds of people were injured.In retaliation for the protests, Moscow cancelled flights to Tbilisi to damage Georgia’s tourist industry and tightened controls on wine imports that bring Georgia millions of dollars in annual revenue. This unleashed even more anger among Georgians and led to the resignation of the parliamentary speaker.

Conspiracy theories have also rocked the state. Georgia’s President Salome Zurabishvili blamed a “fifth column” loyal to Moscow for stirring up the trouble, while Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed that “Russophobic hysteria” was being whipped up in the country. Meanwhile, anti-government protesters gained another victory as parliament agreed to switch from a mixed to a proportional electoral system in the 2020 elections, with no threshold for parties to get into parliament. This would help opposition parties to more fairly competein elections and enter government coalitions.

In the Czech Republic, another corrupted government is under immense pressure from mass protests. Five major demonstrations have taken place in Prague to demand the resignation of Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis. Last Sunday, an estimated quarter of a million protestors formed the largest rally since the fall of communism in 1989.

Babis is embroiled in controversy due to alleged conflicts of interest involving his former agriculturalbusiness and criminal investigations into fraud in connection with EU subsidies. Even police chiefs have recommended that Babis be prosecuted for fraudulently claiming an EU subsidy worth two million euros.Meanwhile, the EU is demanding that Prague return millions of euros of structural fundsthat directly benefited Babis’s companies.

The opposition is also concerned that Babis is conniving with Czech President Milos Zeman, a pro-Putin sympathizer, to destroy the independence of the judiciary. Protesters across the country fear that Czech democratic institutions are under a similar attack as in neighbouring Poland and Hungaryand designed to increase single-party control over the state.Continuing public pressure on a mass scale is likely to bring down the government in the coming weeks.

In Albania’s immediate neighborhood anti-government protests have rattled both Serbia and Montenegro in recent months.In Serbia, public dissatisfaction with official corruption, media control, and political violence against opposition politicians continues to generate protest actions in Belgrade and other major cities. Protestors have demanded the resignation of the Aleksandar Vucic government and the holding of new elections. As in Georgia, the vast majority of protesters arehighly educated citizens, young people, and students, although some opposition parties havetried to hijack a largely spontaneous movement.

In Montenegro, street protests against the incumbent government of Milo Djukanovic have focused on the longevity of the incumbentparty in power, as well as official corruption and attacks on journalists that demonstrators believe are state sponsored. Unlike in Serbia, opposition parties have largely organized the protests and areintent onremoving Djukanovic from office. Many of the protestors are supporters of Serbian nationalist movements who oppose NATO membership and favor closer Montenegrin-Russian relations. Money channeled from Russian oligarchs and other Kremlin sources are evidently fuelling many of the protests.

Two lessons can be learned from this summer of protest and discontent. First, that even in consolidated democracies such as the Czech Republicthe public may not passively accept government abuse and corruption between election cycles and a new generation of frustrated citizens are willing toparticipate in mass protests. And second, in some cases public anger can be whipped up and manipulated to either benefit opposition parties or to serve the geopolitical interests of an outside power.