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[Brendan McDermid\/Reuters]<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cConcerns about the health of democracy in the U.S. are not a new phenomenon; our democratic institutions have been tested before. Nevertheless, the current threats to our system of governance are acute. The health and future of US democracy is of deep concern around the world and here at home, including to both Republicans and Democrats\u201d the Brookings Institute noted in its \u201cDemocracy Playbook 2025: Seven Pillars to Defend Democracy in 2025 and Beyond,\u201d which it published on Thursday, four days after Donald Trump\u2019s inauguration for a second presidential term.<\/p>\n
The list of \u201cpillars\u201d alone underlines how difficult the coming years will be. In his first term, in the years that followed, and in the first days of his second presidency, Trump has tried \u2013 with great determination \u2013 to undermine all these principles: protecting elections; defending the rule of law; fighting corruption; reinforcing civic and media space; protecting pluralist governance; countering disinformation. The seventh pillar \u2013 making democracy deliver \u2013 is very ambivalent. On the one hand, democracy delivered power back to Trump, on the other, it granted him the legitimacy to undermine it for others.<\/p>\n
There is no need to analyze democracy\u2019s pillars one by one, describing the blows they have suffered and are still to face. The great question of our time is how we will endure what is to come, as societies, as individuals, as a system of global governance. In the United States, it will be very difficult to defend democratic institutions and traditions, as agents of an well-organized extreme-right are moving swiftly to control the state machinery and institutions, while, in a whirlwind of disinformation, trust in news media is exceptionally low (thanks in no small part to the media themselves). With division growing, with everyone believing what they wish, it will be ever more difficult for enough citizens to agree on something that would be able to avert the downward slide. The way things are going, we are waiting passively to see whether the inevitable conflict between members of Trump\u2019s administration will soften the fallout from his policies or whether it will lead to even more extreme actions. The Democratic Party, meanwhile, appears to be struggling to recover from defeat in November and to present a strong opposition front.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPillars\u201d are good and useful, but democracy\u2019s defense depends mostly on the trust that it inspires in citizens. As the Brookings report notes, democracy must deliver, and must be seen to do so. This is where Europe has a duty, but also a need, to deliver: to defend democracy and strengthen ties among its nations. Europe needs to keep alive the flame, the vision of democracy. This will not be easy, as our interconnected world is like a living organism that has no antibodies against any pathogens that enter its system. We see, for example, how the wealth, arrogance and ownership of a major information network allows a (naturalized) American, Elon Musk, to intervene in the politics of European states. It is time for the Europeans to understand that if they do not shoulder the responsibility of defending democracy, their societies will be threatened by division and the Union will fall apart. If there is any hope for democracy, it is in a Europe that will be stable and united, despite the time we are living in.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n