In Europe, the level of democracy has decreased in five years

Democracy has fallen in more than half of Europe in five years. This is the conclusion of the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) in its report.

Europe and the Americas were the most affected by the deterioration: in each of these regions, more than half of the countries showed a decline in at least one of the assessed criteria. In Europe, from 2020 to 2025, there were 77 cases of deterioration of democratic indicators and only 42 cases of improvement.

The assessment is based on 155 indicators. Most often, degradation affected civil liberties, access to justice and the integrity of elections. Eastern Europe accounted for 28 out of 77 cases of deterioration, Central – 18, Southern – 16, Northern and Western in total – 15.

Press freedom declined in Iceland, Italy and the United Kingdom, while freedom of expression declined in Denmark and Germany. In Southern Europe, no improvement in any indicator was recorded over the entire five-year period.

The Ministry of defense of Poland said about the shortage of patriots in the country