ADVANCING SOCIAL JUSTICE IN EUROPE - SOLIDAR calls for fighting back the shrinking civic space

No democracy without strong Civil Society Organisations

Civic space is the bedrock of any open and democratic society. Civil Society Organisations are a key player for our democracy to flourish, and the more the civic space shrinks the less a society can be considered democratic. 

Today, the civic space is narrowing in a growing number of countries worldwide¹, including in the EU. Together with it, democracy itself is under attack. The far right-wing and populist parties have waged a war against solidarity, in fact, CSOs are under threat in all the countries where these parties entered government. Hungary, Italy, and Poland are a warning that cannot be ignored. Nationalists, the far-right and populists are undermining representative democracy by questioning it at large, fueling confusions and using scapegoats to divert people’s frustration into easier targets.