Arne O. Holm says The Fascists, Autocrats, and Dictators Looking to Ruin Our Democracy Are Creeping Closer
Poland's new Prime Minister, Karol Nawrocki (to the left), is, for the time being, the latest addition to the heads of state who are trying to fight democracy. Here, Nawrocki is posing with the US President Donald in the White House before the election. (Photo: the White House / Joyce N. Boghosian)
Comment: It is not the fear of a military war in the Arctic that frightens me most. It is the increasingly extensive attack on our democracies that keeps me awake at night. The war is already underway and will not be stopped by expanding weapon arsenals.
This is a comment written by a member of the editorial staff. The comment is an expression of the writer's opinions.
The countries that are increasingly exposed to Russia in the east and the US in the west still rank at the top of statistics on democracy, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press.
We are surrounded by the world's largest depository of nuclear weapons, some just kilometers from Norway, Sweden, and Finland's borders, but still insist that the Arctic is a peaceful part of the world, while stocking our weapon arsenals.
Explosive costs
The costs are explosive, and ultimately, the question is whether we can afford to invest in our fundamental values. Not just defend them with weapons.
The other day, Karol Nawrocki won the election in Poland by the smallest possible margin. In reality, two far-right-wing candidates were facing each other. Finally, only about one percent separated them. The winner is a Trump parrot, also when it comes to having a criminal past.
Donald Trump was one of the first to congratulate.
In France, the leader of the far-right party Rassemblement national was recently convicted to four years in prison for embezzlement, without any consequences so far. On the contrary, she garners support from the US Department of State for what is referred to as political persecution by the legal system.
Any legally justified conviction is characterized as political persecution when it happens to Trump's like-minded people.
Investing in values, not just defending them with weapons.
The other day, the extremist Geert Wilders left the Dutch government. Beforehand, he had, like his anti-democratic counterparts in various European countries, demonstrated his political incompetence in leading positions. But where Trump faces no resistance while stumbling around in his own insanity, Wilder's was dependent on a government partner.
Creeping closer
We all already know the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
They are creeping closer, the anti-democratic, while Russia continues its hybrid warfare against Western countries to create division and uproar against democracy, fully supported by the US president.
So are we, with a free press and freedom of speech, equipped to resist?
I hope so, but I'm not sure.
Recently, one of the world's wealthiest men, the Norwegian shipowner and investor John Fredriksen, gave a rare, forceful statement:
"The entire Western world is heading downwards," he said, and moved from democracy in the UK to the Emirates, one of the world's most authoritarian regimes.
The Western world is heading downwards.
Paradoxically, he is holding onto his substantial shares in Norwegian companies. Democracy is utterly subordinate to profit. And not only that, it is driving the West to its grave.
And speaking of the UK. There, the Conservative Party is preparing to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). That is how to squash international human rights organizations in favor of authoritarian countries' definition of the same thing.
In Norway, the Christian Democrats want to ban Pride flags in Norwegian schools. This is also a desire to ban expressions that they don't like.
A poison seeping into democratic landscapes.
Ban on debates
Danish schoolchildren are not escaping political censorship either. Ahead of the school elections in Denmark, bans have been put in place on discussion of Palestine and Israel's brutal slaughter of civilians in the youth election campaign. Denmark does not recognize Palestine as its own state.
The attacks on democracy are creeping ever closer, and no arsenal of weapons is capable of stopping it.
While writing, the world's richest man, Elon Musk, and one of the world's most corrupt presidents, Donald Trump, have locked horns. They use their freedom of speech to send hateful messages and threats to each other on social media platforms they own themselves.
Simultaneously, they do what they can to limit or stop freedom of speech for students, journalists, academics, and immigrants.
For some European heads of state, they are role models.
For those of us who continue to believe in democracy as a form of governance, a poison is slowly but seeping into what remains of democratic landscapes.
