Freedom House: Serbia, Montenegro, Hungary ‘No Longer Democracies’

Freedom House's latest 'Nations in Transit' report, published on Wednesday, strongly criticises Serbia, Montenegro and Hungary for falling democratic standards and classifies all three countries for the first time as 'hybrid regimes'.

"Hungary's decline has been the most precipitous ever tracked in Nations in Transit; it was one of the three democratic frontrunners as of 2005, but in 2020 it became the first country to descend by two regime categories and leave the group of democracies entirely," the report says.

In the Balkans, "years of increasing state capture, abuse of power, and strongman tactics employed by [President] Aleksandar Vucic in Serbia and [President] Milo Djukanovic in Montenegro have tipped those countries over the edge -for the first time since 2003, they are no longer categorised as democracies in Nations in Transit," the report adds.

The report covers 29 countries in Eastern Europe, the Balkans and the former Communist bloc, classifying them into five categories: consolidated democracies, semi-consolidated democracies, transitional or hybrid regimes, semi-consolidated authoritarian regimes and consolidated authoritarian regimes.

Map of countries described in Nations in Transit report and their categories, measured by the level of democracy. Graph: Freedom House

Zselyke Csaky from Freedom House said that the reasons for Serbia, Montenegro and Hungary being reclassified as 'hybrid regimes' rather than democracies are different for each country.

"Hungary has seen the biggest decline ever recorded in our report, it has exceeded the average eightfold. Still, its trajectory showed that it takes time and political will to fully dismantle checks and balances and democratic institutions in a country - close to a...