In Europe, liberalism seems to have a different meaning depending on the specific national political context. In Germany, for example, the Free Democratic Party (FDP) is considered a centre-right, classical liberal party supporting free markets and limited government.
For the upcoming Mayor’s election in the Hungarian capital, two out of four candidates have made the green, liveable city the centerpiece of their campaign. The election on October 13, 2019, will therefore show, among others, how well this topic can move voters in Budapest.
“How Do Democracies Win?” was the main theme of this year’s edition of Freedom Games, an annual prestigious forum of ideas organized in Lodz, Poland. Needless to say, the title of the forum is a question uneasy to answer. I would also not dare to provide a straight-forward answer to it.
The 2019 edition of tFreedom Games, titled “How Do Democracies Win?”, gathered in Lodz leaders and renowned thinkers and engaged them in a debate on the most important challenges that local and global communities must face in the 21st century.
Both liberals and the left-wingers have a wide range of options for cooperation in Poland. This space encompasses not only typical overlapping areas in terms of their views as regards minority rights, civil rights or cultural changes within the society, but also defending the political system.
Even though the victory of Zuzana Čaputová in the presidential elections in Slovakia is undeniably a positive development for the Central European region, it should not be perceived as a new macro trend.
Liberty-minded people should not strive for utopias, but instead encourage people to see how much better the world became through the ideas of free markets, rule of law, and democracy. If we continue on this path, we have a good chance of living in the best world that can ever be.
Time and again, those who should defend “our” ideas vehemently beat their breast and start apologizing, claiming that they were stupid in their attempts to redefine liberalism. They sometimes even go as far as to state that liberalism is a thing of the past.
Ever since Law and Justice (PiS) came to power, the voices of those who think that the liberal formula has been exhausted or at least needs a solid modification have manifested with particular intensity. Liberalism of today does not need a social update, but a return to the roots.
The last couple of years have seen the citizens of several CEE countries witness the erosion of hard-earned liberalism, while privately and publicly weighing on how to prevent populists in power from further trampling citizen’s freedoms and rights.
