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The liberal era that began in Central Europe in 1989 has come to an end. Populism and illiberalism are tearing the region apart. Hungary is in a state of a "cold civil war" between the manipulative postcommunist government (one that admitted to lying "in the morning, in the evening, and at night") and the populist anticommunist opposition, which keeps its doors open to the extreme right. The Slovak government is a strange coalition of Robert Fico's soft populists, Ján Slota's hard nationalists, and Vladimír Meèiar's Meciarists-an unimpressive brew of nationalism, provincialism, and welfarism. In the Czech Republic there is no major problem with the government-the only problem is that for almost seven months the country's political parties failed to form a government. In Romania the president and the parliamentary majority are engaged in an open war, with secret-police files from the communist era and corruption files from the postcommunist era the weapons of choice. In Bulgaria extreme nationalism is surging, but the mainstream parties and governmental institutions are accommodating it instead of fighting it.
The capital of Central European illiberalism today, however, is Poland. It is currently ruled by a coalition of three parties: the right-wing populists of the post-Solidarity Law and Justice party; the postcommunist provincial troublemakers of the Self-Defense Party; and the heirs of the pre-World War II chauvinist, xenophobic, and anti-Semitic groups that form the League of Polish Families. This coalition has been characterized by its most outspoken critic, editor and former dissident Adam Michnik, as employing a peculiar mix of the conservative rhetoric of George W. Bush and the authoritarian political practice of Vladimir Putin.1
Throughout the region, publics mistrust politicians and political parties. The political class is viewed as corrupt and self-interested. Dissatisfaction with democracy is growing. According to the global survey Voice of the People 2006, Central Europe, contrary to all expectations, is the region of the world where citizens are most skeptical about the merits of democracy.2 The picture is bleak and depressing. The liberal parties founded by former dissidents have been marginalized,3 the liberal language of rights is exhausted, and centrism and liberalism are under attack both as philosophy and as political practice. The new hard reality in Central Europe is political polarization, a rejection of consensual...