A president who decrees martial law in the middle of the night, the army defied by deputies and the street: the attempted coup on Tuesday in South Korea constitutes a new blow against liberal democracies already largely weakened throughout the world .
Seoul abruptly descended into political chaos with the surprise imposition of martial law by conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol “to protect” the country “from threats posed by North Korean communist forces and eliminate elements hostile to the state “.
If the measure was repealed at the last minute by opposition deputies supported by an angry crowd gathered in front of the National Assembly, and the head of state now risks dismissal, South Korea has seen the specter resurface of the dictatorship, gone for almost 40 years.
Even if fleeting, this episode once again illustrates the threats weighing on the democratic model erected after 1945 and consolidated after the collapse of the Soviet bloc at the end of the 20th century, in decline for around twenty years.
At the end of a rich electoral year, with more than half of the world’s population of voting age called to the polls, the authoritarian abuses observed almost everywhere are worrying, as is the increase in violence and the manipulation of ballots, according to a recent report from the American organization Freedom House.
2024 saw the unsurprising re-election of “hard” autocrats, such as Vladimir Putin in Russia (with 87% of the vote) or Ilham Aliyev in Azerbaijan (more than 90% of the vote).
Strong men also maintain their hold in so-called “hybrid” democracies, even if they have to deal with organized and determined opposition, as in India or Turkey, where the parties of Narendra Modi and Recep Tayyip Erdogan have recorded a notable decline. in legislative and municipal elections.
– “Dangerous moment” –
Now, even the countries where electoral competition is the most open are faltering: South Korea last night but also the United States, self-proclaimed guardians of democracy in the world, where the populist Donald Trump was re-elected in November.
The billionaire with an ultraconservative entourage promised to bring justice into line, to punish hostile media, and even to appoint civil servants according to their ideology.
If he implements his program, “America will experience the most violent attack on counter-powers and civil liberties in its peacetime history,” worries American researcher Larry Diamond in the journal Foreign Affairs, convinced that the leader will be “more implacable” than during his first term.
“We are at a dangerous moment, and not only in the United States,” confirms Max Bergmann of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) to AFP.
In Europe too, we see “increasingly polarized and fragmented policies” where “it becomes more difficult to compromise and govern, to the point of breaking up power coalitions”, underlines the researcher.
In France, the National Assembly is preparing to bring down on Wednesday the executive formed after a controversial dissolution in June and early legislative elections. In the absence of a parliamentary majority, irreconcilable currents (left, far right and center-right) clash daily on all subjects, preventing any reform, starting with the adoption of the 2025 budget at the origin of the current impasse.
In Germany, the alliance between the social democrats of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the liberals and the ecologists, exploded in November and opened a political crisis with an uncertain future, with early legislative elections planned for February.
In the Netherlands, a fragile coalition of four parties undermined by divisions is trying to govern after the breakup of the previous one at the end of 2023.
– Distrust and withdrawal –
This volatility is explained in particular by “an unprecedented crisis of confidence since 1945 in political parties and the media”, explains Bertrand Badie, specialist in international relations at Sciences Po.
“There is a real drying up of the political offer,” he continues: “in France or the United States, what Macron or (Kamala) Harris proposed, if not to prevent their rivals – Trump and “Marine Le Pen’s far right – to gain power? This poses a big problem of legitimacy.”
A climate of distrust which often benefits populist and far-right parties, clearly on the rise in the European legislative elections in June as well as in the national elections in Germany, France, the Netherlands, or before this year in Italy and Hungary . In Romania, a far-right candidate, who came first in the first round of the presidential election, could also take power on Sunday.
The observation is there: many voters cling to arguments such as the fight against immigration and the restoration of their purchasing power. They increasingly favor personalities embodying a certain authority, like the Hungarian Viktor Orban or Donald Trump.
“The planet and societies are experiencing a great transformation. Liberal globalization no longer provides the answers for millions of people worried about these sometimes radical changes in the way of living with others, of moving or of producing”, deciphers for the ‘AFP Gilles Gressani, director of the geopolitical magazine Le Grand Continent.
“The consequence is that there is an increasingly strong demand to stop change, and since this seems more and more improbable, the illusory temptation to withdraw.”
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