The Economist

38 Europe The EconomistJuly 21 st 2018

2 are the two great nuclear powers” with

“special responsibility for maintaining in-

ternational security”.

Mr Trump for his part owes his elector-

al victory to attacking the establishment

and provoking its outrage. If this was his

aim in Helsinki he certainly succeeded.

Democratsberatedthepresident andJohn

Brennan the CIA director under Mr

Obama called Mr Trump’s performance

“treasonous”—a line which was immedi-

ately seized upon by the Russian media as

anotherproofofAmerica’s innatehostility

towards Russia.

Yet if anything the summit showed

that America’s problems are no more root-

ed in Russia than Russia’s problems are in

America. Thebiggest threat toRussia stems

not from America but its own president

who has undermined the rule of law and

the safety of his people. Somethingsimilar

may now be true of America. As Richard

Haass president of the Council on Foreign

Relations a think-tank said in a tweet in

Helsinki“AmericaFirstresemblednothing

so much as Russia First.” 7

Source:Eurobarometer *Those respondingfairly/very negative

Negative sentiment* about non-EU immigration

Percentage-pointchangeNov 2014 toMar 2018

20 10 – 0 + 10 20

Ireland

Britain

Spain

Italy

Germany

EU average

France

Netherlands

Greece

Austria

Czech Rep.

Finland

Denmark

Slovakia

Sweden

Hungary

Poland

Romania

BECOMING

LESS

NEGATIVE

BECOMING

MORE

NEGATIVE

You might assume that the huge inflow of

asylum-seekers since 2015 has made

Europe more xenophobic. Opinion polls

tell a more nuanced story. In November

2014 Eurobarometer began asking citi-

zens ofEUcountries about their sen-

timents towards immigrants. Since then

the overall share of people who have

negative feelings about arrivals from

outside the bloc has fallen from 57 % to

52 %. Different regions however have

been pulling in opposite directions.

Western and southern European coun-

tries have generally become friendlier to

foreigners while northern and eastern

countries have grown more hostile.

Crucially though there seems to be no

correlation between how many migrants

and refugees a country admitted and its

changing opinions of non-Europeans.

Xenophobia’s ups and downs

F

OR Romania’s corrupt politicians Lau-

ra Kovesi has been a nightmare. Ap-

pointed chief of the National Anticorrup-

tion Directorate ( DNA) in 2013  the

implacable prosecutor has overseen the

convictions of more than 1  000 officials

businesspeople and politicians including

nine former ministers. In June the DNA

won a felony conviction against Liviu

Dragnea who as head of the ruling Social

Democrats ( PSD) is Romania’s most pow-

erful politician. He could face three-and-a-

half years in prison for putting two PSD

functionaries on the payroll of the state

child-protection agency.

Yet Mr Dragnea’s allies have fought

back implausibly accusing Ms Kovesi of

incompetence and of targeting only politi-

cians she dislikes. In February the justice

minister ordered her to be fired but Presi-

dent KlausIohannis refused to sign her dis-

missal. The constitutional court sided with

the government and on July 9 th MrIohan-

nis reluctantlysacked her.

Ms Kovesi and the DNA have been a

beacon of hope for reformers in central

and eastern Europe. Herdismissal ispart of

a dismal trend. Across the region upstart

clean-hands parties and protest move-

ments face an unfairfight against networks

of self-dealing politicians and relentless

populardisenchantment.

In Ukraine where politicsisdominated

by powerful oligarchs reformers won a

long-sought victory in June when parlia-

ment created an independent anti-corrup-

tion court. But critics say the new court

lacks sufficient powers. Anti-corruption

campaigners face relentless harassment.

On July 1 7th Vitaly Shabunin one of the

country’s top activists was attacked by

thugs and sprayed with green dye as police

stood bypassively.

Bulgaria the worst offenderin the Euro-

pean Union hurriedly passed a new anti-

corruption law in January aftertaking over

the EU’s rotating presidency. But the new

law violates an EU directive by failing to

protect whistle-blowers who would have

to identify themselves to submit evidence.

In the Czech Republic the prime minister

Andrej Babis formed his second minority

government in June despite facing charges

offraud.

Slovakia had an inspirational period

this spring after the murders in February

of a young investigative journalist and his

girlfriend sparked huge protests that forced

Robert Fico the prime minister to resign.

“People couldn’t believe they lived in the

sort of country where journalists get mur-

dered” says Karolina Farska a 19 - year-old

student and one ofthe central figures in the

Initiative for a Decent Slovakia which

helped organise the protests. Her group

plans to back independent candidates in

the country’s municipal elections later this

year. But the amateur movement has lost

steam and few people think its transition

to electoral politics will be successful.

Good-government parties depend on

the diffuse hopes of citizens for a better

country. Corrupt parties have more con-

crete motivations: money power and the

need to protect themselves from the law.

Since the PSD took power in Romania in

December 2016  “the entire energy of the

government has been focused on keeping

Mr Dragnea out of jail” says Dan Barna

leader of the Union to Save Romania

(USR) an opposition anti-corruption party.

The USR helped organise protests in

early 2017 that stopped the government

from passing an ordinance to cripple the

DNAand exonerate Mr Dragnea. But a new

law before parliament would have much

the same effect giving the justice minister

more power over the judiciary. The Coun-

cil of Venice a European legal advisory

body says the measure could damage the

rule of law. The European Commission

says it will “take action where necessary”

to ensure compatibility with EU law—a

veiled threat of infringement proceedings

ifthe new measure goes too far.

The risk is what political scientists call

“state capture”: the monopolisation ofgov-

ernment by corrupt actors. Exposing scan-

dals without fixing them does little good

says Miroslav Beblavy a Slovakian MP

who in January co-founded Together a

good-government party. This may drive

voters to populist parties who promise re-

venge on elites: “If you see someone piss-

ingin yourface everydayand there’s noth-

ing you can do about it that makes you

about as angryas you can get.” 7

Corruption in eastern Europe

Miss justice

BUCHAREST AND BRATISLAVA

An enemyofcrooked politicians is sacked forbeing too good at herjob