2020-04-04 The Week Magazine

14 NEWS Best columns: Europe

UKRAINE

Reality is catching up with Ukraine’s comedian

turned president, said Sevgil Musayeva. Volodymyr

Zelensky—previously known for starring as an acci-

dental president in a satirical TV show—had no po-

litical experience when he was elected in a landslide

last year. Voters thought he’d be a “popular hero,”

just as he was on screen. “Obnoxious politicians”

would be ousted, and the war and strife that has

plagued Ukraine would end. But the illusion is fad-

ing. Zelensky, 42, fired most of his cabinet earlier

this month, and his prime minister quit after being

overheard trashing his boss’ economic acumen. The

country is now on its third prime minister in seven

months. Anti-corruption measures have stalled after

the government failed to stamp its authority on

internal agencies, and the impression now is one of

“panic and powerlessness.” Zelensky’s mistake was

to prioritize loyalty over experience as untried aides

were suddenly given huge responsibility. When

these neophytes realized how little power they had

to change things, they formed ties with the oli-

garchs who really run Ukraine, and their loyalty to

Zelensky “crumbled.” Now faced with a “perfect

storm” of challenges—tough IMF loan conditions,

a recession, and a potential coronavirus outbreak—

the president’s administration is “close to collapse.”

If their approach to municipal government is

any guide, the far-right Sweden Democrats are

authoritarians in waiting, said Jenny Wennberg.

In 2018, the anti-immigration populist party won

its first mayoralty in the southern Swedish town

of Horby. And so far, this experiment in far-right

governance has been a disaster. At least 25 mu-

nicipal managers have quit since the takeover,

citing “bullying, abuses, harassment, and slander.”

Union representatives say they have been threat-

ened. The federal government has already been

forced to step in: The Swedish Work Environment

Authority has ordered the city council to improve

its work environment by June or face stiff fines.

Yet the bullying ethos isn’t just limited to those

who work directly for the town. Residents who

protested cuts to municipal services weren’t lis-

tened to respectfully, as is the norm in Sweden,

but were treated as if they had made “an attack

on the people’s government.” The city council

is even trying to block the work of journalists

reporting on it: When a reporter from this paper

went to review the daily city planner—standard

operating procedure for local reporters—he was

flanked by two city workers, who loomed at his

side the whole time. This is what happens when a

“racist movement” takes power: We end up with

“fear, silence, and a dying democracy.”

AP

Lombardy now resembles a war

zone, said Lettera 43 in an editorial.

This wealthy northern region is the

epicenter of Italy’s coronavirus out-

break, and its intensive-care wards

are packed with thousands of patients

suffering from the respiratory ill-

ness. When one ventilator becomes

free—because a patient has died or

recovered—doctors must make a life-

and-death decision about who should

be hooked up to the machine. Younger

people have better odds of survival,

and so some hospitals are no longer

ventilating coronavirus patients over

age 60. The death toll in Lombardy

is accelerating rapidly—more than 1,200 people had died by the

start of this week, and the figure was going up by a few hundred

every day—as is the caseload. At the Pope John XXIII Hospital

in the city of Bergamo, doctors “work tirelessly, intubating seven

people a day and resting one day out of every 14.” But they are

not superhuman. In Bergamo and the surrounding area, at least

71 health-care workers have come down with the virus.

To understand the scale of the suffering, said Alessandra Ferrara

in Switzerland’s Tio.ch, consider that the newspaper L’Eco di

Bergamo now has 11 pages of death notices. There used to be

only one page. Crematoriums are working at capacity, and the

morgues are full. In the city of Brescia, the bishop has begun

identifying empty churches he can use “to shelter the remains

awaiting burial.” Funeral services have been banned along with

all other gatherings. “Many now realize they said goodbye to

their relatives for the last time when

they were taken to the hospital.”

Lombardy feels abandoned, said

Sandro Neri in Il Giorno. The whole

of Italy is under lockdown, with all

schools and artistic events canceled and

most bars and restaurants closed. But

the region most affected by the coro-

navirus “has found itself alone in the

fight against an aggressive enemy, with-

out government support.” Authorities

in Lombardy are desperately trying to

build an extra field hospital—as the

Chinese did in Wuhan—and the civil

defense corps was supposed to provide

beds and equipment, but it has been slow. The 200,000 masks

it did send were not hospital-grade and had to be thrown out.

“What they sent us was like a handkerchief, a sheet of toilet

paper,” said Lombardy’s senior health official, Giulio Gallera.

And since the crisis began several weeks ago, Prime Minister

Giuseppe Conte and his ministers have barely set foot here.

Ordinary Italians are bravely trying to make the best of their

confinement, said Gaia Scorza Barcellona in La Repubblica.

Using “music as therapy against fear,” people are forming flash

mobs on balconies to play and sing together, with a different

melody for each town. Romans sing “Roma Capoccia” by

Antonello Venditti, “while in the Sardinian city of Cagliari, the

verses of ‘Wherever You Are’ sound over an accordion accompa-

niment.” Tricolor flags adorn many buildings. Italy is mourning,

but Italy is singing. That’s how we’ll get through this crisis.

A panicking

president faces

up to reality

Sevgil Musayeva
Ukrayinska Pravda

SWEDEN

Medical staff tend to the sick in Brescia.

When the

far right

takes control

Jenny Wennberg
Aftonbladet

Italy: Life in the center of a viral storm