The Times - UK (2022-04-30)

the times | Saturday April 30 2022 2GM 43

being interviewed by security officials.

“When they arrived to check their

luggage, they showed the piece of the

shell to security,” the Israel Airports

Authority said. “Since it was a shell, the

evacuation of the area was announced.”

The departure terminal was reopened

after security ruled out any danger and

passengers were able to board flights.

The shell was picked up at the Golan

Heights and caused panic at security

Wearing a bikini? Get

rock, paper, scissors justice

Page 46

Pistorius claims victim’s

parents are delaying

his parole hearing

Page 45

Populists in retreat

as eastern Europe

embraces centrists

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is helping

to push back an illiberal tide in central

and eastern Europe and encouraging a

realignment along centrist lines.

The heavy election defeat of Janez

Jansa, prime minister three times

already, last weekend in Slovenia was

the latest setback for populist politics.

Despite only being formed in Janu-

ary, Robert Golob’s liberal, green Free-

dom Movement won 41 of the 90 seats

in the Slovenian parliament. Voters

weary of Jansa’s authoritarianism left

his Slovenian Democratic Party with 27

seats.

Jansa’s loss is also another

setback for Viktor Orban,

the Hungarian prime

minister, and his

dream of building an

illiberal bloc able to

change the course of

the European Union.

President Putin has

sought to encourage

this effort as part of a

push to destabilise the

West, analysts say. The 2008

financial crisis and migrant wave

of 2015 also helped populist and radical-

right parties take power in many coun-

tries of the region.

However, voters have been backing

away from extremist and anti-estab-

lishment parties as governance stan-

dards have failed to improve. The pan-

demic helped to push many towards the

mainstream and centrist parties have

worked together to oust populists.

Before Jansa’s defeat, populists had

lost their footing in Bulgaria, the Czech

Republic and Slovakia. The invasion of

Ukraine has accelerated the trend. “A

real realignment has been under way

since the start of the war in Ukraine,”

said Milan Nic, an expert on the region

at the German Council on Foreign

Relations. Corruption has also been a

common factor in undermining popu-

lists. Many gained power by leveraging

anger over corrupt mainstream parties,

only for their stewardships to be blight-

ed by scandals, often involving abuse of

EU funds. The ousted populist leaders

in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and

Slovakia all face criminal charges.

Dr Alem Maksuti, a political analyst,

suggested that corruption had also ex-

panded under Jansa. “Wherever you

look in Slovenia you can see evidence of

dirty business,” he said.

Orban is also widely accused of cor-

ruption. However, his tighter grip on

the levers of Hungarian democracy

helped him to win another land-

slide in elections this month.

Despite having cultivated

a role as an icon for the

radical right globally,

he is starting to look

isolated as his allies

around the region fall.

Even Poland, which

has worked with Hun-

gary for years to repel

the efforts of the EU to

force the two countries to

respect democratic stan-

dards, is pulling away. Orban’s ties

with Putin have led to an all-time low in

relations with the nationalist conserva-

tive Law and Justice government in

Warsaw. The European Commission

hopes to take advantage of the schism

to rein in Orban. Talks with Poland over

a compromise that would unlock frozen

funds are under way.

With support for anti-establishment

parties still strong in many countries,

analysts warn that there is a long way to

go. “The building narrative that popu-

lism is done in central and eastern

Europe will get its real test at the next

Polish election in 2023,” Nic said.

Slovenia

Tim Gosling Prague

VATICAN MEDIA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Anything to declare? Just

the bomb in our baggage

Israel’s main international airport was

evacuated after an American family

tried to board a flight with an

unexploded artillery shell they had

found on a visit to the Golan Heights.

Passengers screamed, ducked under

tables and ran for cover after an emer-

gency announcement to vacate the

check-in area of Ben Gurion airport in

Tel Aviv.

At least one man was injured after

falling over a luggage conveyor belt as

he tried to escape. He was taken to hos-

pital, according to local authorities.

The family were on holiday in Israel

and had visited the Golan Heights

where one of the children picked up the

shell as a souvenir. They were event-

ually allowed to board their flight after

Israel

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Robert Golob’s victory in Slovenia put

the incumbent populist out of power

Ratzinger [Benedict], renowned for
his intellectual rigour, would
provide the theological legitimacy
that Francis lacked and reassure
anxious conservatives.
However, as conservatives and
progressives diverged over Francis’s
modernisation programme,
Benedict began to be seen “almost
as a counterweight to the doctrine
of the Argentine Pope”, eventually
becoming a beacon of resistance for
his successor’s traditionalist
enemies.
Franco traces the rift to a bungled
attempt to secure Benedict’s
endorsement for an 11-volume
collection of books intended to
bolster Francis’s standing as a
theologian. The initiative in 2018,
five years into the pontificate,
backfired when Benedict refused to
write an introduction, irritated that
some of the authors had been critics

of his papacy. Things went from bad

to worse when it emerged the

Vatican’s head of communications

had doctored photographs to

eliminate words revealing

Benedict’s displeasure. Francis

reluctantly accepted the resignation

of Monsignor Dario Vigano, the

man responsible for the fiasco and

one of his most trusted aides.

Further doctrinal differences

emerged when Benedict co-wrote a

book with a Francis critic, insisting

on the need for priests to remain

celibate as Francis was debating the

possibility of ordaining married

men to respond to a shortage of

vocations in the Amazon region.

Conflict over doctrine had already

emerged in 2017 when Francis

dismissed Cardinal Gerhard Muller

as head of the Vatican’s doctrinal

watchdog.

Appointed by Benedict, Muller

described his removal as “a blow

against Benedict, more than against

myself ”. He described a climate in

the Vatican where loyal priests were

arbitrarily dismissed on the basis of

anonymous letters.

Robert Mickens, editor of La

Croix International, a Catholic

newspaper, said Benedict had

attempted to tie his successor’s

hands by appointments made in the

closing days of his papacy, including

Muller’s. “Ratzinger is a polarising

figure, he always has been. He

allowed people to rally around him

who didn’t like Francis,” Mickens

said. “He chose a path of

self-imposed silence, which he

decided all on his own, but he broke

the rule almost immediately.”

An experienced Vatican watcher,

who asked not to be named, said:

“These are two popes who can’t

stand one another.”

Pope Francis hailed

Pope Benedict XVI as

a “wise grandfather”

but relations have

steadily deteriorated