Une opportunité pour les leaders autoritaires ? la plupart des Etats du monde prennent des mesures d’urgence bafouant bien souvent les règles de la démocratie. Mais à partir de quel moment les dirigeants politiques profitent-ils de la crise pour augmenter exagérément leur pouvoir ?
Vladimir Putin en Russie restreint, comme en Europe, les libertés. Plus que nécessaire, analyse Bertie, étudiant de russe de l'université de Cambridge.
<< No matter where you are in the world, the issue of authoritarian power being consolidated by the coronavirus crisis is a threat. We’ve seen already in Russia, their citizens are concerned by the prospect that the government and police force now have quite draconian powers over them. A man was detained by police for walking his dog - he was quite briskly taken into a police van and the dog was simply left on the side of the road. So we’re certainly already seeing a crackdown on certain civil liberties beyond the necessities. >>
En Turquie, le président Recep Yadipp Erdogan a repris la main pour diminuer le pouvoir des municipalités locales, dont beaucoup sont opposées au régime. Deniz, citoyenne d’Istanbul.
<< The municipalities that have a lot of decentralized power are run by the opposition, and they’ve also been very active. There is a lot of competition between the central government and the municipalities to see who is doing better. The municipalities launched a donation campaign, and the president got a bit miffed and the next day he launched his own personal campaign and had the judges ban the municipalities’. This is the kind of stupid bickering that is going on right now, and it’s slightly worrying. >>
En Hongrie, Viktor Orbán a introduit l’état d’urgence… Pour une période indéterminée. Cela lui permet de gouverner par ordonnances avec un accord de facto du Parlement.
Pavlína Janebová est experte de politique hongroise.
<< The level of power now concentrated in the hands of Viktor Orbán is now unprecedented. What’s said in the law is that the measures should be in power until the end of the epidemic which can’t be considered a clear definition. The other thing is that the power isn’t really limited by the parliament. >>
Trois pays européens où l’homme fort au pouvoir serre la vis sur les institutions.
Partons au Pérou maintenant : mesure très surprenante vue la France, les sorties y sont alternées selon le genre. Lundi, mercredi et vendredi pour les hommes ; mardi, jeudi et samedi pour les femmes.
Mais finalement plutôt raisonnable pour Ida, citoyenne locale.
<< We are in lockdown and we are in a state of emergency and people are not supposed to be moving around but people are moving around, which is why this gender law was put into place. It has not made a very big difference in people’s lives. It has made some people unhappy, but people are mostly listening to it. There have been many more arrests due to people being outside during the curfew than there have been for people going outside on a day that does not correspond to their gender. >>
Aux Philippines, les restrictions sont aussi draconiennes. Felix, un citoyen local.
<< They have this captain who caught people from the LGBT community, and he asked them to kiss with each other. There are also people who got caught and they have put them in cages. It’s like the 1800s. >>
De plus, leur président Rodrigo Duterte a ordonné le meurtre de ceux qui ne respectent pas le confinement. Mais en fait la population a l’habitude d’entendre ce genre de menace.
<< That part was mixed with a lot of nonsense that he mentioned during the conference. If you listen to the conference, you really question whether you are hearing a president or talking to a drunk friend. People just accepted that ‘kill on sight is nothing’, the president is just saying crazy things. >>
Mais, toutes les mesures ne veulent pas dire non plus que tous les dirigeants politiques gagnent de la crise du coronavirus. Bertie souligne qu’en Russie, Poutine rencontre plutôt des obstacles.
<< This has actually disrupted Putin. He was planning in this month of April to hold a constitutional referendum which would basically allow him to remain in power until 2036, which would make him the longest running leader of Russia since the time of the czars. >>
Or ce référendum a été reporté à cause du coronavirus. Et Poutine gère la crise de manière plutôt humaine.
<< I think he has managed to handle the crisis with a level of gravitas and sensibility that for example Donald Trump completely has lacked. Although we are yet to see how the coronavirus really develops in Russia, Vladimir Putin is at least giving a facade of approaching this in a very sensible and measured way. >>
Au Pérou, Ida pense aussi que le président Martin Vizcarra aurait pu devenir beaucoup plus autoritaire. Mais il ne l’a pas fait.
<< Vizcarra does not have a history for having authoritarian tendencies. There have been several instances in his government in the past, where it would have been far more likely for him to take an authoritarian stance. So when he dissolved congress in September 2019, this also meant that for the next four months, the country functioned without any congress at all. There, he had the chance to rule by decree and he did not take this chance. He presented a law to congress so that he would not be able to run for re-election, which doesn’t really seem like the kind you would do if you were aiming to become a dictator. >>
Ce qui inquiète plus en revanche, c’est l’impunité des policiers et militaires péruviens : ils n’ont officiellement pas le droit d’être jugés, pour aucun débordement pendant toute la durée du confinement.
Autant dans les pays déjà autoritaires auparavant que dans les Etats démocratiques, l’Etat de droit se retrouve bafoué par les mesures exceptionnelles. La grande incertitude sera : comment restaurer la démocratie après la crise ?