DISINFO: The European Union is a democratic dictatorship
SUMMARY
Democratic dictatorship. This is the contradiction, the oxymoron in which the European Union lives today. Brussels appeals to the axiom of freedoms and human rights, of values, but not on a voluntary basis: they must be imposed at any price. The agenda, the roadmap, must be accepted by all countries as a sort of dogma.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives against the European Union and democracy.
The European Union is a democratic block. The EU’s democratic essence is guaranteed through several means, including political representatives at the European Parliament being elected by citizens through direct voting at the European elections, the existence of several institutions and bodies that ensure a full separation of powers, and the establishment of mechanisms for popular legislation through the European Citizens Initiative.
All EU countries except one are considered free and democratic by Freedom House and The Economist’s Global Democracy Index. In contrast, Russia is considered one of the least free countries in the world, scoring 16 of 100 in the Freedom House index. This is the reason why pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives strongly attack democracy and the EU as a viable model to Russia’s increasingly autocratic system.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that Democracy is the perfect dictatorship, that EU’s fascist sanctions against Russia prove European countries are no longer democratic, that there is no freedom of speech in Europe, or that Russia is the first democracy in the world while the US is a police dictatorship.