THE STATE OF DEMOCRACY AFTER 25 YEARS Dan Adamescu, the owner of the critical and independent newspaper Romania Libera, is under house arrest, on what appear to be politically motivated corruption charges. Maintaining that Adamescu supports Băsescu (the outgoing President and Ponta’s chief political opponent), Ponta allegedly fabricated a corruption scandal in which he accused Adamescu of embezzling money, in order to finance Băsescu’s campaign, from Astra Asigurari, Romania’s largest insurance company that Adamescu owns.28 Although all of these allegations turned out to be false, Ponta used them as a justification to expropriate Adamescu and place Astra Asigurari under direct government 29 control. 3.3 Corruption on the Rise Corruption continues to be a deep-rooted problem in Central and Eastern Europe; but, worryingly, the fight against it is increasingly politicised. In all four countries, anti-corruption campaigns are cynically manipulated and used as political weapons. This trend has damaged the independence of the courts, whereby the judiciary is increasingly falling under the control of the government. In addition, in a number of countries, the judiciary is overloaded with court cases inherited from the country’s transition to democracy. In the Czech Republic, corruption has emerged as a political issue, resulting in rising levels of public distrust in political institutions and triggering a slow-burning crisis of democratic representation: in 2013, for example, Prime Minister Petr Neþas’ government collapsed amid a bribery and spying scandal involving top officials.30 According to Transparency International, the majority of Czechs now perceive that political parties are corrupt.31 The same public distrust is visible in Slovakia, where a corruption scandal brought to light in November 2014 was one of the loudest in recent years. In early 2012, a public hospital in the western town of PiešĢany agreed to purchase a CT scanner for €1 million. After Prime Minister Fico’s Smer won parliamentary elections later that year, the party took control of the hospital board, cancelled the deal, and announced a new tender; the winning bid in the second tender, from Medical Group SK, was significantly higher (€1.6 million). Pavol Paška, the speaker of the Slovak parliament and enforcer of Smer, turned out to be the company’s founder, while the deputy speaker, Renáta Zmajkoviþová, led the hospital’s supervisory board. The scandal forced them both to resign, along with the Slovak health minister.32 In nearby Hungary, corruption under Prime Minister Viktor Orban has accelerated so much that, in November 2014, the US banned six Hungarian officials from entering America, on the grounds 33 of corruption – an unprecedented move against a NATO and EU ally. Budapest insists that it is being scapegoated by Washington – László Kövér, speaker of the parliament, accused the West 28 ‘Ponta’s public attacks on Adamescu’, Romania Watch, 15 April 2013, available at: http://romaniawatch.org/standard-article-11.html. 29 ‘Astra's Adamescu: We shall sue over ASF’s shocking and irresponsible decision’, Romanian National News Agency, 18 February 2014, available at: http://www.agerpres.ro/english/2014/02/18/astra-s-adamescu-we-shall-sue-over-asf-s-shocking-and-irresponsible-decision-19-42-10. 30 Buckley, N. and Nicholas Watson, ‘Czech PM Petr Necas quits over spying and bribery scandal’, The Financial Times, 17 June 2013, available at: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e733c4fc-d767-11e2-a26a-00144feab7de.html. 31 ‘Global Corruption Barometer 2013: Czech Republic’, Transparency International, available at: http://www.transparency.org/gcb2013/country/?country=czech_republic. 32 ‘Still protesting after all these years’, The Economist, 21 November 2014, available at: http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21634255-two-halves- former-czechoslovakia-are-both-angry-their-political-establishments-still. 33 Eder, M., ‘U.S. Envoy Says Travel Bans on Hungarians Aren’t Sanctions’, Bloomberg, 24 October 2014, available at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-24/u-s-envoy-says-travel-bans-on-hungarians-aren-t-sanctions.html . 8