0:59 — Are European liberal democracies at risk? And Portugal is losing freedom?
Freedom House evaluates 195 countries in terms of political rights and individual freedoms through the publication of the individual freedom index: “Freedom in the World”. The report exposes the civil liberties – which range from the right to freedom of expression and the equality of citizens before the law – can be understood by direct rights of governments or by action of force as internal governmental freedoms or countries.
Among the 195 countries as a whole, Portugal ranks 14th, with 95 points. At the top are Finland, Norway, Sweden, New Zealand and Canada.
Seven of the top 10 positions in the 2022 global ranking are occupied by European democracies, members or members of the European Union — Finland, Norway and Sweden, with 100 points; Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, with 97 points; also in Belgium and Switzerland, in the 11th position, they are the better classified than Portugal, with 96 points.
In comparison with other liberal European democracies, Portugal is in the 10th highest position, with one point more than Germany and Iceland (11th), and ahead of other countries such as the United Kingdom (14th), Spain (20th) or France (25th).
Despite having some of the highest indicators in the world, the European Union has lowered its global ranking in 14 out of 27 Member States in two decades. That is, half of the EU members have a lower freedom index now than in 2003. Portugal is one of those countries: it dropped 3 points, from 98 to 95 points (it lost one point in political rights and two points in individual freedoms) .
Hungary eight, which at the 2019 level, Hungary ranked in the intermediate category of the index: EU ‘partly freer’ — it is the only bottom member in these non-EU European countries, considered ‘partly but free’. Russia and Belarus are positioned at the lowest level of the index and are unique, in European territory, designated as ‘non-free countries’.
Evolution of the freedom index
in the EU-27 Member States that it will have between 2003 and 2022*
Freedom House indexes are published annually. freedom house
In the 2022 index, Hungary has the lowest absolute score out of 27 and is also the member state with the biggest drop (-20 points) between 2003 and 2022 — down from 89 to the current 69 points. Malta (-10), Poland (-7), Bularia (-7) and France (-6) follow in the group of countries with large extensions of freedom of the European partners. Italy (90 points), which has an absolute value five points lower than Portugal, has lost two points since 2003.
The reports, a non-governmental organization with headquarters, are held annually, refer to the work of Freedom House in the year of Washington DC. The indexes 2022 weeks have not yet had the electoral results of the latest changes nor as social and more recent changes.
Liberal democracies in the world (%)
Between 2003 and 2022*
‘Freedom House’ indices are yearly for weighty fieldwork in the year prior to publication. freedom house
Democracies in the world, compared to other regimes, are in a minority and in less than 89 countries (46.4%) in 2003, to 83% (42%) in 2022. The graph in shows that the peak of the countries considered by Freedom House was in 2007 and in 2008; since then the number has fluctuated, but always with lower percentages than in these years. The methodology and the number of countries in the index have not been the same since 1973, the year of the first publication, but in the 1970s, the percentage of free countries did not reach 30%. Portugal only achieved this classification in the 5th edition, published in 1977.
And what does Portugal need to climb the classification? No last report, Portugal has a rating of 39, out of 40 points, in political rights and 56, out of 60 points, in individual freedoms. The trial involving the former minister, Josécra, is referred to in the chapter that assesses whether the country has a regime of measures of effective measures against the strength of the organization that considers these bodies insufficient and gives a point against the strength of the penalizing State to Portugal on political rights.
In individual liberties, the four penalty points must be:
- Assessment of the rights of association and manifestation of the party — where the case of sharing data on anti-Putin protesters by point is mentioned);
- Conditions and conditions of detainees and prisoners — where rights are referred to in the case of Ihor Homeniuk’s death after being detained by the SEF at Lisbon airport (-1 point);
- Difficulty without access to equal rights for minorities (-1 point);
- Lack of robust protection mechanisms against exploitation of immigrants and victims of human trafficking (-1 point)
