Foreign Digest: Nicaragua, Slovenia, Hungary and France

Nicaragua: The Nicaraguan Marxist Sandinista dictatorship of Daniel Ortega is restricting academic freedom, after he recently won reelection after having arrested each of his opponents, among other barriers to free and fair elections. Nicaragua also recently left the Organization for American States because of the organization’s commitment to liberty and representative government. Slovenia, Hungary and France: The pro-Trump far right populist Prime Minister of Slovenia lost reelection a week ago, as a new center-left party led by a businessman won a plurality of the votes and will likely form a coalition government with smaller left-wing parties. Violations of the independence of the judiciary, the rule of law, freedom of the press, as well as other potential authoritarian policies were at issue. The Slovenian results were unlike those recently in Hungary, where the far-right authoritarian leader was re-elected in no small part because of the control he has over state-run media. But it is like the trend against other far-right leaders in Europe. Had Slovenia been led by a center-right (conservative) party, the results would likely have been less favorable to the left. Center-right parties can win competitive elections because of the appeal of their policies, while far-right nationalist xenophobic authoritarian populists appeal only to a limited bloc of voters. As with elections in which a far-right leader is the incumbent, the same is true when a far-right candidate is the challenger. In France, for example, a far-right presidential candidate was defeated, also a week ago. Center-right candidates would likely have fared better than the far-right candidate, who was put on the defensive for her support for Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin, a former Soviet intelligence officer who is trying to restore the Soviet Union and for having received Russian financial backing. Support for Putin is typical of most far-right Western parties, despite its multiple inconsistencies.