Pandemic response as threat to democracy – Albania

EVA HOXHA As a practical governing tool, governments can use emergency powers in order to safeguard our health, our lives, and the economy, but how far reaching can these powers be? How can we tell when governments begin misusing powers gained via a state of emergency? A short look back to recent major crises have shown how their consequences have reshaped societies in general. Only in the last two decades, the economic crisis of 2008 and the refuge crisis of 2014 generated a surge and success of anti-establishment and radical parties throughout Europe[1]. While the recent health crisis, the pandemic…