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The Documentary: The Populist Curtain: The Populist Curtain: Poland and Hungary

Poland and Hungary

01/05/2019 GMT

The Populist Curtain: Poland and Hungary

The Populist Curtain

BBC World Service - The Documentary, The Populist Curtain, The Populist Curtain: Poland and Hungary

The populists governing European nations along the former Iron Curtain’s route

The populists governing European nations along the former Iron Curtain’s route.

Political scientist Yascha Mounk travels from Szczecin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, the route of the former "Iron Curtain" and finds out what is changing under the new populist governments, in smaller cities far away from the capitals. He speaks to supporters and opponents of the populist parties and builds up a complex picture of Europe in a time of flux.

Yascha begins in the north in the Polish city of Szczecin (Stettin) – where Solidarity was originally created. Today the PIS party governs the country, with its appeal to traditional religious values and social conservatism. Critics say it is attacking independent institutions, especially the judiciary. Szczecin saw vigorous protest against a law restricting abortion. He then heads on to Sopron, Hungary – the site of the picnic which led to the first mass breach of the Iron Curtain. Here Victor Orban’s Fidesz party is accused of attacking civil society and the freedom of the press in his pursuit of an “illiberal democracy” – but there are forces fighting back locally.

Image: Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of Poland's PIS party (Credit: Agencja Gazeta/Slawomir Kaminski via Reuters)

The Documentary: The Populist Curtain

Meeting the populists governing European nations along the Iron Curtain’s route.

In 1946, Winston Churchill coined a memorable phrase: “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the continent,” he said. Today the Soviet Union has gone, but populist parties are in government in every country along the route of the Iron Curtain, as defined by Churchill. In this series, political scientist Yascha Mounk travels that route, and finds out what is changing under these new governments in smaller cities, far away from the capitals. He speaks to supporters and opponents of the populist parties and builds up a complex picture of Europe in a time of flux.

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