The difficulties facing democracy today are the defining challenge of our time, said Joe Biden, US president, as he kicked off the first Democracy Summit, an event organized by the US government that seeks to seek new ways to ensure popular participation in politics.
The summit brings together leaders from around 110 countries, including government officials who have repeatedly acted in an undemocratic way, such as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, Polish President Andrzej Duda and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro (PL). In recent years, they have been linked to actions such as restricting the space for opponents, trying to weaken the judiciary, questioning the results of the polls and attacking the press. Countries like Bolivia, China, Hungary and Russia were left out.
In his speech, Biden cited autocrats who are trying to extend their power by force and increasing political polarization. “We are very concerned about all the growing dissatisfaction of people around the world with democratic governments. [os líderes] are failing to meet their needs. In my view, this is the defining challenge of our time,” said the Democrat this Thursday morning (9).
The American leader was at a table, in front of a screen that gathered video calls from participating foreign leaders. Bolsonaro was one of the spectators.
“Democracy needs defenders. I wanted to organize this summit here in the United States because we know that renewing our democracy and strengthening our democratic institutions requires constant effort. Democracy in America is in a continual struggle to maintain our high ideals and heal our divisions.” said Biden. “Democracy doesn’t happen by accident. We need to renew it every generation.”
Biden announced that the US plans to spend $224 million next year to encourage transparency and public scrutiny of government actions. On press freedom, which the Democrat called “the cornerstone of democracy,” an international fund will be created to help independent media. There will also be another fund to help investigative journalists who are prosecuted while doing their work.
New program announcements must be made throughout the event. The summit has as its axes the fight against authoritarianism, the fight against corruption and expansion of respect for human rights.
After the president’s speech, a virtual meeting scheduled to last two hours between the leaders of the countries, behind closed doors, began. The first hour will be led by the American president, and the second by Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union.
Then there will be open public debates on how to strengthen democracy, restore institutions after the pandemic and fight corruption. The discussions will have the participation of government officials, specialists and other representatives of society.
On Friday (10), activities begin at 6:00 am (8:00 am in Brasília), with a speech by António Guterres, UN secretary general. Then, there will be debates about protecting human rights, fighting authoritarianism and using technology. At 1:30 pm (15:30 am), Biden will deliver the summit closing speech.
Over the two days, videos recorded with speeches by world leaders will be shown via the internet, in which they must state their commitments to strengthen democracy. The video with Bolsonaro’s speech was not included in the list of material to be shown this Thursday, and Friday’s schedule has yet to be released.
In the document that formalizes Brazil’s commitments, sent to the summit organizers before the event, the Brazilian government accuses the traditional media of misinformation and calls for freedom of expression on the internet for voices of different ideologies.
As at the Climate Summit, held in April, the idea is for countries to jointly monitor each other’s progress, without it being clear what the punishments would be in case of setbacks.
Only one Brazilian was invited to participate in the official public debates of the meeting. On Wednesday (8), activist Patricia Zanella was at a session on how to expand women’s participation in politics.
China has been attacking the event and says the US cannot consider itself the global instance that unilaterally determines who is and is not democratic. Biden has recognized that the US also faces challenges with democracy in its own territory and said that Americans seek to create a meeting for the exchange of experiences between various countries, without impositions.
The summit’s presentations can be watched on the event’s website, which offers translations into Portuguese.
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