Today, a damning report from the Civil Liberties Union for Europe (Liberties) confirmed what workers across the continent have long known: the European Union is rotting from within. The watchdog’s findings reveal that five EU member states—Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, and Slovakia—are systematically dismantling the rule of law, eroding civil liberties, and entrenching authoritarianism. This is not a bug of the EU project; it’s a feature. The union was never designed to serve the people—it was built to serve capital, and as the contradictions of capitalism sharpen, so too does the ruling class’s turn toward repression.
The Watchdog’s Warning: A Symptom of Systemic Decay
The Liberties report pulls no punches. In Bulgaria, the government has weaponized the judiciary to silence dissent, targeting journalists and activists who dare to expose corruption. Croatia’s ruling party has systematically undermined media freedom, turning state broadcasters into propaganda arms. Hungary, long a poster child for EU hypocrisy, continues its slide into outright fascism, with Viktor Orbán’s regime using the law as a cudgel against migrants, LGBTQ+ people, and left-wing organizers. Italy’s far-right government, led by Giorgia Meloni, has accelerated attacks on labor rights, while Slovakia’s populist Prime Minister Robert Fico has embraced Orbán’s playbook, demonizing refugees and consolidating power.
The report frames these actions as “regressive policies,” but that’s a euphemism. What we’re witnessing is the logical endpoint of neoliberal capitalism: when the system can no longer deliver even the illusion of prosperity, the ruling class turns to authoritarianism to maintain control. The EU’s response? A collective shrug. Brussels has issued tepid statements and empty threats, but when push comes to shove, the union’s leaders prioritize “stability” over democracy. Stability, in this case, means protecting the flow of capital and the interests of the bourgeoisie, even if it requires propping up fascist-adjacent regimes.
The EU’s Complicity: Rule of Law for Thee, Not for Me
The EU’s hypocrisy is breathtaking. The same institution that lectures the world about human rights and democracy has spent years enabling the very backsliding it now claims to decry. Hungary’s Orbán has been a thorn in Brussels’ side for over a decade, yet the EU has done little more than wag its finger. Why? Because Orbán’s brand of authoritarian capitalism is useful. It keeps wages low, unions weak, and dissent suppressed—all while ensuring that German and French capitalists can continue extracting profits from Hungarian workers.
The same dynamic plays out in Italy, where Meloni’s government has rolled back labor protections and slashed social spending, all while maintaining a veneer of respectability within the EU. The union’s leaders know this. They want this. The EU was never meant to be a bastion of democracy; it was designed as a neoliberal project to discipline labor and open markets. The rule of law, in this context, is a tool to be wielded against the working class, not a principle to be upheld.
The Working Class Pays the Price
The real victims of this backsliding are the workers, migrants, and marginalized communities who bear the brunt of these regressive policies. In Hungary, LGBTQ+ people face state-sanctioned discrimination, while Roma communities are systematically excluded from housing and education. In Croatia, journalists who expose corruption are harassed and intimidated. In Bulgaria, protesters demanding an end to poverty wages are met with police batons. The EU’s silence is complicity.
This is not just a crisis of governance—it’s a crisis of capitalism. The ruling class, faced with growing unrest and economic instability, is turning to authoritarianism to protect its power. The EU’s failure to act is not a oversight; it’s a choice. The union’s leaders know that democracy is incompatible with capitalism in its current form. The more the system falters, the more they will rely on repression to keep the masses in check.
Why This Matters:
The backsliding of the rule of law in five EU member states is not an isolated problem—it’s a warning. The EU is not immune to the global rise of fascism; it is actively fostering it. The ruling class, desperate to maintain its grip on power, is willing to sacrifice democracy, civil liberties, and human rights on the altar of capital. The Liberties report is a wake-up call, but it’s not enough to simply document the decay. We must recognize that this is not a deviation from the EU’s mission—it’s the fulfillment of it.
The working class must organize across borders to resist this drift. The same forces that are attacking labor rights in Italy are attacking migrants in Hungary and journalists in Bulgaria. Our struggles are interconnected, and our resistance must be too. The EU’s leaders will not save us; they are the ones we must fight. The time for solidarity is now—before the last vestiges of democracy are erased, and the ruling class’s boot is firmly on our necks.