Democracy

With the acronym PEGIDA (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the Occident), a group of men began “walking” every Monday evening through the streets of Dresden, reaching at the top 25.000 participants in January. Beyond the undeniable anti-immigrant attitudes of many PEGIDA-adherents, there seems to be a general challenge to the concept of representative liberal democracy. The specificity of the movement was discussed by German political scientist Dr. Dietrich Herrmann on the expert seminar and in his subsequent analysis.

The post-transition Hungarian protest sector grew to an unseen size during the years of the second Orbán government. Democracy frames gained momentum with large-scale left-liberal protests organized in defense of liberal democracy. Protest event analysis and secondary sources were used during the third expert seminar with Mihály Gyimesi to explain interactions between popular support and dissent.

Between 2013 and 2014 Bosnia-Herzegovina witnessed the first mass protests since the end of the 1992-1995 war. Chiara Milan provides an overview of the latest Bosnian unrest, analysing the roots of its emergence, the social composition and forms of organization, as well as achievements and shortcomings of civic resistance.

In his newest book Ivan Krastev discusses the relationship between protest and democracy. Does the last wave of protests signal a radical change in the way politics will be practiced? Will it be the empowering energy of the protests or the conservative backlash against them that will shape the future of democratic politics? These questiones were adressed during Ivan Krastev's lecture organized by the Heinrich Böll Foundation and Collegium Civitas on 19th March 2015.

Polish accession to the European Union, the election of female representatives, and existing European legislation raised high hopes for the possibility of legislative improvements for women and LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) people. How, then, did the first decade of Polish female representatives in the European Parliament look? Has the presence of Polish women influenced the agenda of the institution? Have there been any issues with legislation concerning equal rights, equal opportunities, and anti-discrimination?

Women's cotribution to oposition movements in the Communist times deserves to be widely discussed and mainstreamed. Therefore Heinrich Böll Foundation supported the project reclaiming women's place in the history.

The Second International Gender Workshop held in Kyiv in October 2013 focused on how Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Georgia, Armenia and Poland have been dealing with backlash. Organizers from various offices of the Heinrich Boell Foundation presented gender projects in the region. Invited experts discussed gender education, sexual and reproductive rights of women, and cooperation with regard to LGBT issues.You are invited to read the article by Magdalena Grabowska about gender education in Poland. Another Polish input by Elżbieta Korolczuk deals with the debate on assisted reproduction in the contemporary Poland.

The Heinrich Böll Foundation is a German Green political foundation that works in over 60 countries in the spheres of sustainability, cross-cultural dialogue, and education. Common European values, gender democracy and energy transition are both central tenets and cross-cutting themes for the Warsaw Office.