Meet These Illiberal Democrats

Sadyr Japarov occupied an unlikely home just three months before he became Kyrgyzstan’s president in January 2021: He was in prison. Accused of taking a rival politician hostage, Japarov then became the face of opposition to the government of then-President Sooronbay Jeenbekov, who faced weeks of protests before quitting. Japarov won 79% of votes in the presidential election, after supporters freed him from jail. Then, in May 2021, barely three months into his term, he ushered in a new constitution that enables him to appoint almost all judges and heads of law enforcement agencies. This year, under pressure from Moscow, Japarov banned anti-war protests in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek. And after one of Japarov’s close allies, Health Minister Alymkadyr Beishenaliyev, was arrested on charges of corruption recently, Japarov suspended General Prosecutor Kurmankul Zulushev without the consent of parliament.

President Nayib Bukele is best known for making El Salvador the world’s first country to embrace Bitcoin as its official currency. But even as cryptocurrencies have crashed in recent days, Bukele continues to double down on his losing policy by using state funds to “buy the dip.” He remains wildly popular in his country, with an 86.8% approval rating, according to the latest survey. Despite such popularity, Bukele has led his country into what Amnesty International’s latest report described as a “human rights crisis.” Voted in as president in 2019 at the head of a movement called “Nuevas Ideas,” the 40-year-old has largely regurgitated old-style authoritarian politics. He has led soldiers into parliament to force through a vote, attacked the media and seemingly compelled the Supreme Court to toss aside a constitutional ban on reelection. In recent months, around 36,000 people have been detained in Bukele’s “war on gangs” and at least 60 people have died in custody.

July 1 marked the 25th anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong from the U.K. to China. It also marked pro-Beijing hardliner John Lee’s takeover of the city’s administration. The former police officer and security chief was at the forefront of suppressing the 2019 pro-democracy protests. The police, who operated under Lee’s control as security chief, used water cannons, tear gas, rubber bullets and even fired live ammunition at protesters. He also supported the controversial national security law introduced in 2020, which has effectively silenced open criticism by making it easier to prosecute protesters and media professionals.

Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. grew up in Manila’s presidential palace, as his mother Imelda collected a notorious stockpile of luxury shoes. But the son of the late Filipino dictator, whose name he carries, has pitched himself as an “outsider” who had to fight the odds to successfully win his country’s presidential election this year. Marcos Jr., who was sworn in last week, has admitted to using vast social media troll armies during his campaign, arguing that mainstream publications were against him. He has asked his country — and the world — not to judge him by his family’s past actions. But in his inaugural speech, he praised his father, describing him as a man who got things “done.” The problem, as older Filipinos know well, was how he did that.

Like Marcos Jr., Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador knows his country’s politics inside out: The veteran politician lost two presidential elections before winning in 2018. Yet like his new Filipino counterpart, AMLO, as Obrador is widely known, has long tried to discredit the very electoral system that finally brought him to power. Since he took office in 2018, attacks against the press have increased by 85% and have resulted in at least 41 deaths. On April 28, AMLO proposed a series of electoral reforms that, if accepted, would dissolve the National Electoral Institute (INE), the body which oversees elections. The reforms would also seek to change elements of the proportional representation system. This, according to former Mexican ambassador to the U.S. Gerónimo Gutiérrez Fernández, “gives parties — especially the president’s — not citizens more influence on who gets elected.”

Paul Kagame’s presidency in Rwanda has never been anything but autocratic. However, the West has lavished praise on him, with former U.S. President Bill Clinton crediting him for the East African nation’s “miraculous” transition to a stable society and growing economy. Kagame has responded by helping the West deal with uncomfortable challenges: The U.K. and Denmark have recently struck pacts with Kagame to transport unwanted refugees to Rwanda. Kigali, the country’s capital, also hosted the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in late June. Meanwhile, “opposition leaders have been jailed or killed to prevent them running for election,” author and journalist Michela Wrong told OZY. “As we speak, 16 opposition activists are in prison.” Kagame won the most recent election with a questionable 99.8% of the vote.

For years, Poland’s President Andrzej Duda was the face of his right-wing government’s slide away from Europe’s “democratic values.” He has even compared Poland’s membership in the European Union to past occupations by foreign powers. Duda has clashed bitterly with the EU over such issues as judicial policy and LGBT rights. But his — and Poland’s — firm opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin means that the West is currently courting him, as Warsaw welcomes millions of Ukrainian refugees. From being a firm critic, the EU has now turned to thanking Duda.

More than democracy, it seems. When João Lourenço was sworn in as Angola’s president in 2017, he promised much-needed reforms. Lourenço agreed to clamp down on his predecessor’s corruption, to diversify Angola’s oil-dependent economy and allow a freer press. However, little progress has been made on the economy. This failure has led to protests in the capital, Luanda, which have been met with a crackdown on independent media. Local elections have been put off indefinitely and new legislation has solidified government powers over the legislature and the judiciary. With national elections looming, Lourenço has now passed controversial electoral laws that favor his party. Meanwhile, Italy — seeking to cut its dependence on Russian energy — has inked a deal with Angola to import gas, and Germany has signed a deal to buy green hydrogen.

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That’s what the math professor-turned-president of the Central African Republic, Faustin-Archange Touadéra, seemingly wants to do. When he was elected in 2016 through a vote widely considered to be peaceful and legitimate, he brought a wave of hope to his nation. But allies of Touadéra have proposed constitutional amendments that would eliminate presidential term limits. Touadéra has also been fighting a civil war and has established strong ties with the Russian military company Wagner, which is known to be close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

President Aleksandar Vučić won Serbia’s recent elections by a landslide, though the opposition and independent observers have suggested voting irregularities. Since Vučić’s party, the SNS, came to power in 2012, it has steadily clamped down on media freedoms and civil society organizations. The SNS’s parliamentary leader, Aleksandar Martinović, has accused the CRTA — a nonprofit monitoring the parliament — of involvement in a coup attempt. More recently, Vučić has refused to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In May, he ignored the EU ban on Russian oil and secured an “extremely favorable” natural gas deal with Moscow.

That’s how former European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker described Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. But it’s a role that Orbán actually seems to relish. He has changed his country’s constitution to limit the free press and ban LGBT content in schools. Additionally, his government gained an opt-out from an EU embargo on Russian oil, and his latest electoral victory in April was hailed by his friend, Putin. In Orbán’s victory speech, he described Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and EU bureaucrats as his “opponents.”

Who else should be on the list of undemocratic leaders and why?

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