Speaking at the international conference “Defending Democracy: Horizons of Freedom,” Gudrun Steinacker, Vice President of the Southeast Europe Association (Germany) and former Ambassador of Germany, offered a sharp and reflective intervention on the limitations of the European Union, the systemic crises produced by neoliberal capitalism, and the corrosive impact of constant political lying on democratic societies. Emphasizing the decisive role of civil society, Steinacker warned that democracy cannot survive without active public resistance to authoritarian narratives and disinformation:

It was very interesting to hear what Mr. Eric said, as well as the reflections presented in the first part of this event. Nevertheless, I would like to raise a small objection, particularly regarding the concluding remark that “the EU should act.”

But who is the EU?

The European Union is, in reality, the smallest common denominator of 27 member states. This is one of its fundamental weaknesses. We can see that the EU is often too slow and too weak to respond adequately to the challenges of our time—especially to the challenges facing democracy.

In addition, the EU, like most of our individual countries—my own country, Germany, as well as the country where I currently live—has embraced a specific form of neoliberal capitalism. This model, among other factors, lies at the root of the multiple, overlapping crises we are facing today.

For this reason, I place great hope in civil society. Civil society still exists in our democratic countries within the EU, but also in countries that are not fully democratic—for example, North Macedonia. Formally, it is a democracy, yet as was mentioned at the beginning of this conference, there are still many grievances and unresolved problems linked to the transition from a former communist system to a capitalist, liberal democratic order.

I recently sent a short paper to CIVIL—just yesterday, in fact—and perhaps it can be published. In it, I refer, among others, to Hannah Arendt, who analyzed decades ago the effects of constant lying on society.

We know this phenomenon well today. Constant lying—particularly by autocrats—has devastating consequences. An autocrat like Donald Trump, for instance, hardly ever speaks truthfully. The same applies to a dictator like Vladimir Putin, to Xi Jinping, and to many small and medium-level autocrats around the world.

They lie systematically to the public. They control or influence media systems that reproduce these lies. The only effective way to counter this is through a strong and resilient civil society.

Once again, I would like to commend CIVIL for taking on this enormous challenge: supporting democracy, helping people understand how essential democracy is, and reminding them that it is worth fighting for.

I will leave it at that. I wish the rest of the conference great success, and I very much look forward to reading and watching everything that has been written and said over the past days and today.

This article and refined transcript were prepared by the author with AI-assisted language refinement and editorial support. The content remains fully faithful to the original video address. All responsibility for interpretation and publication rests with the author.

Watch the full video from the conference: