New setback for Spain in the fight against corruption, which is among the European countries that fall the most in the “absence of corruption” indicator along with Armenia, Georgia and Slovakia.
Irene Postigo, associate program officer in the International IDEA Democracy Assessment team, explains to Onda Cero that this setback “reflects the impact that the corruption cases and investigations that have marked the public debate in recent years in our country have had.” And he warns that it is “a trend that deserves attention, because the perception that corruption exists also erodes trust in institutions.”
Postigo admits that Spain has suffered a relapse that currently places us at around 0.7 points, and although we are still at the top of the table compared to other countries, “there are signs that we must pay attention to.”
In the last five years, 57% of the world’s countries worsened in at least one key democratic indicator such as freedom of expression, judicial independence or the credibility of elections. Specifically, judicial independence in the world has reached its lowest level in 36 years and the credibility of elections is also at its worst moment in 3 decades.
Democracy in the United States is at its lowest hours in the last half century
A trend that – according to the report ‘The state of democracy in the world 2026’ – is being aggravated by the democratic deterioration in the United States under the mandate of Donald Trump, which would be emboldening authoritarian and populist leaders around the planet. “We already know what Trump is like and we do not expect a substantial change in his actions. The great unknown is the capacity of the rest of the institutions to continue functioning as a counterweight,” says Irene Postigo.
International IDEA, an intergovernmental organization based in Stockholm, concludes that the litmus test that will mark the path of the Americans will be the midterms of next November.
