Why Are Political Protests Surging Around the World?

Sizable anti-government protests with a pointed political edge are mushrooming in multiple regions. A knot of protests has hit the Balkans—in Bosnia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia. Another set has erupted in Central and Eastern Europe, including in Georgia, Hungary, and Slovakia. Demonstrations have also flared in Greece, Israel, Mozambique, South Korea, and Türkiye. What is triggering this surge in political protests? And does it represent good or bad news for democracy globally?

Governments’ anti-democratic actions are driving most of these protests. In two cases, Georgia and Mozambique, the widely perceived manipulation of national elections pushed citizens into the streets. In Georgia, the new government’s decision to suspend accession talks with the EU added fuel to the fire. In both countries, protests have continued for several months.

In other cases, the anti-democratic actions in question are not election-related. Protests burst out in Hungary after the Hungarian parliament on March 18 passed a law banning LGBTQ Pride marches and allowing authorities to use facial recognition surveillance (obtained from China) to identify individuals participating in banned Pride events. Israel’s long roiling wave of protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s centralization of political power swelled again after he announced on March 16 the dismissal of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar. Protesters view this move as one more expression of Netanyahu’s determination to hold power at any costs. Protests there also surged after the restart on March 18 of the military campaign against Hamas. The declaration of martial law last December by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol provoked major citizen street mobilization. Since martial law was lifted, protests demanding Yoon’s impeachment have continued, highlighting citizen anger over his actions and concerns for South Korea’s democracy. Protests erupted in Türkiye after the government ordered the detention in October of Ahmet Özer, the mayor of Istanbul’s Esenyurt district and a member of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP). Even larger demonstrations occurred after the arrest on March 17 of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, a top rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

In the case of Serbia, protests that started in November as a response to governmental corruption (related to the collapse of the roof of a train station entrance) have morphed into massive, sustained pro-democracy demonstrations excoriating the rule of President Aleksandar Vučić and his Serbian Progressive Party.

Other protests, while politically driven, are less about anti-democratic behavior by incumbent regimes and more about intense frustration over poor governmental responses to disasters and weak governmental accountability generally. In Bosnia, this was a slow governmental response to a devastating flood. In Greece, sustained government inaction in response to a train crash. In Montenegro, poor handling of a mass shooting. And in North Macedonia, corruption around safety violations that contributed to a catastrophic nightclub fire.

In the United States, small to medium-sized protests have occurred in many cities against various early actions by President Donald Trump’s administration that some citizens have found objectionable, including new immigration policies and Trump’s proposal for removing Palestinians from Gaza.

A set of noteworthy protests has also occurred in support of political leaders or figures accused of anti-democratic actions: in Brazil, these have been on behalf of former president Jair Bolsonaro; in the Philippines, in favor of former president Rodrigo Duterte; in South Korea, in support of Yoon; and in Romania, backing the banned right-wing presidential candidate Călin Georgescu.

Some Balkan political observers see contagion effects at work from Serbia’s protests to elsewhere in the region. Beyond the Balkans, however, the various protests appeared to be primarily domestically inspired.

This notable mushrooming of political protests over the past six months presents a half-filled analytic glass for global democracy. On the one hand, they reflect some bad news—the continued autocratic drive by elected leaders to squeeze the democratic life out of the systems over which they rule. Yet, on the other hand, they are manifestations of the continued commitment of many citizens to uphold democratic norms and demand governmental accountability, even in the face of considerable personal risk. Thus far, the protests have not turned back the illiberal actions in question, though in Serbia they did trigger the resignation of the prime minister and may result in early elections. But they do demonstrate that elected autocrats—no matter how shrewd and determined—do not always get their way easily.

Further information about these and other current anti-government protests is available in Carnegie’s Global Protest Tracker.