In democracy’s birthplace, Pope warns of populist threats

ATHENS, Greece — Pope Francis warned Saturday that the “easy answers” of populism and authoritarianism are threatening democracy in Europe and called for fresh dedication to promoting the common good rather than narrow, nationalist interests.

Arriving in Greece, the birthplace of democracy, Francis used a speech to Greek political and cultural leaders to warn Europe at large about the threats facing the continent. He said only robust multilateralism can address the pressing issues of the day, from protecting the environment to fighting the pandemic and poverty.

“Politics needs this, in order to put common needs ahead of private interests,” Francis said. “Yet we cannot avoid noting with concern how today, and not only in Europe, we are witnessing a retreat from democracy.”

Francis, who lived through Argentina’s populist Peronist era as well as its military dictatorship, has frequently warned about the threat of authoritarianism and populism and the danger it poses to the European Union and democracy itself.

He didn’t name any specific countries or leaders during his speech.

Coincidentally, on the same day Francis warned about the populist threat to Europe, rightwing populist leaders met in Warsaw and declared they will work more closely together to defend their sovereignty at the European Parliament.

Opening the second leg of his five-day trip to Cyprus and Greece, Francis recalled that it was in Greece, according to Aristotle, that man became conscious of being a “political animal” and a member of a community of fellow citizens.

“Here, democracy was born,” Francis told Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou. “That cradle, thousands of years later, was to become a house, a great house of democratic peoples. I am speaking of the European Union and the dream of peace and fraternity that it represents.”

That dream is at risk amid the economic upheaval and other disruptions of the pandemic that can breed nationalist sentiments and make authoritarianism seem “compelling and populism’s easy answers appear attractive,” Francis said.

“The remedy is not to be found in an obsessive quest for popularity, in a thirst for visibility, in a flurry of unrealistic promises … but in good politics,” he said.

Francis praised the “necessary vaccination campaign” promoted by governments to tame the coronavirus.

He referenced another Greek doctor-philosopher — Hippocrates — in response to vaccine skeptics and virus deniers, who count many religious conservatives among them. Francis cited the Hippocratic oath to not only do what is best for the sick, but to “abstain from whatever is harmful and offensive to others,” especially the elderly.

Greece is grappling with its highest level of coronavirus infections since the start of the pandemic, with deaths approaching record levels.

Francis’ visit to Cyprus and Greece also has focused on the plight of migrants. Today, he is returning to the Aegean Sea island of Lesbos, which he visited five years ago to meet with migrants at a detention camp.

In Athens, Francis is also met with Archbishop Ieronymos, the head of Greece’s Orthodox Church, as the two churches attempt to shift from centuries of competition and mistrust toward collaboration.