The more the world is closed, the coronavirus pandemic has become a pretext for restricting personal freedoms everywhere. In most places, it is also used as an excuse for weakening democratic institutions and imposing an authoritarian approach that can continue even after the current health crisis is over.

Earlier this month in Russia, President Vladimir Putin pushed through parliament to remove the limits for the period in which he may remain in power. This happened at a time when fear of the coronavirus had overwhelmed the public, making protests against constitutional changes impossible.

In Bolivia, the temporary government has delayed the May presidential election. In Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orban has moved forward with legislation that will allow him to administer decrees and prosecute people who spread “lies”.

In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s party is using the coronavirus crisis this week to stop the opposition, which won a majority in the March elections, from taking control of parliamentary processes. A separate decision by the Israeli government to suspend the courts also hindered the corruption process against Benjamin Netanyahu, which was due to begin on March 17th.

“For politicians around the world with authoritarian thinking, the coronavirus crisis has become a gift”, said Kati Piri, a representative of Denmark to the European Parliament, originally from Hungary. “These people never leave a good crisis wasted”, added she. According to her, given the anxiety of societies in many polarized countries, anything is possible at the moment.

The spread of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed thousands of people in Europe and the United States in the last 2 weeks alone, has already led to unprecedented restrictions on fundamental freedoms in much of the Western world.

Following China’s approach to controlling the epidemic by ending public life, Italy and other European countries, as well as some local governments in the United States, have banned citizens from leaving their homes, except where basic needs are not concerned.

The problem, of course, is that the coronavirus pandemic has erupted in a world where democracy was already under attack – both because of the rise of authoritarian leaders from the Philippines through Turkey to Brazil and because of Chinese efforts to present the country as an alternative model of the western liberal order.