By Philippe Vandenbroeck, Expert Advisor at EPHA
Across Europe, civic space is shrinking. What once anchored democratic life — independent civil society and a media infrastructure of responsibility and trust – is being quietly eroded by underfunding, delegitimisation and the muzzling of dissent.
This erosion is not accidental; it follows a logic. Right-populist movements have built a formidable polarisation machine that thrives on four reinforcing dynamics: the narrowing of political debate to “culture”, the vilification of a so-called “leftist elite”, the exploitation of “wedge issues” that split the centrist and leftist electorate, and the systematic undermining of truth-based institutions. Together, these mechanisms convert uncertainty, anxiety, and inequality into a moral outrage that is fresh fodder for the polarisation machine. A reinforcing loop.
At the same time, the logic percolates into the political mainstream. Even actors who do not share the populist worldview often absorb its frames, out of fear of electoral loss, of exposure to damaging framing in the media, or out of a reflex to play it safe and prioritise coalition stability. In multi-party systems this leads to preemptive damage control and lowest-common-denominator, “realistic” policies. Thus, without openly embracing populism, centrist governments reproduce its effects: shrinking space for dissent, sidelining civil society, and framing advocacy as obstruction rather than contribution.
If we are to rebuild a democratic ecosystem capable of resisting these pressures, we must move beyond defensive crisis-management. We need a counter-democracy – a strategic practice grounded in three interdependent civic capacities: association, imagination and vigilance.
Civic Association restores the connective tissue of democracy
Where wedge strategies divide and isolate, association rebuilds trust and solidarity through civic networks, unions, movements and alliances that make shared interests visible again. It transforms fragmentation into cooperation and re-legitimises the idea of collective agency. In the field of public health, this means linking professionals, advocates and communities around common rights rather than sectoral, technocratic silos.
Civic Imagination reopens the political horizon
Populism feeds on fear and nostalgia; democracy thrives on vision. Imagination is not escapism but a civic resource: the capacity to picture inclusive futures beyond identity or scarcity. Public-health advocacy can model this by narrating wellbeing as a societal good and springboard for a more just social contract. Not only freedom from disease, but freedom to participate, to care, to belong.
Civic Vigilance guards the integrity of our shared reality
Democracy falters when facts and frames weigh the same. Vigilance means defending truth-producing infrastructures — serious journalism, science, civic debate — from capture or contempt. In addition, as the French political scholar Pierre Rosanvallon points out, we need a civic infrastructure of oversight and interpellation. Citizens need to be able to hold policy makers accountable beyond the ballot box. In the public-health sphere, this vigilance translates into civil society-powered mechanisms to protect the independence of evidence, expose undue corporate influence, and ensure that policy is accountable to data and authentic civic desire rather than to lobbying or ideology.
In conclusion
Together, these three practices sketch an engine of democratic resilience. Association builds the social base; imagination provides the direction; vigilance ensures integrity. None can stand alone. And all require sustained investment, financial, institutional and moral.
Europe’s health depends on more than healthcare. It depends on a healthy democracy — one capable of associating, imagining and vigilantly defending the common good.