Bosnia and Herzegovina is still categorised as a Hybrid/Transitional Regime, but incremental score declines have brought it dangerously close to Semi-Consolidated Authoritarian status, according to the Freedom House Nations in Transition 2024 report.

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s National Democratic Governance score has declined 1.5 points due to persistent political dysfunction and gridlock by ethno-nationalists, the Freedom House has warned.

The report said that 11 countries designated as Hybrid Regimes, which have characteristics of both autocracies and democracies, are poised between the region’s two geopolitical and normative blocs.

“This uncertainty has left their institutions in a vulnerable position, leading overwhelmingly to democratic setbacks rather than triumphs in 2023. Only one of the countries in the category, Ukraine, improved its Democracy Score, whereas five suffered declines,” according to the report.

As for the Western Balkans, it accounted for many of the more worrying developments, the Freedom House has warned.

“Serbia experienced a historic decline due to President Aleksandar Vucic’s efforts to consolidate power in 2023. Back-to-back mass shootings in May prompted protests throughout the summer, to which the Serbian government responded with rigged snap elections in December,” it said.

North Macedonia suffered from “major setbacks” to the rule of law and persistent high-level corruption during the year, as parties clashed over constitutional amendments necessitated by Bulgaria’s veto of the country’s EU accession efforts, according to the report.

“In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the recriminalization of defamation by the Republika Srpska entity in July, as part of a series of concerning legislation on the media and civil society, put undue pressure on journalists in an environment that was already rapidly deteriorating in terms of hate speech and physical safety,” the Freedom House stressed in its latest report.

As for Montenegro, it said the country was still “picking up the pieces from a 2022 constitutional crisis, struggled with dysfunctional and corrupt municipal governments in the absence of national stability.”