There is a great irony in the way dissent is handled in the Balkans. What makes this irony even greater is that the handlers of dissent don’t even see it.

Newly minted and taking examples from democracies way west of its borders, Kosovo’s Constitution has the ingredients to perform what it endeavors to do. In practice, though, it falls short of ensuring that the country’s many laws promising good governance work on the ground.

In 150 days of power, the center-right, coalition-led government has expressed early and worrying Orbanesque signs of interference with fundamental societal freedoms.