This is the populist curtain on the BBC World Service.

I'm the political scientist, Yasha Monk, and I've been following a line across Europe

that Winston Churchill described in 1946.

From Stetti in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended

across the continent.

I think there may be a new threat to democracy here.

A string of countries along the old iron curtain were populists, a now-en-power.

In Poland and Hungary, I heard accusations that populist parties are attacking independent

institutions, restricting the freedom of a press, and undermining personal freedoms

like the right to protest.

Now for the first time I'm going to cross the iron curtain from the east to the west.

I'm about to enter Austria, I'm on the way to the city of Graz.

In Austria, a coalition between a more establishment centre-right party, V-O-V-P, and a far-right

populist party, V-F-P-E, has been in power for over a year.

And what I want to figure out is whether some of the things that I've seen in Poland and

Hungary could happen in countries like Austria as well, could democracy be on the road even

in western countries.

As our train winds through the Austrian mountains, several passengers tell me this is a concern

they share.

I think it's a difficult situation for Austrian people because I think that we are shifting

slowly into an autocratic system.

Graz is the second largest city in Austria and its streets, filled with trams, are divided

...