Sri Lanka 2021: from pandemic emergency to political and economic crisis

The political evolution in Sri Lanka in 2021 confirmed the negative predictions that had been made in the previous year, both for domestic and foreign policy. Internally, president Rajapaksa’s tendency to centralize power in his own hands, and in those of his family and close supporters continued. The authoritarian trend already visible in 2020 worsened due to the pandemic crisis. The government put forward a project to amend the Constitution and to introduce further changes in the legal system. These initiatives aroused fears for a possible limitation of the civil rights of Tamil and Muslim minorities. The President maintained Sinhala Buddhist nationalism as his main ideological thrust. In terms of foreign relations, the year was marked by the country’s growing international isolation due to its refusal to pursue the accountability program on civil war crimes. Moreover, the cooling of relations with India and the US continued, while Chinese influence clearly grew in both political and economic spheres. The economic crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic caused a sharp slowdown in the national economy.