Of course there is a middle ground. I just posted it as a reply in one of the other comments. This polar view of either or is utter nonsense. It doesn't matter how you change the rules of the system. Being it "capitalism" or "communism" intelligent people will always find ways to navigate thourgh the current mode (whatever it is)l to their advantage - which in the long run will result in an un-equal society. The goal is to set the rules in a way that benefits as many people as possible. You think that in the past regime there weren't any "privileged" individuals? Now people usually say "yes but his family is rich, so he has an advantage". Back then it used to be "yes, but his cousin is the regional secretary of XYZ so of course he won that competition".

Contrary to what you say the current regime here is democratic not just for a privileged few. Everyone can vote.

Although I am not happy about the law you mention, it doesn't ban communism as you say. It just added communism on the list of regimes that threaten human rights and should not be promoted. Which I kind of get given the number of... executions and political prisoners we used to have here a few decades ago.

It isn't perfect what we have, but it is better than it was ten years ago. And that in turn was better than what we had 20 years ago. And that in turn was better... (you get it by now).