The aim of this article is to analyse the role and importance of leaders in the Czech populist parties and movements, as well as determining significant factors which condition their institutionalisation. The main focus will be placed on the role of leaders in establishing their respective parties, their formal position and intraparty selection processes in VV, ANO, SPD and ÚPD. Examples of actions taken by the leaders of ANO and SPD show that building populist parties on the foundation of the strong, formal and official position of the leader in their party as well as becoming open to more members prove effective when it comes to the discussed issues...

Rarely do twins play active and significant roles in politics. Yet in 2006 President of the Republic of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, designated his twin brother Jarosław to be prime minister. The aim of the current publication is to analyse the political activity of Lech and Jarosław Kaczyński in the context of the founding of PiS and its functioning. Their position inside the party is undisputed. Moreover, as there is no opposition inside the party and Jarosław Kaczyński achieves spectacular electoral results, his legitimisation as autonomous leader of the party is strengthened even further.

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The article is the first attempt at describing and comparing leaders of four most important populist groupings in Poland: Samoobrona, PiS, LPR, Kukiz’15. It makes three primary contributions to the literature of the subject. In its theoretical aspect, it shows that the literature concerning the analysed issue is still at the stage of being developed. When it comes to the analysis of data, it was found that populist party leaders played an important political role in Poland. In the case of Samoobrona, PiS and Kukiz’15 they played a key role in the process of origination of their parties, while in PiS they still hold a very strong intra-party position.

Utterances of political leaders participating in a parliamentary debate, especially in crisis situations, are of exceptional significance. The aim of the study is to analyse positions and declarations of political leaders towards the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland as regards politicians’ speeches made in the Sejm. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were performed on 504 speeches made by chairpersons of parties and parliamentary clubs and circles. The analysis showed that the issue of COVID-19, although it was the most important problem for Poles for many months, did not receive as much attention from political leaders in the Sejm. The leaders of opposition groups criticised the government and called for action. In contrast, the leaders of ruling parties’ coalition did not actively participate in the Sejm discourse.