The Populist Vs Anti‐Populist Divide in the Time of Pandemic: The 2021 Czech National Election and its Consequences for European Politics*

Pandemic Populism: Explaining Support for the People's Party of Canada in the 2021 Federal Election

“…When we look at whether pandemic elections have aided the electoral fortunes of populist parties, the results so far are not conclusive. The 2021 pandemic election in Czechia saw anti-populist parties use the COVID-19 crisis to criticize the performance of the ruling populist party, Akce nespokojených občanů (ANO), and ultimately unseat it (Havlík and Kluknavská, 2022). In Germany, the 2021 federal election saw the populist party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), a stern opponent to COVID-19 measures, lose votes compared to the previous election (Bayerlein and Metten, 2022).…”

Politically motivated interpersonal biases: Polarizing effects of partisanship and immigration attitudes

“…After becoming one of the most stable party systems among the post-communist countries, with electorally and organizationally stabilized parties (the conservative ODS, Christian Democratic KDU-ČSL, Czech Social Democratic Party, and the radical left communists) resembling the party families in Western Europe, the combination of both economic and political crises in the late 2000s and the beginning of the 2010s led to a dramatic decrease in support for the established parties and the emergence of new anti-establishment parties, including the far-right Freedom and Direct Democracy, technocratic populist ANO, and the social-liberal and technocratic Pirate Party (Hanley, 2012). The rise of these challengers undermined the long-established patterns of electoral behaviour structured around the socio-economic conflict of the political right and left and increased the importance of issues such as immigration and populism cross-cutting the traditional cleavages (Havlík and Kluknavská, 2022; Havlík and Voda, 2018). In turn, factors such as increasing voter volatility (Linek, 2014), low levels of trust in parties and party identification (Linek and Voženílková, 2017), historically strong anti-party sentiments and anti-party populism (Havelka, 2016; Havlík, 2019), and the strengthening role of the non-partisan president have weakened the potential of party-based group biases.…”

The Czech 2021 General Election and its Impact on the Party System

“…On the contrary, after four years of government including and then dominated by populist ANO (in this special issue, Ostrá analyses the discourse of ANO before the election) that turned the Czech Republic in an illiberal swerve (Bustikova & Guasti, 2017), and also in the shadow of an electoral system favouring bigger parties (read: ANO in 2021), the opposition parties formed two pre-election coalitions and united around an anti-populist discourse. The populism of ANO and SPD, discursively linked by SPOLU and PirStan to uncivil, spendthrift, undemocratic, but also pro-Russian and pro-Chinese policies (see Havlík & Kluknavská, 2022), was presented as a major threat to the future of the Czech Republic.…”

“…The 2021 general election in the Czech Republic took place in the shadow of the Covid crisis and turned into a referendum about the government led by a populist political entrepreneur, Andrej Babiš, and his political party, ANO. The opposition parties, unprecedentedly united into two pre-election coalitions -SPOLU, formed by three right-wing parties, and the more centrist PirStan coalition of the Czech Pirate Party and the Mayors and Independents -focused their campaigns on anti-populism by pointing to the prospective danger of (further) de-democratization of the regime and the pro-Russian leaning of Czech foreign policy (Havlík & Kluknavská, 2022). The neck-and-neck election race ended up with a close victory for SPOLU with 27.8% of the vote, ahead of ANO with 27.2%.…”