Dr.

First Name
Radoslav
Last Name
Štefančík
Institution/University
University of Economics Bratislava
Co-authors
Eva Stradiotova, University of Economics Bratislava
Paper/Abstract submission

Radical populism in Slovakia in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic

In this article we will analyse the political communication of Slovak radical populists in the period of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the article, we will use the term "radical populism" to refer to two groups of actors - representatives of the far left and representatives of the far right. We will be interested not only in how both groups articulated their messages. We will also look for common communication strategies of both political groups. 

The aim of our article will be to find out what communication strategies were used by radical populists in this period. We are interested in what topics the populists emphasized as their priorities and what means of expression they used in communicating with their voters. We thus approach radical populism as a mode of political communication. A number of authors define populism as a simplistic style of communication that reduces complex political issues to the responsibility of 'guilty parties' and political competition to the opposition of friend and foe. Thus, the question remains who was the enemy for Slovak radical populists in the period under study.

Given that we will be examining political communication in a particular period, we will focus primarily on this topic. We are interested in how radical populists defended their views on the pandemic, on the Slovak government's anti-pandemic measures, as well as on vaccination against the disease. We assume that the thinking of radical populists is based on the dichotomy of friend vs. enemy. The enemy in this case is not COVID-19; radical populists consider the government to be the enemy because the government threatens the people with its decisions.

Our preliminary research suggests that radical populists were particularly active during the COVID-19 pandemic, using a variety of communication strategies, such as conspiracy theories, dramatization, articulating the threat, using hyperbole, and emphasizing negative emotions, especially fear-mongering.

Methodologically, we will use discourse analysis. We understand discourse as the sum of all speech acts used in political debates. For the theoretical explanation of discourse, we will be aided by the research of Ruth Wodak.