Explore the vast range of titles available.

The aim of the article was to determine the degree of political involvement of the most important representatives of the Polish Catholic press, i.e. “Gość Niedzielny”, “Niedziela”, “Idziemy”, and “Przewodnik Katolicki” in the 2020 presidential campaign in Poland. The periodicals took into account the important context of the campaign, i.e. the coronavirus pandemic, the lockdown and its social and political consequences, as well as the problem of polarisation of the Polish political scene. “Gość Niedzielny”, “Niedziela” and “Idziemy” gave clear support to Andrzej Duda. The political involvement of the above press titles should be assessed as going beyond Catholic social science. “Przewodnik Katolicki” was the only one to point out both the strengths and weaknesses of the incumbent’s programme and political activity.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse the legal and political background of COVID-19 related measures introduced during the first wave of the pandemic in the Visegrad Group. These countries introduced measures within the state of emergency that may be violation against the values of the European Union, such as the rule of law. Design/methodology/approach A mixed approach methodology is used. Firstly, the examined countries are analysed and compared from the aspect of constructional law and political science in the form of case studies. Then, empirical research is conducted based on social media analysis limited to Twitter contents. Findings The authors found that, however, in every analysed country, the measures challenge the European values these are not expressed in the social media equally. While Slovakia is displayed from a cooperative aspect, the Czech Republic has a few critics. Poland and Hungary have a biased, negative reputation filled with heavy critics. Research limitations/implications The limitation of this paper lies in the empirical research, as social media analysis was conducted based on keyword search and within a defined time scope. Practical implications Findings help decision-makers concentrate on and modify their communication concerning the extraordinary regulations during a worldwide crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Social implications The feedback of social media users analysed is valuable for politicians and government officials as well. Originality/value The socio-political impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have not been elaborated in the literature yet with respect to the V4 countries. The V4-countries are a special entity as an intergovernmental platform within the EU, whose reputation as democracies is rather heterogeneous.

Populist leaders have consistently rejected evidence-based policies in responding to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. They acted later and with less intensity than non-populists in implementing public health measures such as physical distancing, lockdowns, and developing public health data sets. We describe the responses of ten large countries with populist leadership at the onset of the pandemic (Brazil, Hungary, India, Mexico, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States). Together, these countries account for a disproportionately large number of cases and deaths associated with COVID-19 relative to their population. We categorize the policy responses into two types: (1) slow and ineffective, and (2) strict and illiberal. We conclude that while not all countries that responded poorly to the pandemic were led by populists, no countries with populist leadership performed well in either applying public health measures or achieving desirable health outcomes.

In this paper the author provides an analysis of an interesting phenomenon of media communication implemented under the QA formula. This form of contact with the electorate, popular in a special way among politicians of Eastern European democracies, has also become the domain of Polish President Andrzej Duda during the last election campaign in 2020. The qualitative analysis was carried out on programmes aired on the official profile of Polish President on Facebook from March 23rd to July 3rd 2020. It is a total of 15 films, each (with one exception) lasting about 90 minutes. The author characterises this channel of persuasive messages and points out their role in contemporary media discourse.