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In their study, the researchers focused on parties that define themselves in their rhetoric against populism on the domestic scene. „These parties, although they mainly talk about democracy, actually deepen the conflicts on the political scene and polarise it even more, because they basically work on the principle of 'us' or 'them'. They present anti-populism as depolarising, based on politeness, calmness and knowledge, while populism is portrayed as polarising and using emotional and irrational language," said Alena Kluknavská from the National Institute of SYRI and Masaryk University.
Read more: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11615-024-00580-9
Emphasizing the conflict between populist and anti-populist parties is leading to further polarization of Czech society. The vision of reality is becoming essentially black and white. The very emphasis on the struggle for democracy and on the style of politics has transformed the long-term logic of political competition in the Czech Republic in recent years. This is evident from a study by Alena Kluknavská and Vlastimil Havlík from the National Institute SYRI, published in the journal Politische Vierteljahresschrift.
Alena Kluknavská works as an assistant professor at the Department of Media Studies and Journalism of Masaryk University. Her expertise lies in the areas of political communication with a special research focus on populist, radical-right and post-factual political discourses and on the interplay between politics and the media. Within the framework of SYRI, he deals with the issue of political communication, especially populist and anti-populist communication on social networks, in the context of crises with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic.