Testing Social Bonds and Trust to the Breaking Point

A relatively late surge in cases in the Visegrad Group countries has left governments and health officials scrambling to contain the fallout while leaders of the region are beginning to see their popularity dipping. The people feel frustrated with lost opportunities over the summer to mitigate the economic repercussions of COVID-19’s impact on their markets, while extensive disinformation campaigns look to harm the much-needed rollout of vaccines in the coming months.

Czechia was one of the first European countries to close its borders and issue a nationwide lockdown. Andrej Babiš’ government made mask-wearing – even outside – mandatory and was praised by the international community as the policy was credited for keeping the number of cases down. Soon after, Slovakia and Poland followed suit, though Viktor Orbán’s government in Budapest relied on national recommendations rather than restrictions for a few weeks longer.

As the pandemic proliferated, many in Central Europe listened carefully to the limitations and advice being handed down by officials.

There is a feeling that the region’s shared history played a role in their combined success; a new incarnation of solidarity swept across Central Europe, and while it became clear in early spring that the centralised and coordinated responses were yielding results – the V4 countries were some of the least affected in Europe – cracks in societal support were already beginning to show.