Since the contagion of Covid-19 developed into a worldwide pandemic, governments around the world have introduced a plethora of exceptional measures to combat the spread of the virus. There has been a high degree of volatility associated with public responses to such measures, ranging from high degree of compliance and support to outright public protests. In some cases, protests directly targeted Covid-19 containment measures while in others, the pandemic reinforced pre-existing social movements. What are the drivers of protests in times of Covid-19? How has the pandemic exacerbated political and social divides? What makes democracies more immune from protests than others? The second webinar of the Democracies In Distress series will gather experts from a variety of countries to provide insights into the causes and significance of protests in times of Covid-19.

Speakers:

Liliana Zambrano, University of Deusto (Spain), will focus on the protests in Colombia
Maciej Kowalewski, Professor, University of Szczecin (Poland), will provide an analysis on both the relationship between the Black Lives Matter (BLM) and Covid-19 in the United States and the protests from women's rights in Poland
Raul Magni Berton, Professor of Political Science, University of Grenoble (France) and Sarah Moretti, MA research assistant, will analyse the impact of Covid-19 on the protests in France