The Use of Medical Populism to Claim the Right to Rule in Poland during a Public Health Emergency

This article aims to give insight into discursive means used by rulers in Poland to claim the right to rule during a public health emergency. Grounded in Johannes Gerschewski’s, Christian von Soest’s and Julia Grauvogel’s theory of legitimacy claims and Gideon Lasco’s theory of medical populism, the study identifies the evolution and characteristics of legitimacy claims at pandemic junctures critical to political regime stability. By using content and thematic analysis of news distributed by partisan media and tweets published by the most influential politicians of the ruling party, the study uncovers justifications for autocratic rule in Poland aimed at shaping elite cohesion, opposition activity, and the potential political support of the ruled. Legitimacy claims rested upon medical populism to a large extent since the latter provided semantic structures useful to account for the unprecedented extension of the ruling party’s power competencies and limitation of personal and civic freedoms. Moreover, while claims of dramatic restrictions and lockdowns marked the pandemic’s beginning, its further stages brought out a “vaccine messianism” and optimism related to crisis management performance.