About the event:

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the politicization of vaccine hesitancy movements proved to be a new challenge for the liberal democratic order. Their adherents tend to espouse anti-establishment conspiracy theories to the extent that vaccine hesitancy is being consciously included in the toolkit of anti-systemic political actors. Moreover, fragile unconsolidated democracies seem especially vulnerable because this development provokes new societal fault lines and provides additional resources and opportunities to opponents of the liberal status quo. However, is it vaccine hesitancy per se or are some other political beliefs to be blamed for the illiberal drift? 
Using original survey data collected in Ukraine before the eruption of the Russo-Ukrainian war, Ivan Gomza considers the relationship between vaccine hesitancy and the intensity of populist sentiments. In addition, he examines political preferences nurtured by the vaccine-hesitant community regarding essential issues of Ukrainian political debate before 2022, namely attitudes toward European integration and cooperation with NATO.