Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic substantially provoked protest activities of anti-system political space in Europe, generally seen as a consequence of rising polarization and successful political mobilization. As an institutionalizing and stabilizing the anti-system part of the contemporary arenas within European liberal democracies, the latest dynamics push anti-system actors to the interactions with the populist and anti-populist political opponents, which creates the dominance of current political functioning.
The paper investigates the validity of a universally accepted causal mechanism between polarization, mobilization, and protest activity by analyzing its internal supplements. It submits the innovative concept of triangle polarization encompassing populist, anti-populist, and anti-system spaces and explores their operational continuity with two forms of mobilization and protest activities.
The comparison of Czechia and Germany during the COVID years serves as illustrative cases for empirical analysis. As a result, the paper questions the direct connection between polarization and all forms of mobilization (through standing direct way between polarization and mobilization for autocracy).
It problematizes the definite link between subtypes of mobilization and corresponding activities. Moreover, it offers the conceptual clarification of mainly anti-system and anti-populist political spaces.