Scholarly interest in citizen preferences for a technocratic approach to politics, which values expertise and independence over popular democratic mandates, has been on the rise in recent years. The recent public health crisis due to COVID19 has also catapulted questions surrounding the role and desirability of scientific expertise in politics to the forefront of public debates. Nevertheless, given the limited number of studies available and recently developed measurement tools there are still questions regarding the stability of such attitudes and replicability of previous results. This paper compares two waves of survey data in nine European democracies to map how the structure and prevalence of technocratic attitudes have changed between the pre- and post-Covid19 environment. Our analysis shows that the structure of technocratic attitudes remains stable, that is attitudes showing a strong preference for expertise, elitism, anti-politics and low preference for populism, and that the share of European citizens that exhibit such preferences has increased in every country under study. Further, the paper asks how has the experience of a global pandemic changed citizen preferences for science and expertise in political decision-making, a key dimension of technocratic attitudes? Findings suggest that preferences for experts in politics remains high among most citizen groups, though important differences remain in the way different citizens evaluate the political response to the COVID pandemic.