13:15 - 15:30
Thursday-Panel
Chair/s:
Julie Hassing Nielsen
Discussant/s:
Julia Schulte-Cloos
Meeting Room K

Christopher Anderson, Sara Hobolt
Changing Norms in Times of Crisis: Citizens, Masks, and Political Information During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Citizens, Masks, and Political Information During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Wang Leung Ting
Impact of House of Common hybrid proceeding on members participation during COVID-19 pandemic

Julie Hassing Nielsen
Loyalty in the Face of Adversity? Exploring party loyalty during the Covid-19 pandemic crisis in Sweden and Denmark

Davide Morisi, Max Schaub, Guillaume Kon-Kam-King, Héloïse Cloléry
Incumbency voting, right-wing support, and the threat of Covid-19: the case of France

Moritz Marbach, Dalston Ward, Dominik Hangartner
How COVID-19 Lockdown Policies Weaken Civic Attitudes in the United States and Europe
Incumbency voting, right-wing support, and the threat of Covid-19: the case of France
Davide Morisi 1, Max Schaub 2, Guillaume Kon-Kam-King 3, Héloïse Cloléry 4
1 Collegio Carlo Alberto
2 WZB
3 INRAE
4 Sciences Po

How does the spread of Covid-19 affect voting? Do voters “rally around” incumbent candidates, or is it mostly right-wing candidates who profit from the external threat posed by the coronavirus? We address these questions focusing on the unique case of the French municipal elections that took place in March and June 2020, while Covid-19 cases were spreading across the country. We combine voting data at the municipality level with the excess mortality rate that is plausibly related to Covid-19 in the same municipalities to exploit the geographical variation in the diffusion of the virus. Preliminary results based on diff-in-diff analysis indicate that support for incumbent candidates increased in the areas that were strongly affected by the coronavirus. However, it is mostly right-wing, incumbent candidates – and not other incumbents – who profit from the spread of Covid-19 in terms of increased vote share.