The pandemic situation, caused by COVID-19 outbreak, has put many governments around the world in an unprecedented situation. Despite the fact that many countries have crisis management mechanisms in place, the extent of the pandemic and the need to apply large-scale protection measures and restrictions have shown that existing crisis plans have not always been set up sufficiently. In addition, the fight against the pandemic has become part of political competition, influencing the elections during the pandemic and having an impact on relations between ruling parties and the opposition. Moreover, parties that have come to power in many countries recently, often adapt and adjust their policies and actions according to the public opinion (populist parties, business-firm parties). Since the pandemic outbreak these parties have been in charge of imposing restrictions and protection measures in order to slow down or stop the spread of COVID-19 infection. The aim of the paper is to focus on how the public opinion has influenced the actions taken by governments ruled by such parties, with particular emphasis on the Czech Republic and Slovakia, since in both countries the leading coalition parties belong to the group of populist and / or business-firm parties – the Action of Dissatisfied Citizens 2011 (ANO 2011), resp. the Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OĽaNO). The theoretical context will be provided by the theory of business-firm parties and populist parties.