Before revision: I study the impact of corona populism -- politics aimed at denying or downplaying the danger posed by COVID-19 for strategic reasons -- on the evolution of the pandemic using regional data from Austria. The right-wing FPOE first vocalized strong support for strict lockdown measures, but made a corona populist turn at the end of the first wave of infections.
After revision: I study the impact of corona populism -- politics aimed at downplaying the threat of Covid-19. Exploiting a policy U-turn of a major Austrian right-wing FPOE first vocalized strong support for strict lockdown measures, but made a corona populist turn at the end of the first wave of infections.