By the end of 2022, extensive research had been conducted on authoritarian consolidation during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on how governmental measures weakened democratic checks and balances while strengthening regimes. However, limited insight has been gained into how the pandemic was narrated by political leaders to reinforce their power through both domestic and foreign policy choices. Therefore, in 2023 Deniz Sert, with her colleague from the University of Aberdeen, focused on major autocratisers in Europe—Hungary, Poland, Turkey, and Serbia— whose democracy scores have experienced the sharpest declines over the last decade. Through an analysis of the influential narratives identified in the discourses of state leaders and government representatives, they revealed how pandemic governance was leveraged. These narratives were constructed to legitimize repressive policies aimed at societal control and to contest both the European Union (EU) and the liberal democratic order. This research, recently published, aligns with SDG 16 by shedding light on the erosion of democratic institutions, emphasizing the critical need for inclusive, transparent governance and accountability across global political systems.