Understanding protest scripts: the anti-containment protests in Germany and Italy during the COVID-19 pandemic

The pandemic did not bring protest politics to a halt. Instead, it sparked diverse and divergent forms of contention. This study compares the development and characteristics of anti-containment protests in Germany and Italy, offering three innovations. Conceptually, we introduce the notion of a protest script characterized by specific routinized dynamics and a contentious choreography, as well as frames expressed in slogans, banners, and speeches. Methodologically, we rely on video-enhanced protest event analysis (vPEA) to uncover these scripts, combining classical newspaper-based protest event data with video data analysis. Empirically, we show that the level of protest was higher in Germany than in Italy. Despite differences in the level and timing of protests, the study shows similarities and divergences in the countries’ protest scripts. Driven by far right and esoteric New Age actors, the protest events in both countries exhibit an escalating dynamic in terms of their choreography and the prevalence of conspiratorial and anti-systemic claims.