The current covid-19 pandemic, as 'an hour of the executive', offers an unprecedented opportunity to elected incumbents for a power grab and erosion of checks and balances. We have been witnessing a curtailing of civil and political rights on a massive scale, which is unprecedented in peacetime, accompanied by the adoption of new laws and measures that vested extra powers in the executive. There remains the danger that the COVID-19 crisis will make the already fragile democracies in Southeast Europe even less resilient and more susceptible to executive takeovers.