Businesses definitely have a huge impact on how democracies function. But COVID has also put ruling parties in many countries in an awkward spot where they are

Businesses definitely have a huge impact on how democracies function. But COVID has also put ruling parties in many countries in an awkward spot where they are worried about certain vocal parts of the electorate more than the business sector. The issue is that if ruling parties ease up on restrictions, the opposition will immediately accuse them of "risking lives", "killing grandma", etc. The opposition here might be completely disingenuous, they might be thirsting for an end to restrictions themselves, but they can’t pass up on the opportunity to score points against the ruling party. In polarized countries, the part of the population that opposes restrictions may even have become a slight majority. But still, as long as the opposition can use any relaxation in restrictions as a means to attack the ruling party and get just a slightly higher percentage of the vote sufficient to unseat the ruling party, the ruling party has little choice but to maintain restrictions.