Political polarization is regarded as one of the main drivers of democratic backsliding during the current wave of autocratization. Previous research has shown that it paths the way for the breakdown of civilized, democratic debate and for the electoral success of authoritarian leaders. In this paper, we show that such an environment of political hostility further contributes to the process of autocratization by mobilizing authoritarian citizens. In particular, we use a multilevel model with comparative (22 countries), longitudinal data (2004-2018) from the European Social Survey to demonstrate that authoritarian individuals, who are mostly disaffected under ordinary times, become more engaged as political animosity grows. Our analysis extends to a sample of countries representative of the whole European continent, including the west, which is rarely included in studies of democratic backsliding. Our findings resonate with the literature about “pernicious polarization” and the incentives faced by political agents under the circumstances of political hostility. Broadly, it points to the possibility of a regressive process of “endogenous autocratization”.