Constructions of Solidarity and Leadership of Powerful Global Leaders in Post Pandemic Recovery Speeches

Abstract

The COVID-19 witnessed varied enactment of leadership by political leaders around the world in response to its threat. With COVID-19 recovery policies shining a spotlight on government’s future action, the leadership of global political figures is once again scrutinised on how they ‘build back better’ the damages caused by the pandemic. This study analyses the COVID-19 post- recovery speeches of the world’s most powerful leaders to gain an understanding of their enactment of discursive leadership. Focusing on solidarity, this study elucidates the processes and identifies how it is linguistically constituted as part of their aims to create bonds with international allies. The analysis reveals that the construction of solidarity is done through storytelling and, proverbs and metaphors. The findings have led to a deeper understanding of discursive leadership and solidarity practices in political discourse, and is hoped to be useful to researchers to understand exemplary discursive practices pertinent to solidarity building.