A Convincing Narrative to Control the Crisis Response? The Role of the President of the European Commission During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Sense-making and meaning-making are fundamental tasks of crisis management. They entail the construction of a persuasive crisis narrative for guaranteeing that the public understands and supports crisis responses. Building on a combination of literature on crisis management and policy narratives, we analysed von der Leyen's speeches on the pandemic (March 2020–December 2022) to answer one central research question: was the President of the Commission able to construct a compelling narrative to support the crisis response at the supranational level? Our findings suggest that she was able to create a convincing crisis narrative that helped to back the Commission's co-ordination role and the crisis response devised at the supranational level.