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and Italy, the management of the COVID-19 pandemic has required coordination on different territorial levels of a plurality of actors-some para-public, others non-profit, and others for-profit and private-and dealing with local differences in the impacts of the crisis, all of this under severe time constraints. The healthcare systems of the three countries represent complex institutional arrangements that have undergone far-reaching reforms, mostly involving economic liberalization, in the last four decades. In particular the funding and resources available for healthcare have been subjected to radical transformations and sometimes drastic cutbacks. In keeping with the general trend in social policy that has led to marketization and increasing emphasis on individual responsibility, this shift has influenced the coordination of a wide range of players active in diverse social and territorial spaces during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this article, we examine the social coordination of the French, German, and Italian healthcare systems facing the COVID-19 pandemic by focusing on two sets of issues. First, we analyze policy discourses and crisis management measures taken by these governments. Specifically, we examine the concept of solidarity expressed by government leaders when the initial lockdowns were put in place and legal measures and governance structures drawn on in managing the crisis. Second, we look at two key operational elements in the fight against the pandemic: introduction of test strategies and provision of intensive care beds. Both require the deployment of a specific concept of solidarity-or a deceptive version of the conceptas well as coordination of key actors. The results of our comparison lead to conclusions regarding more general changes in European welfare states.

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