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.