The Politics of Covid-19: The Discourse on the Nature of the Economic Crisis and the Legitimization of EU’s Response

Abstract

Although Euro Area member states agree on the need to protect the Economic and Monetary Union against the threat posed by the Covid-19, they differ on how to do it. These differences are the result of competing strategies of representation and legitimization that aim to establish specific ways of looking at and responding to the crisis. Using a critical discourse analysis approach, we look at how the “South” and the “frugal four” developed competing strategies of representation and legitimization to steer and limit the way the issue is perceived and addressed. We focus on how the recontextualization of European integration history and values and the eurozone crisis link to the discursive practices employed to transform the possibilities for future action. We conclude by outlining how the Franco-German/Commission’s proposal served as middle ground to the agreement reached at the European Council of July 2020. By looking at how the battle lines are discursively drawn, we take a glimpse at the possibilities of future economic integration amidst the Covid-19 crisis. These cannot predict how the crisis affects the outcome of European integration, but they are helpful for understanding how actors and discourses shape the meaning of E(M)U.