Constructing continuity: on the establishment of temporal legitimization in political discourse during the COVID-19 crisis

This article investigates how political discourse during the COVID-19 crisis discursively constructs temporalities as a means of legitimizing crisis management. Building on Critical Discourse Studies and the Discourse-Historical Approach, it explores how continuity – often overlooked in crisis research – is not only maintained but actively constructed in discourse. Drawing on 28 Belgian governmental press conferences (2020 to 2022), the study identifies six discourses of continuity that were mobilized to justify measures, manage expectations, and synchronize collective action. Continuity unfolds in six discourses of the crisis: (1) maintaining the essentials, (2) the creation of habits in crisis, (3) the permanence of effort, (4) waiting as a tool, (5) projection in and out of the crisis and (6) predicting and progressing. These six discourses contrast with a view of continuity as inertia, as the absence of action or change. Instead, they articulate continuity at times as the maintaining force of a certain order, and at others as a creative force normalizing newness. The article argues that continuity, far from being inert, becomes a response to disruption, sustaining governance and order. Thereby, it contributes to the understanding of temporality as a central vector of legitimization in contemporary crises.