What solidarity? Pandemic governance discourse in Lithuania, 2020–2022

The management of the COVID-19 pandemic in Lithuania was characterized by a paternalistic style also used in other countries. It was accompanied by a rich rhetoric of solidarity, whose relationship to the paternalistic style of governance remains unclear. Our analysis of the Lithuanian public authorities’ discourse throughout the COVID-19 crisis management (2020–2022) asserts that solidarity was employed as a rhetorical technology within the paternalistic governance of the pandemic. In the long run, it became routine and faded away, calling into question the extent to which it could be activated to manage future adversities.