This paper presents results from a comparative and qualitative discourse-historical analysis of governmental crisis communication in Austria, Germany, France, Hungary and Sweden, during the global COVID-19 pandemic lockdown from March 2020 to May 2020 (a ‘discourse strand’). By analysing a sample of important speeches and press conferences by government leaders (all performing as the ‘face of crisis management’), it is possible to deconstruct a range of discursive strategies announcing/legitimising restrictive measures in order to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic where everybody is in danger of falling ill, regardless of their status, position, education and so forth. I focus on four frames that have been employed to mitigate the ‘dread of death’ (Bauman, 2006) and counter the ‘denial of death’ (Becker, 1973/2020): a ‘religious frame’, a ‘dialogic frame’, a frame emphasising ‘trust’, and a frame of ‘leading a war’. These interpretation frameworks are all embedded in ‘renationalising’ tendencies, specifically visible in the EU member states where even the Schengen Area was suddenly abolished (in order to ‘keep the virus out’) and borders were closed. Thus, everybody continues to be confronted with national biopolitics and body politics (Wodak, 2021).<br /><br />Key messages<br /><ul><li>Most governments employed specific modes of crisis communication vis-à-vis the COVID-19 pandemic, depending on the respective socio-political context and historical tradition.</li><br /><li>Crisis communication attempted to persuade people to follow restrictive measures; the legitimation strategies employed usually appealed to authority and quasi-rational arguments; however, sometimes mythopoesis occurred.</li><br /><li>In times of a pandemic, denial of death does not work anymore; dread of death becomes ubiquitous.</li><br /><li>Four macro-frames, embedded in nativist and nationalistic rhetoric, were used to argue for, and legitimise restrictive measures. Some heads of state (or prime ministers) instrumentalised the crisis to install ever more authoritarian practices.</li></ul>