Grand coalition

A grand coalition is an arrangement in a multi-party parliamentary system in which the two largest political parties of opposing political ideologies unite in a coalition government. The term is most commonly used in countries where there are two dominant parties with different ideological orientations, and a number of smaller parties that have passed the electoral threshold to secure representation in the parliament. The two large parties will each try to secure enough seats in any election to have a majority government alone, and if this fails each will attempt to form a coalition with smaller parties that have a similar ideological orientation. Because the two large parties will tend to differ on major ideological issues, and portray themselves as rivals, or even sometimes enemies, they will usually find it more difficult to agree on a common direction for a combined government with each other than with smaller parties.

Causes of a grand coalition

Occasionally circumstances arise where normally opposing parties may find it desirable to form a government. One is a national crisis such as a war or depression, where people feel a need for national unity and stability that overcomes ordinary ideological differences. This is especially true where there is broad agreement about the best policy to deal with the crisis. In this case, a grand coalition may occur even when one party has enough seats to govern alone. An example would be the British national governments during World War I and before and during World War II.

Another possibility is that the major parties may find they have more in common ideologically with each other than with the smaller parties, or that the fragmentation of the smaller parties is so great that no other coalition is stable. Examples include Austria, where the mainstream parties of the left and right have often formed grand coalitions to keep parties of the far left or far right out of government (an example of a ''cordon sanitaire''), or Israel, where no single party has ever won enough seats to govern alone, and, in some parliaments, the fragmentation and intransigence of some of the smaller parties has made it easier to maintain a coherent platform with a grand coalition than with a narrow one. This is often done out of political necessity, to prevent an early election.

Grand coalitions by country

Austria

In post-war Austria, a "grand coalition" (german: Große Koalition) between the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) and the conservative Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) has been standard since World War II. Of the 31 governments which have taken office since 1945, 20 have been grand coalitions, including eleven consecutively from 1945 to 1966. Grand coalitions again governed from 1987 to 2000 and 2007 to 2017. Grand coalitions have also been common on the state level – as of July 2020, grand coalitions govern Carinthia, Styria, Lower Austria, and Upper Austria; in the case of the latter two, grand coalitions (more specifically, all-party government) are compulsory by the constitution.

Czech Republic

After the Velvet Revolution, there was a government of socialists (ČSSD) with Prime Minister Miloš Zeman supported by the right-wing ODS, known as the opposition agreement.

European Union

In the European Parliament, the two main pan-European party groups are the European People's Party (EPP) and the Socialists & Democrats (S&D). Until 2019, they held a majority in the European Parliament and worked together in a grand coalition. However, advances by green, liberal and right-wing populist parties across Europe in the 2019 European Parliament election led to the EPP-S&D coalition losing their majority, making Renew Europe support necessary to give Ursula von der Leyen and her commission a majority in the European Parliament.

Estonia

Kaja Kallas' first cabinet was a grand coalition between the Reform Party and the Centre Party.

Kallas dismissed the Centre ministers from her cabinet in June 2022, leaving it in a minority. She then formed another such coalition with the Social Democrats, in addition to Isamaa, after an agreement among Reform and the two other parties.

Germany

In post-war Germany, "grand coalition" (german: Große Koalition) refers to a governing coalition of the two largest parties, usually the Christian Democrats ( CDU/ CSU) with the Social Democrats (SPD). While Germany has historically tended to favour narrow coalitions of one of the two largest parties with the FDP or with the Greens, four grand coalitions have been formed on a federal level: the Kiesinger cabinet (1966–1969), the First Merkel cabinet (2005–2009), the Third Merkel cabinet (2013-2018), and the Fourth Merkel cabinet (2018–2021). Under the Weimar Republic, the Great Coalition included all of the major parties of the left, centre, and centre-right who formed the basis of most governments - the SPD, the Catholic Centre Party, the German Democratic Party (DDP), and the German People's Party (DVP). The two examples were the first and second Stresemann cabinets (August–November 1923) and, less ephemerally, the second Müller cabinet (1928-1930).

Iceland

Iceland has a grand coalition since 30 November 2017 between the largest parties of the centre-right Independence Party (16), the left-wing Left-Green Movement (9), and the liberal agrarian Progressive Party (8). All of the parties are opposed to EU integration.

Israel

Israel has had several grand coalition governments. The first was the wartime government of Levi Eshkol, formed in 1967 and which lasted until 1970. Subsequent grand coalitions were formed in the 1980s and at several points in the 21st century.

Several of Israel's grand coalitions were rotation governments, in which the premiership alternated between center-left and center-right leaders. The first was from 1984 to 1988, led by Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Shamir (which was continued as a non-rotation grand coalition until 1990). The current rotation grand coalition government is the current Bennett-Lapid government, which succeeded another rotation grand coalition in the form of the Netanyahu-Gantz government.

Italy

In Italy, "grand coalition" ( it, Grande coalizione) refers to the only supermajority government formed in April 2013 between center-left Democratic Party (PD), center-right The People of Freedom (PdL) party, and the centrist Civic Choice (SC) and Union of the Centre (UdC) parties. In November 2013, The People of Freedom (later renamed as Forza Italia) however dropped out and broke apart, leaving the Letta Cabinet and further Renzi Cabinet (Coalition between PD, NCD, SC and UdC) with a small majority.

Japan

Following the 1993 Japanese general elections, the historically hegemonic Liberal Democratic Party was narrowly placed into the opposition in the lower house for the first time in its history. The former opposition, consisting of parties ranging from the Japan Socialist Party to the neoconservative Japan Renewal Party, united around Morihiro Hosokawa as their choice for prime minister. After having passed electoral reform legislation, which was the coalition's raison d'être, the bickering between ideological factions soon led to the grand coalition falling apart less than a year later. Then soon after the JSP negotiated with the LDP to form a grand coalition government in 1994. The grand coalition government was last until January 1996 and the JSP collapsed after losing much of political support.

Liechtenstein

The Patriotic Union and the Progressive Citizens' Party have often governed Liechtenstein together, including the entire period from 1938 to 1997.

Malaysia

The Pakatan Harapan coalition and the Barisan National coalition formed the first grand coalition government in Malaysia in 2022, after the country's 15th general election. No major coalition secured enough seats in these elections to secure a simple majority in parliament. Thus, the country had a historic hung parliament for a few days before the Conference of Rulers decreed that party leaders must work together to form a government. Pakatan Harapan's Prime Minister candidate, Anwar Ibrahim, was sworn in as the country's 10th Prime Minister after securing the support of Barisan National, its longstanding opponent, together with other parties that make the Borneo Bloc -- Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) and Warisan. This coalition government is commonly referred to as a Unity Government, even in official communication by the government itself, but this is an incorrect use of the term. a Unity Government is defined as a broad coalition government that lacks opposition. In Malaysia's case, the Perikatan Nasional coalition serves as the biggest group in the opposition bloc.

Romania

After the political crisis in autumn 2021, PNL, PSD and the UDMR reached an agreement to rule the country together for the next 7 years. Thus, it has been agreed that the prime minister and several other important ministries should be changed every 1 year and a half. The prime minister to be appointed was national-liberal Nicolae Ciucă. His cabinet was sworn in on 25 November. The coalition supports the Romanian President Klaus Iohannis.

Netherlands

In the Netherlands, there have been several cabinets which can be described as grand coalitions (). The Roman/Red coalitions of the 1940s and 1950s under Prime Minister Willem Drees were composed of the catholic Catholic People's Party (KVP) and the social-democratic Labour Party (PvdA) at its core and several smaller parties as backup ( Drees–Van Schaik). The Purple coalitions in the 1990s under Prime Minister Wim Kok

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