The Fun of Coalition Governments
On October 1, 2006, federal elections were held in Austria.
Unlike Canada, where there’s usually a minority government formed by the party who won the most seats, European countries have the tradition of entering coalitions with other parties to form a majority government — usually it’s two parties, but three are not unheard of either. (In case somebody is more interested in how it works, there’s a Wikipedia introduction into Austrian Politics.)
Needless to say that there’s a lot of negotiating going on, both publicly and behind closed doors. They are figuring out which items of which party’s program will be incorporated into the government’s plan for the next four years and which ones they are willing to compromise on. And of course, since this is happening now in Austria, the whole process often looks more like kindergarden all over again rather than adults trying to achieve something and foster change for the better.
Interestingly enough, this time around it’s the Conservatives (they used to lead the previous government and lost big time during these elections and are now in second place behind the Social Democrats) who seem to be very unwilling to join a coalition government as “junior partner”, even though they don’t just say that. Instead, they keep imposing conditions, making threads, holding negotiations, etc. From day one it seemed like they were mostly pouting that they lost.
Okay, boys and girls, let’s get on with it. Either you want to be in the government or you don’t. If you don’t, then say so and other options can be investigated. If you do, enter into (and stay in) constructive negotiations.
Don’t keep on stalling, don’t keep playing “hard to get”. You lost 8% and first place. That should tell you something. Say, “we’re not available to form a joint government with the Social Democrats,” if you don’t want to. It’s been a month since the elections already and negotiations have been going nowhere, so far. They haven’t really started, even.
The country needs a government, not kindergarden.
