The hypothesis was still improbable a few weeks ago. However, this has been the reality since Sunday June 19: Emmanuel Macron can only rely on a relative majority in the National Assembly. The outcome of the legislative elections is therefore likely to seize up the mechanisms put in place to ensure an absolute majority for the Head of State. An unprecedented situation since 2002 and the reform of the electoral calendar.
During his televised address, Wednesday June 22, Emmanuel Macron took note of the “fractures” shown by the result of the legislative elections and assured that he wanted to “build compromises” with his opponents. “We must collectively learn to govern and legislate differently,” he said. Several European countries, where the parliamentary system is predominant, are however accustomed to having at their head leaders with only a relative majority. Culture of compromise, coalitions, case-by-case agreements… Here are four examples of how these regimes work – more or less well.
- Germany: the codified ritual of building alliances
Coalitions are the hallmark of the post-war German political system, so much so that there were only 14 months of government based on a single political force (Adenauer’s CDU in 1960- 61). The current government of Olaf Scholz is thus a team of social-democratic, liberal and ecological parties.
“One cannot understand Germany without the shock of the Third Reich and the collapse of the parliamentary system in 1933. All West German institutions since 1949-1950 have been built with a view to a strong parliament, which can stand up to possible new extremisms,” historian Rainer Hudemann told AFP. The far right of the AfD, which entered the Bundestag in 2017, is kept at a distance from any coalition.
The construction of alliances follows a highly codified ritual lasting one to three months, with the development of a “coalition contract” negotiated topic by topic to set out the government’s roadmap in detail. This contract ensures the overall stability of the government, even if in the event of a crisis there are criticisms of slowness or immobility.
- Italy: the puzzle of the appointment of the Prime Minister
Political instability is notorious in Italy – almost 70 governments have been formed there since the end of the Second World War – marked by shifting and short-lived coalitions. The appointment of the Prime Minister is often a headache, sometimes resulting in a call for help from a personality on whom a compromise is based, like Mario Draghi, currently at the head of a coalition of main parties, with the exception of the Brothers of Italy (extreme right).
The disparate coalition led by Mario Draghi held out during the Covid-19 crisis, but as the 2023 elections approach, tensions are escalating, crystallized over the war in Ukraine and inflation.
- Sweden: a firmly rooted culture of compromise
Since the end of 2021, the social democratic government of Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson has been in a minority in Parliament, with only 100 of the 349 seats. A frequent situation in Sweden since the 1920s.
The culture of compromise is firmly anchored in the country and allows legislation to be relatively stable, with the Social Democrats frequently relying on the support of the Left Party or the Greens, and more occasionally on the Center Party. This is generally support on a case-by-case basis, sometimes with broader agreements on specific themes, for the duration of a legislature.
The rise over the last ten years of the Democrats of Sweden (SD), a party classified on the extreme right, has however somewhat disturbed the political game and made minority governments more unstable. Since 2018, the presence of two marked blocs on the left and on the right has made it more difficult to elect governments.
Magdalena Andersson, who is fighting to pass her Spring Budget, avoided a motion of censure thanks to the decisive voice of a pro-Kurdish MP. But the latter, opposed to concessions to Turkey to unblock Sweden’s entry into NATO, poses a puzzle to him on this issue.
- Spain: when bipartisanship shatters
For a long time, the People’s Party (PP, right) and the Socialist Party (PSOE, left), alternately had an absolute majority. This bipartisanship was shattered at the end of 2015 with the entry into Parliament of the liberals of Ciudadanos and the radical left party Podemos.
Spain then lived through four general elections in four years until the end of 2019. The PSOE ended up agreeing with Podemos to form the country’s first coalition government since the restoration of democracy after the death of dictator Franco in 1975, led by socialist Pedro Sanchez. This does not exclude recurring tensions, for example on the recent labor market reform, and each text must be negotiated with the other parties.