Coalitions and thresholds

I do not blame Arnold Cassola for feeling hot under the collar with people like me for spoiling his chances of representing the Greens in our Parliament.

One point among others that Dr Cassola missed in his letter (July 25) is who really runs the show with coalition governments.

Dr Cassola must know how difficult it is for major parties to govern when in coalition with minor party/s. They have always to be careful not to displease their minor partners lest these will retaliate and bring the government down. This has happened often in many countries. In fact almost all coalition governments rarely run their full term. That is why both France and Italy modified their electoral system so as to soften the hold that minor p rties can have on Parliament.

Yes, in Sweden the Socialists are supported by the Greens and the left so long as things go their way. These happen to be bedfellows but what happens if things are different? Will the Greens and the left support a centre-right government? Yes, the Swedish government is there at the whims of these two minor parties.

I will not tell the citizens of Finland, France and other EU countries that their system brings political instability. They know it and the problem of the major parties in these countries is that they have to accommodate their minor parties to form a government. Many times major parties are prevented from carrying out their full political programme because of opposition from their minor partner/s. This makes a mockery of democracy as nothing can be done for the minor partner/s.

The fact that Italy and other countries are doing well is no merit to their political system but in spite of it.

Now let us just imagine the following scenario.

Suppose members of the Greens are elected to Parliament and are invited to form a government with one of the two parties and they insist to include in their programme, for the sake of argument, marriage between the same sexes (which the European Greens are known to support). If one of the major parties, being eager to form a government, succumbs to their demands, does this not go against the will of the majority who are utterly opposed to such things? If on the other hand both big parties refuse this imposition can Dr Cassola please tell us what would be the Green party's position?