Coalition statement
A coalition statement is a statement by a party before an election about which coalition (s) it will seek after the election. Such a coalition statement can be exclusive; H. other coalition options are excluded or they can be subject to the proviso that they only apply if the desired coalition has a majority. Accordingly, in the case of a negative coalition statement , the party promises not to enter into a coalition with a specific other party. A coalition statement (like other election promises ) is not legally binding and can be broken. Andrea Ypsilanti's failed attempt to form a red-green government tolerated by the Left Party after the state elections in Hesse in 2008, contrary to her clear coalition statement, is well known.
General
In states with proportional representation , coalition governments are the rule. Since the choice of coalition partner is often decisive for the direction of the government policy pursued, the question of which coalitions are sought after election day is a much discussed one before the election, which can also be decisive for the voter's decision for a particular party. In political science, coalition statements are therefore assessed as positive, as they increase transparency and strengthen the influence of the voters on the party bodies (which would otherwise freely decide on coalition formation after the election). In the period from 1946 to 1998 in the 22 democracies in Europe the parties made a coalition statement in 44% of all elections. However, there are strong national differences here. While coalition statements are common in Germany , France , Austria and Spain , they are uncommon in Denmark , Sweden and the Netherlands .
Coalition signal
Coalition statements can also be made informally. If parties in an existing coalition or political camp are clearly sparing themselves during the election campaign or if specific other parties are attacked in a hurtful way, the voter can derive an implicit coalition statement from this behavior. In this case, political science speaks of a coalition signal .
Types of coalition statements
The following types of coalition statements can be distinguished:
| Explicitly | Implicitly | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| positive | Desired coalition | Executive coalition | Without condition | |
| With condition | ||||
| Toleration | Without condition | |||
| With condition | ||||
| Alternative coalition | Executive coalition | Without condition | ||
| With condition | ||||
| Toleration | Without condition | |||
| With condition | ||||
| negative | Without condition | |||
| With condition | ||||
| Neutral | ||||
Waiver of a coalition statement
The deliberate renunciation of a coalition statement is understood as a political signal to the voters. For example, after the grand coalition in the 1969 Bundestag election , the governing parties did not make such a statement. The SPD wanted to keep open the possibility of a social-liberal coalition , the CDU hoped for an absolute majority. Both parties campaigned to end the unloved grand coalition.
Negative coalition statement
The Hessian Greens state chairman Tarek Al-Wazir sees himself as the inventor of this word creation; he first used this term in the election campaign for the state elections in Hesse in 2009 . The term excluderitis is derived from the verb exclude and the ending -itis , which usually describes an inflammatory disease.
Negative coalition statements can make coalition formation so difficult that it becomes impossible to form a stable government.
- Before the Hessian state elections in 2008, the parties came up with extensive negative coalition statements. The FDP ruled out a participation in a traffic light coalition , the SPD a cooperation with the left. However, since the SPD had also sent coalition signals against a grand coalition, it was not possible to form a government without breaking one of these promises after the election. The attempt by the SPD to resolve these conditions in Hesse by breaking the coalition statement with regard to the left failed because of opposition from within its own ranks.
- As a result, the political catchphrase of exclusionism emerged in public . This pejoratively describes an accumulation of negative coalition statements that exclude certain coalitions or tolerances. A statement of the kind "we will form a coalition in the next legislative period only with party XY" can rule out several other coalition alternatives.
- After the federal election on September 22, 2013 , the SPD, Greens and Die Linke have a majority of the Bundestag seats. Before this election, the SPD had ruled out a red-red-green coalition .
literature
- Frank Decker : Governing in the “party state”. On the architecture of German politics. 2010, ISBN 978-3-531-17681-9 , online .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Frank Decker: Governing in the “federal political parties”, p. 109
- ↑ Frank Decker: Governing in the “federal political parties”, p. 110
- ↑ Representation after Frank Decker: Regieren im “Arbeiterbundesstaat”, p. 114
- ↑ The exclusion is going around again ( memento of the original from September 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , hr-online.de, September 20, 2013
- ↑ Frank Decker: Governing in the “federal political parties”, p. 119 ff.
- ↑ Possible government coalitions. After the election, things can get colorful ( Memento from September 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
