Welcome to Europe
The UK has finally arrived in continental Europe, from a political system point of view that is... What has traditionally been considered an overly complex and inefficient invention from the other side of the Channel has all of the sudden hit Britain: coalition politics. It is not without a certain degree of amusement that observers from the continent watch on as the British political class, as well as the general public, struggle with this new situation.
There is no need to be nervous though. Multiparty coalition governments have been a political reality in most European countries for ages, without undermining the effectiveness of governments. Germany, for example, has had multi-party coalitions governing the country since the ‘50s and it certainly has not affected its political stability nor resulted in weaker economic development than in the UK... The story of course gets a different twist if you have extremely fractious and heterogenic party systems where it often takes five or more parties with quite strong political differences to form a majority. In these cases, coalition governments can easily lead to extreme political instability – Belgium’s government is the most recent casualty. The question is: what type of coalition-politics will the UK have? Should the Lib Dems choose to side with Labour, the smaller regional parties might well become king-makers...
Christian Hierholzer
Managing Director, hanover Brussels
10 May 2010