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Agrand coalition is an arrangement in a multi-partyparliamentary system in which the two largestpolitical parties of opposingpolitical ideologies unite in acoalition government.[1]
Occasionally circumstances arise in which normally opposing parties may find it desirable to form a government together. For example, in a national crisis such as a war ordepression, people may feel a need for national unity and stability that overcomes ordinary ideological differences. This is especially true when there is broad agreement about the best policy to deal with the crisis. In this case, a grand coalition may occur even when one party has enough seats to govern alone. An example would be theBritish national governments duringWorld War I and before and duringWorld War II.
Another possibility is that the major parties may find they have more in common ideologically with each other than with the smaller parties. This is often a result of acordon sanitaire, where the mainstream parties of theleft andright form a coalition to keep parties of thefar left orfar right out of government. One such example is Austria, which had grand coalitions from 1945 to 1966 to this effect. It is also possible that so many parties are represented in parliament that no other coalition is stable. This is often done out of political necessity, to prevent an early election. For example, inIsrael, the fragmentation and intransigence of some of the smaller parties has made it easier to maintain a coherent platform with a grand coalition than with a narrow one.
Ennahda Party made an alliance with the parties of opposing political ideologies, and governed Tunisia between 2011 and 2021.
After the party won theConstituent Assembly election in 2011, an alliance was established with the second-placed party (Congress for the Republic) and the third-placed party (Ettakatol), forming the Troika alliance.In the2014 parliamentary election, the party came in second place, but it formed alliance withNidaa Tounes which was in first place, despite the tensions in the electoral campaign.In the2019 parliamentary election, the party returned to first place and allied with theHeart of Tunisia party, until the2021 political crisis.
The 2024 elections in the Republic of South Africa resulted in theAfrican National Congress (ANC), which had been in power since 1994, losing its majority having received less than 41% of the national vote.[2] The ANC formed a grand coalition with theDemocratic Alliance (previously the official opposition) and nine other parties. Together the parties had 72% of seats in the South AfricanParliament. All parties who were prepared to sign a statement of intent, which contained the main principles for what it called the Government of National Unity (GNU), were included.
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In theIndianstate ofMaharashtra, theMaha Vikas Aghadi alliance was formed between theIndian National Congress, theNationalist Congress Party (NCP) and theShiv Sena after the2019 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election. While the Congress and the NCP reflectcentre tocentre-left policies and have asecular ideology, the Shiv Sena reflectsright-wing policies and has aHindu-nationalist ideology. The alliance formed the government in Maharashtra after apolitical crisis. The government lasted for 2.5 years, after which in 2022 a rebellion occurred in Shiv Sena regarding the alliance and anotherpolitical crisis followed. After the government collapsed, the Shiv Sena split into two factions; the relatively moderate and secular groupShiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) (SS (UBT)) led byUddhav Thackeray and theBalasahebanchi Shiv Sena, theHindu nationalist group led byEknath Shinde. The alliance still exists between the Congress, the NCP and the SS (UBT), though they sit in the opposition in theMaharashtra Legislative Assembly.
Israel has had several grand coalition governments. The first was the wartime government ofLevi Eshkol, formed in 1967 and which lasted until 1970. Subsequent grand coalitions were formed in the 1980s and at several points in the 21st century.
Several of Israel's grand coalitions were rotation governments, in which the premiership alternated between center-left and center-right leaders. The first was from 1984 to 1988, led byShimon Peres andYitzhak Shamir (which was continued as a non-rotation grand coalition until 1990). In 2021, a rotation grand coalition government, theBennett-Lapid government, succeeded another rotation grand coalition in the form of theNetanyahu-Gantz government.
Following the1993 Japanese general elections, the historically hegemonicLiberal Democratic Party (LDP) was narrowly placed into the opposition in the lower house for the first time in its history. The former opposition, consisting of parties ranging from theJapan Socialist Party (JSP) to theneoconservativeJapan Renewal Party, united aroundMorihiro Hosokawa as their choice forprime minister. After having passedelectoral reform legislation, which was the coalition'sraison d'être, the bickering between ideological factions led to the grand coalition falling apart less than a year later. Soon afterwards, in 1994, the JSP negotiated with the LDP to form a grand coalition government. This lasted until January 1996, and the JSP collapsed after losing much of its political support.
ThePakatan Harapan coalition and theBarisan Nasional coalition formed the first grand coalition government in Malaysia in 2022, after the country's15th general election. No major coalition secured enough seats in these elections to secure a simple majority in parliament. Thus, the country had ahung parliament for the first time in its history. A few days after the election, theConference of Rulers decreed that party leaders must work together to form a government. Pakatan Harapan's Prime Minister candidate,Anwar Ibrahim, was sworn in as the country's 10th Prime Minister after securing the support of Barisan Nasional, its longstanding opponent, together with other parties that make up the Borneo Bloc:Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS),Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) andWarisan. This coalition government is commonly referred to as aUnity Government, even in official communication by the government itself, but this is not a commonly accepted use of the term. A Unity Government is typically defined as a broad coalition government that lacks opposition. In Malaysia's case, thePerikatan Nasional coalition serves as the biggest group in the opposition bloc.[3]
Following the election, the rulingMongolian People's Party had been reduced fromSupermajority to simple majority for the first time in 8 years. Although TheMongolian People's Party could have formed a government of their own, the party leaders ofMongolian People's Party,Democratic Party (Mongolia) andHUN Party met and signed a memorandum to cooperate, thus a Grand Coalition in Mongolia is formed for the first time in its history.[4]
Turkey's first grand coalition was formed after the1961 general election, with members ofRepublican People's Party andJustice Party. At the same time, the grand coalition was also Turkey'sfirst coalition government.
In post-war Austria, a "grand coalition" (German:Große Koalition) between theSocial Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) and the conservativeAustrian People's Party (ÖVP) has been standard sinceWorld War II. Of the 31 governments which have taken office since 1945, 20 have been grand coalitions, including eleven consecutively from 1945 to 1966. Grand coalitions again governed from 1987 to 2000 and 2007 to 2017. Grand coalitions have also been common at thestate level: as of July 2020, grand coalitions governedCarinthia,Styria,Lower Austria, andUpper Austria; in the last two of these, grand coalitions (more specifically, all-party government) are compulsory under the constitution.
TheThird Government of the Republic of Croatia (Croatian:Treća Vlada Republike Hrvatske) orTheGovernment of National Unity (Croatian:Vlada nacionalnog jedinstva) was theCroatian Government cabinet led byPrime MinisterFranjo Gregurić. It was announced on 17 July 1991 in response to the escalation of theCroatian War of Independence. It was the 3rd cabinet of Croatia since thefirst multi-party elections, and its term ended on 12 August 1992 after thefirst parliamentary election under the1990 Croatian Constitution. During the term of this cabinet Croatia gainedinternationally diplomatic recognition and became a member of theUnited Nations.[5][6][7][8]The government was dominated by the right-wingCroatian Democratic Union and it contained theSocial Democratic Party of Croatia,Croatian Social Liberal Party,Croatian People's Party,Croatian Christian Democratic Party,Socialist Party of Croatia,Social Democrats of Croatia and theCroatian Democratic Party
After theVelvet Revolution, there was a government of socialists (ČSSD) with Prime MinisterMiloš Zeman supported by the right-wingODS, known as theopposition agreement.
After the2022 Danish general election a grand coalition was formed between the centre-leftSocial Democrats, the centre-rightVenstre and the centristModerates, presided over by the social democratMette Frederiksen.[9]
In theEuropean Parliament, the two mainpan-European party groups are theEuropean People's Party (EPP) and theSocialists & Democrats (S&D). Until 2019, they held a majority in the European Parliament and worked together in a grand coalition. However, advances by green, liberal and right-wing populist parties across Europe in the2019 European Parliament election led to the EPP-S&D coalition losing their majority,[10] makingRenew Europe support necessary to giveUrsula von der Leyen andher commission a majority in the European Parliament.
Kaja Kallas' first cabinet was a grand coalition between theReform Party and theCentre Party.
Kallas dismissed the Centre ministers from her cabinet in June 2022, leaving it in a minority.[11][12]
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In post-war Germany, "grand coalition" (German:Große Koalition) refers to a governing coalition of the two largest parties, usually the Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) and theSocial Democrats (SPD). While Germany has historically tended to favour narrow coalitions of one of the two largest parties with theFDP or with theGreens, four grand coalitions have been formed at a federal level: theKiesinger cabinet (1966–1969), thefirst Merkel cabinet (2005–2009), thethird Merkel cabinet (2013-2018), and thefourth Merkel cabinet (2018–2021). A fifth coalition government, theMerz cabinet (2025–present), is dubbed as the"black-red coalition" due to the SPD falling behind the second-placedAfD after the2025 election.[13][14][15]
Under theWeimar Republic, theGreat Coalition included all of the major parties of the left, centre, and centre-right who formed the basis of most governments: theSPD, theCatholic Centre Party, theGerman Democratic Party (DDP), and theGerman People's Party (DVP). The two examples were thefirst andsecond Stresemann cabinets (August–November 1923) and, less ephemerally, thesecond Müller cabinet (1928–1930).
In Greece there had been two Grand Coalitions known in Greece as National Unity Governments. The first one is theCoalition Cabinet of Xenophon Zolotas composed by the right-wingNew Democracy (Greece) and the left-wingPASOK andSynaspismos because of ahung parliament and the second one is theCabinet of Lucas Papademos composed by the right-wing New Democracy andPopular Orthodox Rally and the left-wing PASOK because of theGreek government-debt crisis.There were also grand coalitions during the governments ofTzannis Tzannetakis (New Democracy and Synaspismos),Antonis Samaras (New Democracy, PASOK andDemocratic Left (Greece)) andAlexis Tsipras (Syriza,Independent Greeks andEcologist Greens).
InIceland there was a grand coalition between 30 November 2017 and December 2024 between the largest parties of the centre-rightIndependence Party (16), the left-wingLeft-Green Movement (9), and the liberal agrarianProgressive Party (8). All of the parties areopposed to EU integration.
The coalition collapsed into a minority government after the Left-greens exited the coalition.
In Italy, "grand coalition" (Italian:Grande coalizione) refers to the first supermajority government formed in April 2013 between center-leftDemocratic Party (PD), center-rightThe People of Freedom (PdL) party, and the centristCivic Choice (SC) andUnion of the Centre (UdC) parties. In November 2013, The People of Freedom (later renamed asForza Italia) however dropped out and broke apart, leaving theLetta Cabinet and furtherRenzi Cabinet (coalition between PD, NCD, SC and UdC) with a small majority.
ThePatriotic Union and theProgressive Citizens' Party have often governedLiechtenstein together, including the entire period from 1938 to 1997.
In Luxembourg, towards the end ofWorld War I, a newChamber of Deputies was elected in 1918 with the explicit aim of reviewing theconstitution.[16] To this end, formalised parties were formed by the main political blocs, so as to increase their bargaining power in the negotiations. The revisions to the constitution introduceduniversal suffrage andcompulsory voting, adoptedproportional representation, and limited the powers of themonarch.
Since the foundation of theparty system, only one cabinet (between 1921 and 1925) has included only members of a single party. Most of the time, governments are grand coalitions of the two largest parties, no matter what their ideologies; this has made Luxembourg one of the most stable democracies in the world.[17] Two cabinets (between 1945 and 1947) included members of every party represented in theChamber of Deputies.
In the Netherlands, there have been severalcabinets which can be described as grand coalitions (paars kabinet). TheRoman/Red coalitions of the 1940s and 1950s under Prime MinisterWillem Drees were composed of theChristian democraticCatholic People's Party (KVP) and thesocial-democraticLabour Party (PvdA) at its core and several smaller parties as backup (Drees–Van Schaik). ThePurple coalitions in the 1990s under Prime MinisterWim Kok were between the PvdA, theconservative liberalPeople's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and thesocial-liberalDemocrats 66 (D66) party (First Kok cabinet). TheSecond Rutte cabinet, a grand coalition cabinet which can also be described as a purple coalition, was composed of the VVD and the PvdA. A more traditional grand coalition cabinet was theThird Lubbers cabinet, comprising the Christian-democraticChristian Democratic Appeal (CDA) and the PvdA.
In the 1983 legislative elections, theSocialist Party (PS) made a post-electoral agreement with theSocial Democratic Party (PSD), creating a single large government coalition called theCentral Bloc that lasted until 1985.
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After thepolitical crisis in autumn 2021,PNL,PSD and theUDMR reached an agreement to rule the country together for the next seven years. Thus, it has been agreed that the prime minister and several other important ministries should be changed every 18 months. The prime minister appointed was national-liberalNicolae Ciucă. His cabinet was sworn in on 25 November. The coalition supports the Romanian PresidentKlaus Iohannis.[18][19]
In Spain, the term "grand coalition" is typically used to refer to any hypothetical government formed between the centre-right to right-wingPeople's Party (PP) and the centre-leftSpanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). No such a coalition government has ever been formed at the national level, though it was proposed by thenPrime MinisterMariano Rajoy during the2015–2016 government formation process.[20][21][22] Rajoy's own investiture on 29 October 2016 was allowed by the abstention of PSOE's MPs, in what was dubbed a "covert grand coalition", in reference to PSOE's tolerance of Rajoy's minority government through punctual[clarification needed] agreements until there-election ofPedro Sánchez as party leader in June 2017.[23][24]
At the regional level, grand coalitions between the two largest parliamentary forces have been rare, but examples exist:
Additionally, both PSOE and PP formed a joint coalition government—which also included other parties—following a successful vote of no confidence in the Cantabrian regional government ofJuan Hormaechea in 1990, enduring until the1991 regional election. At the time, however, the PP was not among the two largest political parties in the regional assembly.
Switzerland is aDirectorial Republic, which means that the role of Head of State is collectively exercised by the Cabinet of Ministers, who are each elected by Parliament and whose chair isprimus inter pares. TheFederal Council consists of seven members who are elected by theFederal Assembly (bothNational Council andCouncil of States) in joint session, with the chair, thePresident of the Swiss Confederation, and the vice-president elected annually in rotation by Parliament in order of seniority—meaning that Switzerland actually has no Prime Minister and no member of the Federal Council is superior to another.
Byconstitutional convention since 1959, the so-called "Magic Formula" (German:Zauberformel) allocates seats in the Federal Council to the four major parties represented in Parliament. Due to that, these major parties form ade facto perennial "grand coalition" or constant national unity government with a supermajority in both the National Council and the Council of States. This magic formula was adjusted after theSwiss People's Party (SVP) became the largest party represented in Parliament in the2003 elections, transferring one seat in the Federal Council from theCVP to the SVP.
However, the government's policies are only supported on a case-by-case basis by the parliamentary groups of the governing parties, so these major parties are in government and opposition at the same time.
| Composition of Federal Assembly and Parliament (2023) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Alignment | Seats in the National Council | Seats in the Council of States | Seats in the Federal Council | ||
| Swiss People's Party/Democratic Union of the Centre (SVP/UDC) | 62 / 200 | 6 / 46 | 2 / 7 | |||
| Social Democratic Party (SP) | 41 / 200 | 9 / 46 | 2 / 7 | |||
| FDP.The Liberals (FDP) | 28 / 200 | 11 / 46 | 2 / 7 | |||
| The Centre | 29 / 200 | 15 / 46 | 1 / 7 | |||
Total | 160 / 200 | 41 / 46 | 7 / 7 | |||
The UK has had grand coalitions in central government during periods of wartime. They are referred to as the "National Government".
TheNorthern Ireland Executive, the devolved administration of Northern Ireland, must by law, be a coalition of the largest Nationalist (also predominantly left of centre) and Unionist (also predominantly right of centre) parties. The chief post, ofFirst Minister and deputy First Minister, is adiarchy. Most recently, this coalition has been led bySinn Féin and theDemocratic Unionist Party since the2024 Northern Ireland Executive formation.[25]
All parties, major and minor, are offered posts in the executive, although they mayopt to form an opposition.
The Cayman Islands, aBritish overseas territory, had a coalition between the largest parties, the centre-leftPeople's Progressive Movement and centre-rightCayman Democratic Party, from 2017 through 2021. The coalition government ended after the2021 Caymanian general election as a result of the collapse of the Democratic Party that year.