Three parties say they have reached a deal to form a new centrist Austrian government, five months after an election was won by a far-right party that later failed in an attempt to form an administration.
I assume you’re not familiar with election systems outside the US? For most countries it goes like this:
There are dozens of parties you could vote for, but usually only a few end up getting enough votes to become part of the government.
Let’s assume we’ve got 5 parties in, they’ve got 30%, 25%, 20%, 15% and 10% respectively. Now, they start building a coalition to achieve at least 50% overall. (There are exceptions.)
Being the biggest party doesn’t have to mean anything. Since there are many parties, one could say 30% is the largest single party and therefore what the majority wants. However, it could be the only conservative party while 25%, 20% and 15% could all be socialists with different hats. Meaning, the majority of all voters are actually socialists. Why would the government include the conservative party?
I assume you’re not familiar with election systems outside the US? For most countries it goes like this:
There are dozens of parties you could vote for, but usually only a few end up getting enough votes to become part of the government.
Let’s assume we’ve got 5 parties in, they’ve got 30%, 25%, 20%, 15% and 10% respectively. Now, they start building a coalition to achieve at least 50% overall. (There are exceptions.)
Being the biggest party doesn’t have to mean anything. Since there are many parties, one could say 30% is the largest single party and therefore what the majority wants. However, it could be the only conservative party while 25%, 20% and 15% could all be socialists with different hats. Meaning, the majority of all voters are actually socialists. Why would the government include the conservative party?