Explaining a Minority Government

When you hear the term 'Minderheitenregierung', it literally means minority government, and it has interesting implications. 

First, remember....after an election....the top vote getting party has to form a coalition to reach 50-percent-plus.  So you have the party chief go and look at party options, who would best fit, and then negotiate to reach the coalition. 

Some Germans will tell you that this is what keeps them from really 'blasting' or insulting other parties in the campaign process. 

If party 'A' fails in getting the two or three options as coalition partners....then you go to the second-place winner, and offer them a chance to form a government.  It's possible that you might even see the number three party given this chance.

If after 90-odd days, nothing has formed....you have two choices remaining.  Either you have a second entire election (which might give you the same result), or you run a Minderheitenregierung or minority government. 

Within German history, there's only been one or two examples (at the state level, not the federal level), where a minority government ran. 

What happens here is that the 'winner' of the election controls all cabinet posts.  But when any legislation comes up.....it's a open door with various parties forming partnerships, to accomplish a pass or fail situation.  In some cases, you might even find the party not having all of its members lined up to support an act. 

Why bring up this topic?  Some people believe that in the 2021 election coming up (the national election)....it's possible that the CDU will be unable to form a coalition (either with the Greens or SPD). 

Journalists will generally that it's not the end of the world, and that a minority government could operate....just that legislation passed might totally disagree with the agenda of the governing party.  So you could come to the end of four years, and find a large segment of society angry at the operation of the government and trying to assign blame.  So this is simply a chat over something that might occur in the future.