Coalitions are the way to go (or not)

When some of us sneered at the new coalition government and described it as a coup by the political leaders of two parties at the expense of the electorate and the ordinary members of the two parties, we were told that coalitions were obviously a good idea as so many European countries had them all the time. Is that really a good sign?

Well, setting aside the problems of Belgium and the Netherlands (who are now celebrating their victory over Brazil) there is Germany, where Chancellor Merkel's coalition has managed to achieve precisely nothing apart from annoying a lot of Germans in their behaviour over the Greek bail-out.

According to Der Spiegel the resignation of the last German President and the painful election of the new one showed that the government was not fully in control of political events. The majority thinks that the coalition will not last much longer.