Afghanistan Following the disputed
2014 presidential elections, a National Unity Government (NUG) between both run-off candidates was formed with
Ashraf Ghani as
President of Afghanistan and
Abdullah Abdullah in the new office of Chief Executive of Afghanistan. This power-sharing agreement broke apart after the
2019 Afghan presidential election, after which Ghani abolished the office of Chief Executive while Abdullah again refused to recognize Ghani's presidency and demanded the formation of a new government in northern Afghanistan. Both politicians lost power after the
Taliban overthrew the Afghan government in 2021.
Canada During World War I, the
Conservative government of Sir
Robert Borden invited the
Liberal opposition to join the government as a means of dealing with the
Conscription crisis of 1917. The Liberals, led by Sir
Wilfrid Laurier refused; however, Borden was able to convince many individual Liberals to join what was called a
Union Government, which defeated the Laurier Liberals in the fall
1917 election. During
World War II, the
opposition Conservative Party ran under the name
National Government in the
1940 election as a means of promoting their platform of creating a wartime national government coalition (evocative of the previous war's
Union government). The party was not successful in the election, which re-elected the
Liberal government of
William Lyon Mackenzie King, whose party continued to rule alone for the duration of
World War II.
Newfoundland The
Dominion of Newfoundland (not to be part of Canada for another three decades) had a National Government during
World War I led by
Edward Patrick Morris.
China In modern Chinese history, the
Republic of China twice saw United Fronts forms to provide national unity in a time of civil conflict. The
First United Front (1923–1927) saw the
Nationalists (KMT) and
Communists (CCP) unite to
end warlordism within the country, however since neither party was the
centrally recognised Government of China at the time the First United Front cannot be viewed as a true example of a national unity government. Following the advent of the
Second Sino-Japanese War, the KMT, the now solely recognised central party of the country, once again opted to form the
Second United Front with the CCP – the two parties at this point had been engaged in an
open civil war since the collapse of the First United Front. This new front acted as a national unity government for the extent of the war and represented the solely recognised government for China at the time, though the overall level of cooperation between the two parties – past the cessation of hostility – was mostly nominal.
Croatia Croatia formed a
national unity government in 1991 under prime minister
Franjo Gregurić in response to the outbreak of the
Croatian War of Independence. Even though the cabinet included ministers from minority parties, all heads of
ministries were either from the majority
Croatian Democratic Union or soon defected to it.
Estonia Estonia had national unity governments during the
Estonian War of Independence (Päts I–III Provisional cabinets) and after the
1924 coup d'état attempt by the
Communist Party of Estonia (Jaakson cabinet).
Greece A national unity government in
Greece is often called
ecumenical government: • 1926 under
Alexandros Zaimis • 1944 under
Georgios Papandreou ( ) • 1974 under
Konstantinos Karamanlis • 1989 under
Xenophon Zolotas • 2011 under
Lucas Papademos Hungary There are five periods in Hungary when national unity governments emerged: • 1917–1918, during
World War I (
Móric Esterházy and
Sándor Wekerle cabinets) • 1919–1920, cabinet of
Károly Huszár, restoration of the
Kingdom of Hungary • 1944–1945, during
World War II,
Government of National Unity (
Ferenc Szálasi cabinet) • 1944–1947, opposition government during
World War II (
Béla Miklós) and after following
Zoltán Tildy and
Ferenc Nagy cabinets) • 1956, during the
Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (third cabinet of
Imre Nagy)
Ireland A national unity government, following the failure of government formation after the
2020 general election, was suggested to deal with the
COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, a
Fianna Fáil–
Fine Gael–
Green coalition was formed, creating the
32nd government of Ireland.
Israel Israel has had several national unity governments, in which major rival parties formed a ruling coalition. Such coalitions were formed in the days leading up to the
Six-Day War in 1967, in the late 1980s and amidst the
COVID-19 pandemic in
2020. The
36th government, formed in 2021, was a national unity government that has been frequently described as the most diverse governments in Israeli history, consisting of right-wing, centrist, left-wing and one Arab
Islamist political party. Following the
October 7 attack by
Hamas, the
National Unity party became part of an
Israeli war cabinet, joining the
37th government. The National Unity party left the war cabinet in June 2024, leading to the cabinet's dissolution.
Italy In the
republican era, the first two cabinets, led by
Alcide De Gasperi, were supported by all three of the following parties, the pro-American
Christian Democrats and the pro-Soviet
Italian Communist Party and
Italian Socialist Party. Afterwards, the first government generally recognised as a national unity government was the
third Andreotti Cabinet, also known as
non-no confidence vote government, as the
Italian Communist Party decided to not take part at the confidence vote. The communists voted in favour of the motion of confidence for the
following cabinet, still led by
Giulio Andreotti. During the
Eurozone crisis, the two main parties,
The People of Freedom and the
Democratic Party, along with other minor political forces, supported the
Monti cabinet, and eventually, after the
2013 general election, formed a
grand coalition in support of the
Letta Cabinet, which, however, was opposed by a new major political force in parliament, the anti-establishment
Five Star Movement. The
Draghi Cabinet, formed during the
COVID-19 pandemic and resulting
economic crisis, has been described as a national unity government. It comprises a mixture of
independent experts as well as politicians from most of Italy's political parties: the Five Star Movement, Democratic Party,
League,
Forza Italia,
Italia Viva, and
Free and Equal. The following is a list of national unity or
grand coalition governments: •
De Gasperi II Cabinet (14 July 1946 – 2 February 1947) •
De Gasperi III Cabinet (2 February 1947 – 1 June 1947) •
Andreotti III Cabinet (29 July 1976 – 11 March 1978) •
Andreotti IV Cabinet (11 March 1978 – 20 March 1979) •
Ciampi Cabinet (28 April 1993 – 10 May 1994) – Note: grand coalition support lasted only until 4 May 1993 •
Monti Cabinet (16 November 2011 – 28 April 2013) •
Letta Cabinet (28 April 2013 – 22 February 2014) – Note: grand coalition support lasted only until 15 November 2013 •
Draghi Cabinet (13 February 2021 – 22 October 2022)
Kenya From 2008 to 2013, Kenya was governed by
Government of National Unity between the rival
Party of National Unity of
Mwai Kibaki and the
Orange Democratic Movement of
Raila Odinga following the
2007 presidential election and subsequent
violence. This was due to the ODM winning the majority of seats in the
National Assembly, but controversially losing the presidential election by a margin that has since been called into question for its validity.
Lebanon Since
Lebanon is a multireligious state and
consensus democracy, having a national unity government is more favorable in this country. Unlike other democracies, no group in Lebanon can govern alone.
Libya Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, selected as Prime Minister of Libya by the
Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) on 5 February 2021,
Palestine The Palestinian Unity Government of June 2014 was a national unity government of the
Palestinian National Authority under Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas formed on 2 June 2014 following the
Fatah-Hamas Reconciliation Agreement that had been signed on 23 April 2014. The ministers were nominally independent, but overwhelmingly seen as loyal to President Abbas and his
Fatah movement or to smaller leftist factions, none of whom were believed to have close ties to
Hamas. However, the Unity Government was not approved by the
Palestinian Legislative Council, leading to its legitimacy being questioned. The Unity Government dissolved on 17 June 2015 after President Abbas said it was unable to operate in the
Gaza Strip.
Poland In the
1989 Polish parliamentary election, Poland's first semi-free election since World War II, candidates backed by the
Solidarity movement won all 161 seats up for free election. The ruling Communist-dominated
Patriotic Movement for National Rebirth—comprising the Communist
Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR), the
United People's Party (ZSL), and the
Democratic Party (SD)—broke down soon after, as the ZSL and SD formed an alliance with Solidarity. This forced President
Wojciech Jaruzelski to appoint the
Cabinet of Tadeusz Mazowiecki on 12 September 1989, Poland's first government since World War II with a non-Communist majority. It was a national unity government of Solidarity-endorsed ministers alongside the PZPR, ZSL, and SD, with the Communists still controlling the
Defense and
Interior ministries. The PZPR was dissolved on 29 January 1990 and its former ministers resigned on 6 July.
Portugal A national unity government (known as the
Sacred Union Government;
Port.:
Governo da União Sagrada) was in place during the first year of
Portuguese participation in
World War I, led by the
Evolutionist Party president
António José de Almeida from 15 March 1916 to 25 April 1917, and with the participation of the
Democratic Party of
Afonso Costa.
Rwanda After
Rwandan genocide in 1994, the
Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), has ruled Rwanda using tactics which have been characterized as
authoritarian. Elections are manipulated in various ways including banning opposition parties, arresting or assassinating critics, and
electoral fraud.
South Africa The
interim constitution negotiated by the multi-party
negotiations to end apartheid that started in 1990 allowed all parties that gained more than 5% of the vote to participate in a
Government of National Unity. The new government that was elected in the
1994 general election therefore had members from many political parties in the cabinet. This government of national unity lasted until the
1999 general election, although it was dominated by the
African National Congress (ANC) and a reported lack of shared decision-making prompted the second-largest party, the
National Party, to withdraw from the GNU in 1996. In the
2024 South African general election, support for the ruling ANC party significantly declined. The ANC remained the largest party but lost the parliamentary majority that it had held since the inaugural post-apartheid election in 1994, which required
negotiations between parties on the formation of a government. On 14 June 2024, the ANC, the
Democratic Alliance (DA), the
Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and the
Patriotic Alliance (PA), agreed to form a coalition which they referred to as a '
Government of National Unity' (GNU), led by the ANC's
Cyril Ramaphosa who was re-elected
President of South Africa with the support of the parties who then formed part of the GNU. A further six parties subsequently joined the GNU to form a
grand coalition of ten parties, with jointly
287 seats in the 400 seat parliament (72%). The additional parties which joined towards the end of June 2024 were the GOOD Party;
Rise Mzansi;
Al Jama-ah; the
Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC), the
United Democratic Movement (UDM) and the
Freedom Front Plus. These members of the GNU signed a statement of intent with the African National Congress.
Sri Lanka Following the fall of the
Mahinda Rajapaksa regime, the
United National Party who won the 2015 elections formed a National Unity Government with the main opposition
Sri Lanka Freedom Party Under
Maithripala Sirisena and
Ranil Wickramasinghe.
Sweden Sweden has only had one national unity government; The
Hansson III Cabinet during
World War II. The government was made up of all parties in the parliament except the
Communist party which was considered to be pro-Soviet and hence unreliable. The government consisted of six ministers from the
Social Democratic party (including prime minister
Per Albin Hansson), three from the
Right Wing party, three from the
Liberal People's party, three from the
Farmer's League and two nonpartisan politicians. The ultimate goal of this government's policy was to keep Sweden out of the war, which they also succeeded with. The Hansson government introduced
censorship of press, literature and culture, which was applied to both pro-nazi and pro-communist propaganda. The government also approved departures from the neutrality policy to keep Sweden out of the war.
United Kingdom First-past-the-post voting, the British electoral system, has long increased the likelihood of a single party gaining a majority of
Members of Parliament, who have run most departments and the government legislation of the country since the early 20th century. After the formation of clear political parties in the Lords and Commons, the first national unity government came in response to the
Napoleonic Wars.
William Pitt the Younger offered to replace Prime Minister
Henry Addington's government with a cabinet including all of the major parliamentary leaders such as himself,
Charles James Fox, and
Lord Grenville. This proved impossible because of irreconcilable policy differences between the factions (including Fox's opposition to the war in general), Fox's intense animosity towards Pitt the Younger, and King
George III's refusal to appoint a government including Fox. After the death of Pitt the Younger in 1806, King George finally acquiesced and allowed Grenville and Fox to form a new "
Ministry of All the Talents." This ministry had cross-party support, ranging from very
socially conservative Tories, and the broad range of
Whigs (among them
Charles James Fox and the
Foxites as well as
Grenvillites), selected for their combined broad political support in both Houses of Parliament and known capabilities in a time of crisis. However, the ministry was frustrated in its attempts to make peace with the
First French Empire, and despite one major legislative success (the
Slave Trade Act 1807 banning the
Atlantic slave trade in the
British Empire), it fell apart in 1807 over the question of
Catholic Emancipation and was replaced following a general election by a Tory ministry led by the
Duke of Portland. The world wars and the long recovery to the
Great Depression would be the only further instances of National Governments. The next major government representing all parties came during
World War II after the
Norway Debate, in which Prime Minister
Neville Chamberlain and his cabinet were condemned for their handling of the war and faced a
vote of no confidence in which members of his own party voted with the Opposition against him. The debate also revealed that
Winston Churchill, an early opponent of
Nazi Germany and
appeasement, would be the only Conservative minister under which both Labour and Conservative MPs would join a government. Churchill agreed to form a new government after Chamberlain resigned. The subsequent
Churchill war ministry included Churchill as
prime minister, Labour Party Leader
Clement Attlee as
deputy prime minister, Conservative Party Leader Chamberlain as
Lord President of the Council, and Liberal leader
Archibald Sinclair as
Secretary of State for Air.
Quasi-national governments After
10 years of rule by the
Liberal Party, Prime Minister
H. H. Asquith agreed to form a new coalition ministry with the
Conservative Party in response to
World War I in 1915. However, the government remained dominated by the Liberals with few Conservatives in important Cabinet posts. Asquith resigned as Conservatives refused to serve in his government in 1916, and
David Lloyd George and Conservative Party Leader
Bonar Law formed a new coalition government from Conservatives and a minority of Liberals opposed to Asquith's handling of the war, which was opposed by Asquith's Liberals. In the 1918 general election held after the end of the war,
Coalition-endorsed candidates won a large majority. Thereafter
a coalition that faced few opposition MPs under
David Lloyd George lasted until 1922 when, at the
Carlton Club meeting, Conservative backbenchers declared that the party would fight the forthcoming election with its own leader and programme. During the
Great Depression the first of four consecutive
National Governments was formed in 1931 by
Ramsay MacDonald (
Labour/
National Labour) succeeded by
Stanley Baldwin (
Conservative) with their largest opponent and the
Liberals. Most members of the
Labour and
Liberal Parties rejected the government, however, and moved to the opposition benches leaving MacDonald's supporters to rival mainstream party candidates in many cases as
National Labour/National Labour Organisation or in the
Liberal National Party. Notably candidates styled in this way contested the
1935 election; this long period of quasi-national government took in broader support and widened its selections of ministers in the
war years, and its fourth transmutation persisted until the
general election of 1945. In 2019, the idea of a government of National Unity was proposed by politicians including Labour leader
Jeremy Corbyn and
Liberal Democrats leader
Jo Swinson to stop a
no-deal Brexit spearheaded by Prime Minister
Boris Johnson.
Northern Ireland The
Belfast Agreement, which sets out the workings of the
Northern Ireland Assembly, effectively enforces all-party governments in
Northern Ireland. All governments formed since the foundation of the
Northern Ireland Executive in 1999 have contained ministers from the five main parties (
Sinn Féin,
Democratic Unionist Party,
Ulster Unionist Party,
Social Democratic and Labour Party and
Alliance), with seats allocated using the
d'Hondt method.
United States In hopes of bridging partisan politics during the
American Civil War, Republican
Abraham Lincoln ran for his second term under the new
National Union Party with Democrat
Andrew Johnson as his running mate. The National Union Party allowed members to retain affiliations with other political parties. Since the Civil War, there has never been a "national unity" government in the United States in the traditional sense. There have been several instances, however, during national disasters or wars, that the two parties have briefly "rallied around the President". Such instances include the
attack on Pearl Harbor, the
assassination of John F. Kennedy, and the
September 11 attacks, all of which not only had a worldwide effect, but preceded a massive spike in the approval rating of the sitting president.
Zimbabwe The 2008–2009 Zimbabwean political negotiations between the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (led by
Morgan Tsvangirai), its small splinter group, the
Movement for Democratic Change – Mutambara (led by
Arthur Mutambara), and the ruling
Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (led by
Robert Mugabe) created a framework for a power-sharing executive government between the two parties. These negotiations followed the
2008 presidential election, in which Mugabe was controversially re-elected, as well as the 2008 parliamentary election, in which the MDC won a majority in the
House of Assembly. The new national unity government, including Tsvangirai, was sworn in on 11 February 2009. ==See also==