A national unity government, government of national unity (GNU), or national union government is a broad coalition government consisting of all parties (or all major parties) in the legislature, usually formed during a time of war or other national emergency. A unity government according to the principles of consensus democracy lacks opposition, or opposition parties are too small and negligible.
The Shevket Pasha cabinet was headed by Grand Vizier Mahmud Shevket Pasha. It was formed on 23 January 1913 after the Raid on the Sublime Porte, which occurred due to Kamil Pasha's attempt to sign a peace treaty would have ended the First Balkan War by giving most of Turkey-in-Europe to the Balkan League. Within two weeks of the coup, Shevket Pasha broke the armistice and resumed fighting but failed to recapture land. In the end the government had to abide by the Treaty of London, which gave up the city of Adrianople to Bulgaria, one of the Ottoman Empire's original capitals. Following Shevket Pasha's assassination on June 12, Said Halim Pasha was brought in to form a new government after Shevket Pasha's assassination.
It was a national unity government that had the support of the Committee of Union and Progress, which provided three ministers to the government. The CUP were the drivers the coup and wished for Kamil's War Minister Nazım Pasha to lead the incoming government, but his death during the coup meant the CUP had to settle with Mahmud Shevket Pasha to lead the government.
Consensus democracy is the application of consensus decision-making and supermajority to the process of legislation in a democracy. It is characterized by a decision-making structure that involves and takes into account as broad a range of opinions as possible, as opposed to majoritarian democracy systems where minority opinions can potentially be ignored by vote-winning majorities. Constitutions typically require consensus or supermajority.
A consensus government is a national unity government with representation across the whole political spectrum. A concordance democracy is a type of consensus democracy where majority rule does not play a central role. Optional referendums and popular initiatives correspond to consensus democracy.
Lucas Demetrios Papademos (Greek: Λουκάς Παπαδήμος; born 11 October 1947) is a Greek economist and academic who served as Prime Minister of Greece from November 2011 to May 2012, leading a national unity government in the wake of the Greek debt crisis. A technocrat, he previously served as Vice-President of the European Central Bank from 2002 to 2010 and Governor of the Bank of Greece from 1994 to 2002.
He was professor at Columbia University, the University of Athens, and Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University, and is a senior fellow at the Center for Financial Studies at the University of Frankfurt.
The Churchill war ministry was the United Kingdom's unity coalition government for most of the Second World War from 10 May 1940 to 23 May 1945. It was led by Winston Churchill, who was appointed prime minister of the United Kingdom by King George VI following the resignation of Neville Chamberlain in the aftermath of the Norway Debate.
At the outset, Churchill formed a five-man war cabinet which included Chamberlain as Lord President of the Council, Clement Attlee as Lord Privy Seal and later as Deputy Prime Minister, Viscount Halifax as Foreign Secretary, and Arthur Greenwood as a minister without portfolio. Although the original war cabinet was limited to five members, in practice they were augmented by the service chiefs and ministers who attended the majority of meetings. The cabinet changed in size and membership as the war progressed but there were significant additions later in 1940 when it was increased to eight after Churchill, Attlee, and Greenwood were joined by Ernest Bevin as Minister of Labour and National Service; Anthony Eden as Foreign Secretary, replacing Halifax who was sent to Washington as Ambassador to the United States; Lord Beaverbrook as Minister of Aircraft Production; Sir Kingsley Wood as Chancellor of the Exchequer; and Sir John Anderson as Lord President of the Council, replacing Chamberlain who died in November (Anderson later became chancellor following Wood's death in September 1943).
The National Government of August–October 1931, also known as the First National Government, was the first of a series of national governments formed during the Great Depression in the United Kingdom. It was formed by Ramsay MacDonald as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom following the collapse of the previous minority government, led by the Labour Party, known as the Second MacDonald ministry.
As a National Government, it was dominated by members of the Conservative Party, and also included a few from Liberals and National Labour, as well as individuals who belonged to no political party. The breakaway Liberal Nationals supported the National Government after their formation in September 1931 but none received posts in the new administration. Subsequently, two Liberal ministers, Alec Glassey and John Pybus, defected to the Liberal Nationals. It did not contain members of the Labour Party as MacDonald had been expelled from it. The Labour Party led the opposition.
South Africa since 1994 transitioned from the system of apartheid to one of majority rule. The election of 1994 resulted in a change in government with the African National Congress (ANC) coming to power. The ANC retained power after subsequent elections in 1999, 2004, 2009, 2014, and 2019, However, in 2024, they officially lost the National Majority and had to form a Government of National Unity with other political parties, including the former official opposition, the Democratic Alliance (DA).
The Government of Croatia (Croatian: Vlada Hrvatske), formally the Government of the Republic of Croatia (Vlada Republike Hrvatske), commonly abbreviated to Croatian Government (hrvatska Vlada), is the main executive branch in Croatia. It is led by the president of the Government (predsjednik Vlade), informally abbreviated to premier (premijer) or prime minister. The prime minister is nominated by the president of the Republic from among those candidates who enjoy majority support in the Croatian Parliament (Sabor); the candidate is then chosen by the Parliament. There are 20 other government members, serving as deputy prime ministers, government ministers or both; they are chosen by the prime minister and confirmed by the Parliament. The Government of the Republic of Croatia exercises its executive powers in conformity with the Croatian Constitution and legislation enacted by the Croatian Parliament. The current government is led by Prime Minister Andrej Plenković.
Following the Croatian–Hungarian Settlement of 1868, the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia and the Government of the Land or officially the Royal Croatian-Slavonian-Dalmatian Government of the Land (Zemaljska vlada or Kraljevska hrvatsko-slavonsko-dalmatinska zemaljska vlada)—headed by a crown-appointed ban—were established. This government existed until the Austria-Hungary breakup and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes' creation in 1918. In 1939, the Banovina of Croatia was established and a head of the Banovina of Croatia (Ban) was appointed by the crown, but no effective government was formed before World War II. In 1943, the ZAVNOH established an executive board to act as a new government. The Socialist Republic of Croatia, as a part of federal Yugoslavia, had a separate government (from 1953 to 1990 known as the Executive Council, appointed by the Sabor) with limited powers (excluding defence and foreign relations; this was similar to all the previous governmental forms). Following the first multi-party elections and the adoption of the present Constitution of Croatia in 1990, the present governmental form was adopted and Stjepan Mesić became the first person to lead a non-communist government (under Government of Yugoslavia), while Josip Manolić was the first prime minister of an independent Croatia. Since the introduction of multi-party democracy, the Republic of Croatia has had fourteen governments headed by twelve different prime ministers. Nine governments have been formed by the Croatian Democratic Union, three by the Social Democratic Party of Croatia, one was headed by a non-partisan prime minister and one was a national unity government (formed during the Croatian War of Independence's peak).
The Cabinet of Lucas Papademos succeeded the cabinet of George Papandreou, as an interim three-party coalition cabinet, leading a coalition government formed by the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) party, New Democracy party and Popular Orthodox Rally party, after Papandreou's decision to step down, and allow a provisional coalition government to form with the task to take Greece out of a major political crisis caused by the country's debt crisis. It was the first coalition cabinet in Greece since the 1989–1990 Ecumenical Cabinet of Xenophon Zolotas.
The Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and the Cabinet were formally sworn in on 11 November 2011.