THE SEMI-PRESIDENTIAL ONE

This is another in a series of posts that records the cases of ‘divided executive’ in countries with semi-presidential constitutions. I define a divided executive as the situation where the president and prime minister are from different parties but where the president’s party is represented in the cabinet. This is different from ‘cohabitation’ where the president’s party is not represented in the cabinet. Presidents classed as non-party cannot generate any periods of divided executive or cohabitation. All presidential and prime ministerial affiliations are taken from the relevant page of worldstatesmen.org.

Here is my list of divided executives in Austria (Second Republic):

29 Apr 1945 - 19 Apr 1966

Presidents - Karl Renner, Theodor Körner, Adolf Schärf, Franz Jonas (all SPÖ)

PMs - Leopold Figl, Julius Raab, Alfons Gorbach, Josef Klaus (all ÖVP)

Cabinets - SPÖ, ÖVP, KPÖ (to 24 Nov 1947)

21 Jan 1987 - 4 Feb 2000

Presidents - Kurt Waldheim, Thomas Klestil (both ÖVP)

PMs - Franz Vranitzky, Viktor Klima (both SPÖ)

Cabinets - SPÖ, ÖVP

Party abbreviations:

KPÖ - Communist Party of Austria (Kommunistische Partei Österreichs)

ÖVP - Austrian People’s Party (Österreichische Volkspartei)