Svobodna Dnevnik

[Hadash]

Svobodna Dnevnik

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Mordvania: New coalition government is formed
By: Polina Lamparska
Published: Marth, 1600


Eha Grahek-Ternehetär became the only minister to have served under both Zvezdana Serebryak and Agnieszka Szczepanska administrations.

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Eha Grahek-Ternehetär became the 15th President of the Republican Council (head of government), and the fourth women to hold that position.

Grahek-Ternehetär, 57, replaces Konrad Prazmowsky, who had been President of the Republican Council since 1598. She becomes the fourth President of the Republican Council under Agnieszka Szczepanska's presidency.

The election of Eha Grahek-Ternehetär came as a surprise, as she is not officially a member of the ruling Centre Democratic Party. She started her political career in the far-left United Progressive Socialist Party, being general secretary of the Left Party from 1593 to 1594. She was Minister of Foreign Affairs twice, in 1585-1591 -under Zvezdana Serebryak's presidency-, and from 1596 until 1598, when she was replaced by Borislav Zahovek.

The Centre Democratic Party obtained 28% of the vote and 183 MPs in the 1599 legislative election held in Vintyr, a loss of almost ten points and 44 MPs since the 1596 legislative election. After tough and long negotiations, the Centre Democratic Party minority government will be replaced by a new coalition government formed by the Centre Democratic Party, the Republican Democratic Party and the Green Party.

There were increasing rumours and speculation of a new coalition government between the Centre Democratic Party and the Mordvanian Republican Party, as the one which existed between 1591 and 1594, only that with the Centre Democratic Party as majority member this time. Since 1596, although the Mordvanian Republican Party remained the leading party of the opposition, many of President Agnieszka Szczepanska's reforms, specially those related to economic and security police, had relied in the support of the Mordvanian Republican Party.

However, the poor result of the Mordvanian Republican Party, which remained as the second largest political party in the parliament, but barely obtained 12% of the vote and 71 MPs, made such thing impossible.

The new coalition government is expected to have a more comfortable majority, as the three political parties combined will have a total of 254 of 599 MPs (27 more than the previous government). The coalition government has agreed on an agenda which includes economic policy, national security, administrative and constitutional reforms, and environmental policy. The coalition will have a majority of Centre Democratic Party ministers, several independents, three Green Party ministers, and two Republican Democratic Party ministers. It will be the first time for the Green Party in the national government, while the Republican Democratic Party was created only two years ago, as a split from former members of the Mordvanian Republican Party.

The new coalition government required the support in the parliament of the left-republican Republican Social Radical Party, which supported Eha Grahek-Ternehetär as President of the Republican Council in exchange for a 10-point agreement, which includes promises of an increasing in social spending and welfare, along a reform of the last fiscal reform. However, although the new coalition is expected to slightly shift toward the center-left, it is unclear if Grahek-Ternehetär's government will try to rely in the Republican Social Radical Party or rather negotiate on daily basis with other political forces. According to most sources, the latter seems more likely.

The Labour Alliance, a left-wing coalition which included the Mordvanian Socialist Left and the Left Party, which Grahek-Ternehetär led from 1593 to 1594, voted against her appointment as President of the Republican Council.

Eha Grahek-Ternehetär is an ethnic Kaljuran. She was born in Kastena, a small town nearby Mestarka, in northwestern Mordvania. She is married and has no children.