{"id":13159,"date":"2026-01-17T07:49:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T07:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=13159"},"modified":"2026-01-17T07:49:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T07:49:15","slug":"plaid-would-take-minority-government-over-coalition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=13159","title":{"rendered":"Plaid would take minority government over coalition"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Cemlyn Davies<\/span>Wales political correspondent<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Plaid Cymru’s Rhun ap Iorwerth is hoping to be Wales’ next first minister<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth says he would prefer to form a minority government than enter a coalition with another party after the Senedd election.<\/p>\n

His comments came after an opinion poll published earlier this week<\/a> suggested Plaid was on course to win the Welsh election on 7 May.<\/p>\n

Previous polls have suggested Plaid and Reform UK are battling to come out on top – but with neither party winning enough seats to be able to pass laws and spending plans without the support of opposition politicians.<\/p>\n

Polling expert Dr Jac Larner from Cardiff University said the latest poll could see Plaid win 45 seats, which would leave it four seats short of a majority in the new 96-seat parliament.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Recent polls have sparked ongoing speculation around how Plaid would govern if they won the election but failed to win more than half the seats.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the Gwleidydda podcast<\/a> on BBC’s Radio Cymru, ap Iorwerth said it was his party’s “wish” to form a minority government made up of only Plaid ministers.<\/p>\n

He said the latest opinion poll “confirms what I’ve felt for a while, which is that we can – if we fight an effective election and build trust with people – lead a minority government and do that successfully”.<\/p>\n

He added that he was “determined that that minority government would make it clear from the start to whoever else is in that part of the [political] spectrum that we want to work together”.<\/p>\n

“We’ll look at who we can work with, issue by issue, policy by policy, budget by budget and so on,” he added.<\/p>\n

“I think it could be the beginning of a period of mature cooperation within government.”<\/p>\n

Ap Iorwerth’s interview with Gwleidydda was part of a series the podcast is doing with prominent figures from all the major parties.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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No party has ever won a majority of the seats in Cardiff Bay<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Responding to ap Iorwerth’s comments, Prof Richard Wyn Jones from the Wales Governance Centre at Cardiff University told the podcast: “Of course it’s easier to say that when the opinion polls suggest at the moment they aren’t far from a majority.<\/p>\n

“If you’ve got a small minority, it’s much more difficult to run a government.”<\/p>\n

He also suggested the comments could be a way to “avoid questions and accusations” from the Conservatives and Reform UK that victory for Plaid Cymru at the election would still put Labour in a position of power.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

What happens if there’s no majority?<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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No party has ever won a majority in Cardiff Bay and the upcoming changes to the voting system make it highly unlikely that will change at this election.<\/p>\n

Labour has won the most seats at every previous Senedd contest<\/a>, but without a majority it has always had to strike a deal of some kind with an opposition party.<\/p>\n

At times that has led to formal coalitions. This is where at least one member of an opposition party joins the government’s ministerial team – giving their party a voice at the cabinet table in exchange for its continued support.<\/p>\n

Cardiff Bay has also seen agreements short of a full coalition, with the most recent example being the cooperation deal between Labour and Plaid Cymru between 2021 and 2024.<\/p>\n

This saw the Welsh Labour government commit to deliver some Plaid Cymru policies, in exchange for Plaid’s support when it came to passing the government’s annual budget.<\/p>\n

If his party wins the election, Rhun ap Iorwerth is hoping he can avoid both of the above options and run a minority government, where votes are agreed on a case by case basis.<\/p>\n

Ultimately what the next first minister decides to do will depend entirely on the makeup of the new Senedd.<\/p>\n

After all, as former US President Lyndon B. Johnson said: the first rule of politics is to learn how to count.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

#Plaid #minority #government #coalition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cemlyn DaviesWales political c… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13160,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[242],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13159"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}