Surreal Civility

Petr Bokuvka a.k.a. Daily Czech brings a story about incredible amount of civility and fair play among Czech political parties – government party might have one of their Parliament members unavailable for a crucial vote, so opposition agreed to have one of their Parliaments members abstain in order to keep the balance of power in Parliament.

I seriously don't know what the reasoning behind this "pairing up" is? Noble ideals of Parliament expressing people's will based solely on election results and regardless of day-to-day developments? Maintaining political stability at any cost and discouraging defections, factionalism, party splitting etc.?

This only shows why so many people in Europe seem so alienated from political elites, especially those in countries where Parliaments are built on proportional representations. The whole purpose of democracy is for Parliament to represent people, not parties. Voters cast their ballots in order to have their voice in legislature; this "civility" denies them that voice.