"As you know, the functioning of democracy– and especially of parliamentary democracy presupposes the existence of parties with [long] traditions, steadfast principles, a program, as well as a leadership inspired by a sense of responsibility. Because political parties [...] have the most decisive role in democracies. In point of fact, one can claim that it is political parties rather than governments that peoples attach to; and that a regime’s fortune is more affected by the number and behavior of [its] political parties than by its formal institutional framework."