Is there a government metonym in your country?

17 comments

1. Het Binnenhof (inner court) refers to the Parliament and Government as the parliament and minister-president are located at the old location of the castle of the counts of Holland

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binnenhof

2. “Palácio de São Bento” (Saint Benedict’s Palace), sometimes just “São Bento” (Saint Benedict) is often used to mean the Portuguese Parliament. This is because the parliament is hosted at that palace, which is located in an area of Lisbon known as Saint Benedict.

   The Presidency is often refered to as “Belém”, which is the name of the area in Lisbon where the Presidential Palace is.

3. Many political institutions in Italy are often referred to using the name of the palace where they are located. For example, you may hear people referring to the Quirinale for anything related to the president of the Republic, whose located at the Palazzo del Quirinale.

   In the same way, we have:

   * Viminale for the Ministry of the Interior;
   * Palazzo Chigi, which is the official location of the government;
   * Farnesina for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs;
   * Montecitorio for the Chamber of Deputies;
   * Palazzo Madama for the senate.

   There are many others, but these are the ones most italians recognize and use.

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5. “De Wetstraat”/”Rue de la Loi” (Law Street) is often used as a shorthand to refer to federal politics, since both the Federal Parliament and the PM’s official residence are situated along this Brussels street. “Wetstraat 16” or “the 16” refer specifically to the PM and his government. We also have a derived term called [“Wetstratees”](https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wetstratees?wprov=sfla1), which refers to the political jargon that is used in federal politics, such as [“waffle-iron politics”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waffle-iron_politics?wprov=sfla1) or [“BHV”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde?wprov=sfla1).

   Similarly, the Flemish Government and Parliament are sometimes referred to as the “Martelarenplein” (Martyr Square)

   Another interesting metonymic reference is the residence of the Minister-President of Wallonia: the Elysette (literally the “small Elysée).

6. I’m reading the other answers and I think that using the name of the place or even the building is pretty common in all the world, such as referring as Washington or The White House in the USA. It happens the same in Spain, using Moncloa that is the name of the palace where the president is. It is also very common to call the government just Madrid when you are talking about politics in other areas of Spain.

7. Only one I’ve heard is referring to the parliament by the hill the parliament building is on, Arkadianmäki. Kinda like how Americans might say ”on Capitol Hill” when referring to their congress, we say ”on Arkadianmäki” when referring to our parliament.

8. In Ireland:

   – “Leinster House” is sometimes used for the Dáil but it’s not widespread, you’re more likely to just hear “the Dáil” or “the Seanad” used respectively.
   – “Stormont” is very commonly used to refer to the Government/Assembly of Northern Ireland (after the park in Belfast where it’s based).
   – “The Park” (after Phoenix Park) or “the Áras” (short of Áras an Uachtaráin) is sometimes used for the President and his office.
   – “Iveagh House” is used for the Department of Foreign Affairs.
   – “Montrose” often gets used for RTÉ, our national broadcaster.

9. >You also have “No. 10” which is a metonym for the UK Prime Minister

   There’s also “Whitehall” which usually means the wider workings of UK Government. Most of the larger departments and ministries are [based there](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitehall#Government_buildings)

   >”Holyrood” which means simply the Scottish Parliament

   “Cardiff Bay” is probably the Welsh equivalent. Or just the “Senedd” which is both the short name for the Welsh Government, and the name of the actual parliament building.

10. The most common would be “Hrad” – The Castle for the president’s office since it’s in Prague Castle and “Strakovka” for the Office of the Government as Strakova akademie is the building where the Office of the Government is. So saying the president or the government decided would often be “them in the Castle” or “them in Strakovka” decided.

11. Banski dvori – government building, formerly viceroy’s palace

    Pantovčak – neighborhood where the presidential palace is located

    So yeah, it would be used like: “new tensions between Banski dvori and Pantovčak regarding the implementation of new laws on…”

12. Things relating to the government/prime minister can be referred to as _Rosenbad_, after the house where the prime minister has their office.

    Only other one I can think of that is occasionally used is _Arvfurstens Palats_, when referring to the Foreign ministry, but it’s much less common than the former.

13. Hardthöhe and Bendlerblock refer to the ministry of defence. The Hardthöhe is the official seat in Bonn, which still remains there. The Bendlerblock is the second seat in Berlin. During WW2 it was the seat of the head of the replacement army and the place were all threads came together on 20.7.1944.

    Reichstag is the building were the Bundestag meets and is still used as metonym sometimes.

    The central bank of Germany is housed in Frankfurt and player a bigger role before the € was introduced, so Frankfurt was synonym with monetary politics.

    Karlsruhe is the seat of our constitutional court and also used as a metonym, especially when someones sues the government because laws are considered to be in violation of our constitution.

14. Germany
    In remember that in the former capital Bonn certain building had names like:

    * Wasserwerk (the water work) – was for the plenum in Bonn
    * Hardthöhe (geographical the mountain, where it is situated. literally translated: tough amount) for the Ministry of Defense.
    * Langer Eugen – the now UN building in Bonn and former building for the Members of Parliament. Name is a reference to Eugen Gerstenmaier a former President of the German Bundestag who initiated the construction of the building.

15. In Italy the Chamber of Deputies is called “Montecitorio” (which is the name of the palace it’s in), the Senate “Palazzo Madama”, the ministry of interior “Viminale” and so on… we just call them according to the name of the building

16. France : we have several, named after the buildings they have are located in

    * President : L’Elysée
    * Prime Minister : Matignon
    * Min. of Economy : Bercy
    * Min. of Justice : Vendôme
    * Min. of Interior : Beauveau
    * Min. of Foreign Affairs : Quai d’Orsay
    * National Assembly : Palais Bourbon
    * Senate : Palais du Luxembourg

    Those are the main ones that are commonly referred to like this.
    Everyone usually knows them for President & PM, ministers and parliament depending on how much they follow politics but it’s common names you can find in the media

17. Austria has a habit of naming certain institutions for the place they are located. Party headqiarters of the Social Democrats: Löwelstraße, conservatives: Liechtenfelsstraße. Chancelory: Ballhausplatz

    There are also more tongue in cheek references. iE the Raiffeisen banking group (closely connected to the conservative party, especially its farmers wing) is also known as Gummistiefelmafia (Gum boot mafia).