Fun fun fun!

Beginning in the late 1980s, the term was introduced into the discourse on parliamentary politics by Belgian commentators. At that time, the Flemish nationalist and far right Vlaams Blok party began to make significant electoral gains. Because the Vlaams Blok was catalogued as a racist group, the other Belgian political parties committed to exclude the party from any coalition government, even if that forced the formation of grand coalition governments between ideological rivals. Commentators dubbed this agreement Belgium's cordon sanitaire. In 2004, its successor party, Vlaams Belang changed its party platform to allow it to comply with the law. While no formal new “cordon sanitaire” agreement has been signed against it, it nevertheless stays uncertain whether any mainstream Belgian party will enter into coalition talks with Vlaams Belang in the near future.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordon_sanitaire

A great illustration of what you can do with a parliment that trumps what can be done with a congress. Over here, a grand coalition is a one party state with no opposition.