Christian-Social_Union_in_Bavaria

Christian Social Union in Bavaria

Christian Social Union in Bavaria

Conservative party in Bavaria, Germany

The Christian Social Union in Bavaria (German: Christlich-Soziale Union in Bayernⓘ, CSU) is a Christian democratic[5][6] and conservative[6][7][8][9] political party in Germany. Having a regionalist identity,[10][11] the CSU operates only in Bavaria while its larger counterpart, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), operates in the other fifteen states of Germany. It differs from the CDU by being somewhat more conservative in social matters, following Catholic social teaching.[12] The CSU is considered the de facto successor of the Weimar-era Catholic Bavarian People's Party.[13]

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At the federal level, the CSU forms a common faction in the Bundestag with the CDU which is frequently referred to as the Union Faction (die Unionsfraktion) or simply CDU/CSU. The CSU has 45 seats in the Bundestag since the 2021 federal election,[14] making it currently the second smallest of the seven parties represented. The CSU is a member of the European People's Party and the International Democrat Union.

Party leader Markus Söder serves as Minister-President of Bavaria, a position that CSU representatives have held from 1946 to 1954 and again since 1957.

History

Chairman Franz Josef Strauß in 1976

Franz Josef Strauß (1915–1988) had left behind the strongest legacy as a leader of the party, having led the party from 1961 until his death in 1988. His political career in the federal cabinet was unique in that he had served in four ministerial posts in the years between 1953 and 1969. From 1978 until his death in 1988, Strauß served as the Minister-President of Bavaria. Strauß was the first leader of the CSU to be a candidate for the German chancellery in 1980. In the 1980 federal election, Strauß ran against the incumbent Helmut Schmidt of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) but lost thereafter as the SPD and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) managed to secure an absolute majority together, forming a social-liberal coalition.

The CSU has led the Bavarian state government since it came into existence in 1946, save from 1954 to 1957 when the SPD formed a state government in coalition with the Bavaria Party and the state branches of the GB/BHE and FDP.

Initially, the separatist Bavaria Party (BP) successfully competed for the same electorate as the CSU, as both parties saw and presented themselves as successors to the BVP. The CSU was ultimately able to win this power struggle for itself. Among other things, the BP was involved in the "casino affair" under dubious circumstances by the CSU at the end of the 1950s and lost considerable prestige and votes. In the 1966 state election, the BP finally left the state parliament.

Before the 2008 elections in Bavaria, the CSU perennially achieved absolute majorities at the state level by itself. This level of dominance is unique among Germany's 16 states. Edmund Stoiber took over the CSU leadership in 1999. He ran for Chancellor of Germany in 2002, but his preferred CDU/CSU–FDP coalition lost against the SPD candidate Gerhard Schröder's SPD–Green alliance.

In the 2003 Bavarian state election, the CSU won 60.7% of the vote and 124 of 180 seats in the state parliament. This was the first time any party had won a two-thirds majority in a German state parliament.[15] The Economist later suggested that this exceptional result was due to a backlash against Schröder's government in Berlin.[16] The CSU's popularity declined in subsequent years. Stoiber stepped down from the posts of Minister-President and CSU chairman in September 2007. A year later, the CSU lost its majority in the 2008 Bavarian state election, with its vote share dropping from 60.7% to 43.4%. The CSU remained in power by forming a coalition with the FDP. In the 2009 general election, the CSU received only 42.5% of the vote in Bavaria in the 2009 election, which by then constituted its weakest showing in the party's history.

The CSU made gains in the 2013 Bavarian state election and the 2013 federal election, which were held a week apart in September 2013. The CSU regained their majority in the Bavarian Landtag and remained in government in Berlin. They had three ministers in the Fourth Merkel cabinet, namely Horst Seehofer (Minister of the Interior, Building and Community), Andreas Scheuer (Minister of Transport and Digital Infrastructure) and Gerd Müller (Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development).

The 2018 Bavarian state election yielded the worst result for the CSU in the state elections (top candidate Markus Söder) since 1950 with 37.2% of votes, a decline of over ten percentage points compared to the last result in 2013. After that, the CSU had to form a new coalition government with the minor partner Free Voters of Bavaria.

The 2021 German federal election saw the worst election result ever for the Union.[17] The CSU also had a weak showing with 5.2% of votes nationally and 31.7% of the total in Bavaria.

Relationship with the CDU

See also: 2018 German government crisis

The CSU is the sister party of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).[18] Together, they are called the Union.[18] The CSU operates only within Bavaria, and the CDU operates in all states other than Bavaria. While virtually independent,[19] at the federal level the parties form a common CDU/CSU faction. No Chancellor has ever come from the CSU, although Strauß and Edmund Stoiber were CDU/CSU candidates for Chancellor in the 1980 federal election and the 2002 federal election, respectively, which were both won by the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). Below the federal level, the parties are entirely independent.[20]

Since its formation, the CSU has been more conservative than the CDU.[7][example needed] CSU and the state of Bavaria decided not to sign the Grundgesetz of the Federal Republic of Germany as they could not agree with the division of Germany into two states after World War II. Although Bavaria like all German states has a separate police and justice system (distinctive and non-federal), the CSU has actively participated in all political affairs of the German Parliament, the German government, the German Bundesrat, the parliamentary elections of the German President, the European Parliament and meetings with Mikhail Gorbachev in Russia.

Like the CDU, the CSU is pro-European, although some Eurosceptic tendencies were shown in the past.[21]

Leaders

Party chairmen

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Ministers-president

The CSU has contributed eleven of the twelve Ministers-President of Bavaria since 1945, with only Wilhelm Hoegner (1945–1946, 1954–1957) of the SPD also holding the office.

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Election results

Federal parliament (Bundestag)

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European Parliament

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Landtag of Bavaria

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See also

Notes and references

  1. [1]
    "Bavaria's parties lose members". Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German). 8 February 2023.
  2. [2]
    Boswell, Christina; Hough, Dan (2009). "Politicizing migration : opportunity or liability for the centre-right in Germany?". Immigration and integration policy in Europe : why politics -- and the centre-right -- matter. By Bale, Tim. Journal of European Public Policy Series. London: Routledge. pp. 18, 21. ISBN 9780415468343. OCLC 461254258.
  3. [3]
    Klaus Detterbeck (2012). Multi-Level Party Politics in Western Europe. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 105.
  4. [4]
    Hornsteiner, Margaret; Saalfeld, Thomas (2014). "Parties and the Party System". Developments in German Politics. By Padgett, Stephen; Paterson, William E.; Zohlnhöfer, Reimut. Vol. 4. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 80. ISBN 9781137301635. OCLC 885477730.
  5. [5]
    Hans Slomp (2011). Europe, a Political Profile: An American Companion to European Politics. ABC-CLIO. p. 364. ISBN 978-0-313-39181-1.
  6. [6]
    Nordsieck, Wolfram (2017). "Germany". Parties and Elections in Europe.
  7. [7]
    Budge, Ian; Robertson, David; Hearl, Derek (1987). Ideology, Strategy, and Party Change: Spatial Analyses of Post-war Election Programmes in 19 Democracies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 296. ISBN 9780521306485.
  8. [8]
    Paul Statham; Hans-Jörg Trenz (2012). The Politicization of Europe: Contesting the Constitution in the Mass Media. Routledge. p. 120. ISBN 978-0-415-58466-1.
  9. [9]
    Antje Ellermann (2009). States Against Migrants: Deportation in Germany and the United States. Cambridge University Press. p. 58. ISBN 978-0-521-51568-9.
  10. [10]
    Eve Hepburn (2016). "Cohesion Policy and Regional Mobilisation". In Simona Piattoni; Laura Polverari (eds.). Handbook on Cohesion Policy in the EU. Edward Elgar Publishing. p. 210. ISBN 978-1-78471-567-0.
  11. [11]
    Ford, Graham (August 2007). "Constructing a Regional Identity: The Christian Social Union and Bavaria's Common Heritage, 1949–1962" (PDF). Contemporary European History. 16 (3). Cambridge University Press: 277–297. doi:10.1017/S0960777307003943. JSTOR 20081363. S2CID 146439508. Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 October 2022.
  12. [12]
    "Streit in der CSU über Sozialpolitik entbrannt". Süddeutsche Zeitung. 19 May 2010.
  13. [13]
    Biesinger, Joseph A. (2006). Germany: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present. Infobase Publishing. p. 310. ISBN 9780816074716.
  14. [14]
    "Results – The Federal Returning Officer". bundeswahlleiter.de (in German). The Federal Returning Officer.
  15. [15]
    Clayton Clemens. "Stoiber – Dominant But Not Omnipotent". Archived 3 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine American Institute for Contemporary German Studies. Retrieved 7 June 2008.
  16. [16]
    "The Economist: Old soldiers march into the unknown".
  17. [17]
    "Germany election: worst ever result momentarily silences CDU". the Guardian. 26 September 2021. Retrieved 21 November 2021.
  18. [18]
    "A Quick Guide to Germany's Political Parties". Der Spiegel. 25 September 2009. Retrieved 1 December 2012.
  19. [19]
    The Economist (1983). Political Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 16. ISBN 978-0-521-27793-8.
  20. [20]
    Solsten, Eric (1999). Germany: A Country Study. Quezon: DANE Publishing. p. 375. ISBN 978-0-521-27793-8.
  21. [21]
    Vitzthum, Thomas (21 December 2018). "Plötzlich entdeckt die CSU ihre Zuneigung zur EU wieder". Die Welt. Retrieved 21 December 2018.

Further reading

  • Alf Mintzel (1975). Die CSU. Anatomie einer konservativen Partei 1945–1972 (in German). Opladen. ISBN 9783531112787.
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