Christian Social Union of Bavaria

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“CSU” redirects here. For other uses, see CSU (disambiguation).

Christlich-Soziale Union in Bayern




Leader	Edmund Stoiber

Founded	1945
Headquarters	Franz Josef Strauß-Haus Nymphenburger Str. 64 80335 München

Political Ideology	Christian Democracy, Social conservatism
International Affiliation	Christian Democrat and People's Parties International and International Democrat Union
European Affiliation	European People's Party and European Democrat Union
European Parliament Group	EPP-ED
Colours	Blue (campaign colour)

Website	http://www.csu.de

See also	Politics of Germany Political parties Elections

The Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU – Christlich-Soziale Union in Bayern e.V.) is a Christian democratic political party in Germany. It operates exclusively in the state of Bavaria, while its sister party, the CDU, operates in the rest of the country. Only in 1957, in the state of Saarland (in the first election after it had rejoined Germany), did the CSU run against CDU candidates, but this section of the CSU later merged with the CDU. On the federal level, the CSU is often perceived as the more socially conservative of the two parties. At times, especially when the CDU showed weaknesses, there has been considerable tension up to threats to break up the cooperation. Most of the time, however, they work together very closely.

Franz Josef Strauß (1915-1988) is seen as having set the ideological basis of the party, although he was too young to be a founding leader of the party, which began as a continuation of the Weimar-era Bavarian People's Party and, to a lesser extent, by the Catholic Centre Party.

The CSU has led the Bavarian state government practically since it came into existence, and without the need for a coalition government for most of the time. This level of dominance is unique in post-war Germany, recently however public opinion has started wavering and polls indicate a strong popularity drop from near 2/3 majority to an all time low (below 50%). On the federal level, it forms a common fraction in the Bundestag (Federal Parliament) with the CDU. Edmund Stoiber took over the CSU chairmanship early in 1999. He ran for Chancellor in 2002, but lost. In 2003 the CSU was re-elected as the Bavarian government with an overall majority. On January 18, 2007, Stoiber announced his decision to stand down from the posts of minister-president and CSU chairman by September 30, after having been under fire in his own party for weeks.

The CSU has a strong support in the rural parts of Bavaria, but the mayors of several of the large Bavarian cities (Munich, Augsburg, Nuremberg, Fuerth, Bamberg) are members in the German SPD.