Christian democracy became the ideology of reconciliation and integration for European countries after World War II. The universal values of Christian democracy raised post-war Europe from the ruins and became the foundation of a welfare state based on freedom, solidarity, and responsibility.
1. The European Union was created on the initiative of Christian democrats. Christian democratic leaders Konrad Adenauer, Robert Schuman and Alcide de Gasperi not only laid the foundations for the economic prosperity of Germany, France and Italy, but also became the founding fathers of the European Union.
2. All the ministers who signed the 1951 agreement establishing the European Coal and Steel Community were representatives of Christian Democratic parties.
3. 3. The Christian Social Union (CSU ) stands out among the parties in Germany with the largest share of members with higher education – 39%.
4. 4. The Christian Social Union has been in power in Bavaria since 1949, more than half a century. Bavaria is the size of three average Ukrainian regions, but its GDP is almost five times larger than the GDP of the whole of Ukraine, which is evidence of a well chosen economic course based on Christian democratic principles.
5. It was on the initiative of the Lithuanian Christian Democrats from the Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats party that in 2000 a law was passed to compensate Lithuania for the damage caused by the Soviet occupation and to put forward demands to the Russian Federation. Christian Democrats in Lithuania knew how to deal with Russia long before it became mainstream.
6. 6. The leader of the struggle for independence and the first president of Croatia in 1990-1999, Franjo Tudjman, was a Christian democrat. The armed forces formed by Tudjman defeated the Yugoslav army in 1991, after which the independent state of Croatia was formed, ruled for the first decade by the Croatian Democratic Commonwealth party, which made Christian democracy its ideological basis.
7. The Christian Democratic International was founded in 1961. In 1999, the organization was renamed CentristDemocratic International to demonstrate the participation of representatives of other religions, not just Christianity, in the movement. The association is open to political parties and organizations that base their policies on the principles of Christian and integral humanism, which recognizes the existence of a spiritual dimension in human nature and is committed to the ideals of brotherhood. Today, the International includes more than 100 parties.
8. In the Netherlands, Christian and Christian Democratic parties have been in power or members of a government coalition since 1901. No wonder the Netherlands is one of the most successful and developed countries in Europe and the world.
9. The concept of a social market economy, which combines elements of economic freedom and social responsibility of business to society, was developed by Christian democratic economists Walter Aiken and Alfred Müller-Armack (who later became the head of the Christian democratic Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung).
10. According to Professor Udi Greenberg, after World War II, Christian democrats achieved the unthinkable by uniting the heterogeneous legal systems of Europe into a democratic community.
Author: Valeriy Maydanyuk