Today, Christian democratic parties are among the most influential, especially in Europe, and are represented not only in parliaments but also in the governments of many European countries. In general, after the Second World War in Western Europe, Christian democratic parties participated in the creation of more than 200 governmental cabinets out of a total of 334 governments formed between 1945 and 1996, and many Christian leaders served as prime ministers. The continued success of Christian democracy is based on its ability to successfully unite diverse political factions and ideas while establishing itself as a representative of the political center. Among the largest Christian political forces are the Christian democratic parties in Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, Central Europe, and Latin America.
It will be interesting to turn to the history and experience of the largest Christian democratic force in Europe, the German CDU/CSU.
The largest European Christian democratic party, the German CDU/CSU Union , is a coalition of two political forces – the Christian Democratic Union and the regional Bavarian party Christian Social Union. Both Christian parties are similar in terms of goals, ideology, and program. The main difference between the two ideologically related parties is that the CSU is spread only in Bavaria, while the CDU covers the rest of Germany. The party association, often referred to in Germany as the “Union,” includes voters of Christian democratic, center-right, and conservative orientation and has been competing in the political arena mainly with the Social Democrats for more than half a century.
The CDU/CSU coalition operates as a single parliamentary faction in the Bundestag, and both parties run their candidates separately in elections – in Bavaria, the CDU runs candidates, and the rest of Germany runs candidates from the CDU. At the same time, the CSU does not run candidates outside of Bavaria. The CDU/CSU party bloc made a huge contribution to the post-war development of Germany, and to a large extent, it was thanks to the activities of the Christian Democrats that the principles of the federal system, parliamentary democracy and social market economy were laid down in the German political system.
The party has been one of the most important in Germany for half a century. In the 2017 parliamentary elections, the CDU/CSU won more than 200 seats out of 709 in the German Bundestag, and in the 2019 European Parliament elections, the party won 23 seats out of 96 allocated for Germany. In the last parliamentary elections in 2021, the CDU/CSU lost its long-standing leadership to the Social Democrats, but new opinion polls in 2022 show an increase in the popularity of the Christian Democrats.
The CDU’s relationship with its sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU ), is a partnership based on ideological cooperation, although it has not always been cloudless. The CSU is a more center-right and more conservative political force. Being a coalition partner with the CDU at the federal level and forming a single faction in the Bundestag, the CSU retains its independence in the organizational aspect. The CSU is a more center-right and more conservative political force. Being a coalition partner with the CDU at the federal level and forming a single faction in the Bundestag, the CSU retains its independence in terms of organization.
In 1976, the CDU and the CSU almost split after the CDU/CSU bloc was defeated in the parliamentary elections. Some CSU leaders then suggested dissolving the party alliance with the CDU, but a month later the crisis was resolved and the joint factional association functions on the basis of the “Agreement on the Continuation of the Factional Association between the CDU and the CSU.”
The inter-party agreement of 2017 declares that fundamental decisions of the CDU/CSU faction are made only with the consent of both groups. And the CSU may have an opinion on particularly important issues that differs from the majority of the faction, which it can defend independently in the Bundestag. In fact, the CDU leadership recognizes the right of the Bavarian partner party to vote separately from the position of the majority of the union faction. Thus, the two ideologically related political parties act as partners on the basis of broad autonomy and, having divided the spheres of federal influence, do not enter into a race with each other.
Author: Valeriy Maydanyuk