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Christian Social Union in Bavaria Christlich-Soziale Union in Bayern
Abbreviation	CSU
Leader	Horst Seehofer
Secretary General	Markus Blume
Founded	1945; 73 years ago (1945)
Preceded by	Bavarian People's Party (not legal predecessor)
Headquarters	Munich, Germany
Newspaper	Bayernkurier
Youth wing	Young Union
Membership (December 2017)	141,000[1]
Ideology	Bavarian regionalism[2] Christian democracy[2][3] Conservatism[2][4][5][6]
Political position	Centre-right[7][8][9]
National affiliation	CDU/CSU
European affiliation	European People's Party
International affiliation	International Democrat Union
European Parliament group	European People's Party
Colours	Blue
Bundestag	46 / 709
Bundesrat	6 / 69
Landtag of Bavaria	85 / 205
European Parliament	5 / 96
Ministers-president of states	1 / 16
Website
csu.de
Politics of Germany Political parties Elections Politics of Bavaria

Bavaria
This article is part of a series on the politics and government of Bavaria
Constitution Constitution
Executive Minister-President Markus Söder Cabinet
Legislature Landtag President Ilse Aigner
Divisions Administrative regions (Regierungsbezirke) Landkreise/kreisfreie cities Gemeinden (municipalities)
Elections Legislative: 2003, 2008, 2013, 2018
Foreign policy Politics of Bavaria Politics of Germany European Union politics
Other countries Atlas
v t e

The Christian Social Union in Bavaria (Christlich-Soziale Union in Bayern (help·info), CSU) is a Christian-democratic^[2][3] and conservative^[2][4][5][6]political party in Germany. 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. The CSU is considered an effective successor of the Weimar-era Catholic Bavarian People's Party (BVP).^[10]

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). The CSU has had 46 seats in the Bundestag since the 2017 federal election,^[11] making it the smallest of the seven parties represented. Until the 2013 federal election, the CDU/CSU formed federal government in coalition with the Free Democratic Party (FDP). The CSU is a member of the European People's Party (EPP) and the International Democrat Union. The CSU currently has three ministers in the cabinet of Germany of the federal government in Berlin, including party leader Horst Seehofer who is Federal Minister of the Interior while party member 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 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. 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.^[12]The Economist later suggested that this exceptional result was due to a backlash against Schröder's government in Berlin.^[13] 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 constitutes 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 have three ministers in Angela Merkel's current 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 CSU forms after Bavarian state election, 2018 on October 14, 2018 a new government with partner Free Voters of Bavaria.

Relationship with the CDU

The CSU is the sister party of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).^[14] Together, they are called The Union.^[14] The CSU operates only within Bavaria and the CDU operates in all other states, but not Bavaria. While virtually independent,^[15] 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.^[16]

Since its formation, the CSU has been more conservative than the CDU.^{[4][example needed]} The 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.

Leaders

Party chairmen

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.

Election results

Federal parliament (Bundestag)

Election year	No. of constituency votes	No. of party list votes	% of party list votes	No. of overall seats won	+/–
1949		1,380,448	5.8	24 / 402
1953	2,450,286	2,427,387	8.8	52 / 509	28
1957	3,186,150	3,133,060	10.5	55 / 519	3
1961	3,104,742	3,014,471	9.6	50 / 521	5
1965	3,204,648	3,136,506	9.6	49 / 518	1
1969	3,094,176	3,115,652	9.5	49 / 518	0
1972	3,620,625	3,615,183	9.72	48 / 518	1
1976	4,008,514	4,027,499	10.6	53 / 518	5
1980	3,941,365	3,908,459	10.3	52 / 519	1
1983	4,318,800	4,140,865	10.6	53 / 520	1
1987	3,859,244	3,715,827	9.8	49 / 519	4
1990	3,423,904	3,302,980	7.1	51 / 662	2
1994	3,657,627	3,427,196	7.3	50 / 672	1
1998	3,602,472	3,324,480	6.8	47 / 669	3
2002	4,311,178	4,315,080	9.0	58 / 603	11
2005	3,889,990	3,494,309	7.4	46 / 614	12
2009	3,191,000	2,830,238	6.5	45 / 622	1
2013	3,544,079	3,243,569	7.4	56 / 631	11
2017	3,255,604	2,869,744	6.2	46 / 709	10

European Parliament

Election year	No. of overall votes	% of overall vote	No. of overall seats won	+/–
1979	2,817,120	10.1 (3rd)	8 / 81
1984	2,109,130	8.5 (3rd)	7 / 81	1
1989	2,326,277	8.2 (4th)	7 / 81	0
1994	2,393,374	6.8 (4th)	8 / 99	1
1999	2,540,007	9.4 (4th)	10 / 99	2
2004	2,063,900	8.0 (4th)	9 / 99	1
2009	1,896,762	7.2 (6th)	8 / 99	1
2014	1,567,258	5.3 (6th)	5 / 96	3

Landtag of Bavaria

Election year	No. of constituency votes	No. of party list votes	% of overall votes	No. of overall seats won	+/–	Government
1946		1,593,908	52.2	104 / 180		CSU–SPD
1950	1,264,993	1,262,377	27.4	64 / 204	40	CSU–SPD
1954	1,855,995	1,835,959	37.9	83 / 204	19	SPD–BP–FDP–BHE
1958	2,101,645	2,091,259	45.5	101 / 204	18	CSU–FDP–BHE
1962	2,343,169	2,320,359	47.5	108 / 204	7	CSU–BP
1966	2,549,610	2,524,732	48.1	110 / 204	2	CSU majority
1970	3,205,170	3,139,429	56.4	124 / 204	14	CSU majority
1974	3,520,065	3,481,486	62.0	132 / 204	8	CSU majority
1978	3,394,096	3,387,995	59.1	129 / 204	3	CSU majority
1982	3,557,068	3,534,375	58.2	133 / 204	4	CSU majority
1986	3,142,094	3,191,640	55.7	128 / 204	5	CSU majority
1990	3,007,566	3,085,948	54.9	127 / 204	1	CSU majority
1994	3,063,635	3,100,253	52.8	120 / 204	7	CSU majority
1998	3,168,996	3,278,768	52.9	123 / 204	3	CSU majority
2003	3,050,456	3,167,408	60.6	124 / 180	1	CSU majority
2008	2,267,521	2,336,439	43.4	92 / 187	32	CSU–FDP
2013	2,754,256	2,882,169	47.7	101 / 180	9	CSU majority
2018	2,495,960	2,551,046	37.2	85 / 180	16

See also

• List of Christian Social Union of Bavaria politicians


• Politics of Germany

Further reading

Alf Mintzel (1975). Die CSU. Anatomie einer konservativen Partei 1945-1972. Opladen (in German).

Notes and references

External links

• 
  Christlich-Soziale Union – official site (English page)


• Christian-Social Union (Bavaria, Germany)


• Christian-Social Union of Bavaria (CSU)