Christian Social Union of Bavaria

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

Christlich-Soziale Union in Bayern




Leader	Horst Seehofer

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

Political Ideology	Bavarian regionalism, Christian democracy, Conservatism
International Affiliation	International Democrat Union
European Affiliation	European People's Party
European Parliament Group	European People's Party
Colours	Blue (campaign colour)

Website	www.csu.de

See also	Politics of Germany Political parties Elections

The Christian Social Union in Bavaria ( CSU – Christlich-Soziale Union in Bayern (help·info)) is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It operates only in the state of Bavaria, while its sister party, the CDU, operates in the other 15 states of Germany. The difference between the CDU and the CSU is mainly that the CSU is more conservative in domestic and social issues but more progressive in fiscal issues. On the federal level, it forms a common faction in the Bundestag, the federal parliament, with the CDU. This makes up the CDU/CSU faction, which is frequently referred to as die Unionsfraktion (the Union faction). The CDU/CSU faction currently governs with the SPD faction on the federal level. In the state of Bavaria the CSU governs in a coalition with the Free Democratic Party (FDP). The party was founded as a continuation of the Weimar-era Catholic Bavarian People's Party.

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 he served as the minister-president of Bavaria. He was the first leader of the CSU to be a candidate for the German chancellery, in 1980. In the 1980 elections he ran against the incumbent Helmut Schmidt of the Social Democratic Party.

The CSU has led the Bavarian state government since it came into existence in 1949, save from 1950 to 1953 when the Bavaria Party formed a state government in coalition with the German Branches of the Social Democratic Party of Germany and the Free Democratic Party. The CSU currently governs with the Free Democratic Party FDP. Before the 2008 elections in Bavaria, the CSU has perennially achieved absolute majorities on the state level, except before 1966. This level of dominance is unique in post-war Germany. Edmund Stoiber took over the CSU leadership in 1999. He ran for Chancellor in 2002, but lost against the Social Democrat Gerhard Schröder. In 2003, the CSU was re-elected as the Bavarian government with a majority (60.7% and 124 of 180 seats in the state diet). On January 18, 2007, Stoiber announced his decision to step down from the posts of minister-president and CSU chairman by September 30 of that year.

The CSU has strong support throughout Bavaria, but on the municipal level the situation is more diverse, with independent voter groups leading many municipal administrations in the rural areas. The two largest cities in Bavaria, Munich and Nuremberg, have elected mayors from the German SPD. In state and federal elections the CSU usually wins the majority in both cities.^{[citation needed]} On September 28, 2008, the CSU failed to gain an absolute majority (it just reached 43%) in the Bavaria state election for the first time since 1966 on a percentage basis (in 1966 the party got about 48% then) and was forced into a coalition with the FDP.

The CSU is a member of the European People's Party (EPP) and its European parliamentarians sit in the EPP-ED group. At the moment they have two ministers in Berlin: Baron Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg (Minister of Economics and Technology) and Ilse Aigner (Minister of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection).