Talk:Christian Democratic Union (Germany)

Political Position

The party is not right-wing, it's centre-right. Party leaders call the Union as "Die Mitte", which means 'the centre'. In addition to that Merkel turned the Christian Democratic Union almost to the left side of the political spectrum, which causes a big vacuum on the right side.

Untitled

I am working on an infobox for the Christlich-Demokratische Union and I need to ask one question. What exactly is the political colour of the CDU? The website is quite centered on orange but the logo is only red (and white). Since red is famously the colour of the [Social Democratic Party of Germany|[SPD]], I was wondering if red was indeed the correct colour to associate the CDU with. Thanks! --Liberlogos 04:13, 28 May 2005 (UTC)

I believe black is the color of the CDU. john k 05:16, 28 May 2005 (UTC)

The colour of the CDU is indeed black. The government coalition of CDU/FDP is called Schwarz-Gelb (black/yellow). In ARD and ZDF exit polls the CDU is coloured black as well. --84.26.109.69 09:44, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

Why is this page at Christian Democratic Union of Germany? That's not its name, and Christian Democratic Union just redirects here, suggesting that there are no other CDUs with articles, and therefore no need to disambiguate. — Trilobite (Talk) 22:39, 30 May 2005 (UTC)

the party's color is black, although their website prints the logo in red. it's definitly NOT orange at all. -lori 22 March 2006

The party color (since end of 2003) is definitely orange. Black was never the party color, but was used by others for describing the party.--Mevsfotw 11:24, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

This has been the case with its predecessor, the Zentrumspartei, too. The black is thought to derive from the colour of priest's dresses, meaning to symbolize catholicism - though caholicism is not thought to be as influential on the CDU's political stance as maybe some decades ago; this is perhaps different regarding the CSU. --84.168.236.49 23:34, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

CDU is black! CSU can also be black, but mostly her colour is blue (because the flag of Bavaria white and blue)! 62.134.72.98 11:20, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

The color is black and red. Read pages 12 and 13 of http://www.ci.cdu.de/download/style-guide.pdf

CDU and the Lutheran Germany

What is the relationship between the Christian Democratic Union and the Lutheran Germany? How popular the party is among the Lutherans? --213.186.241.68 16:29, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

The CDU was founded as a non-confessional party. But the CDU is strong in the south and west of germany (catholic dominated regions) and weak in the protestantic north and east. According to a survey of the University of Berlin (2005) are 51 % of CDU-Members catholics, 33,3 % are protestants.Karsten11 18:31, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

CDU is open to ppl from all religions —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.164.218.141 (talk) 13:05, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

the platform

where is the platform of the party? I think that it is more important than a lot of information mentioned in the article.

Platform of any political party is the most important issue, for this platform the people elect it or refuse it. --Hasam 19:23, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

You are quite right to observe the absence of a CDU platform. The CDU is a conservative party in the sense that they are intertwined with and support big business, christian (catholic) values like large families. Before re-unification they were against any little bit that could be interpreted as socialism, because - so the general mood of the time - that could lead to communism. The reality of communism at the time was, of course, Stalinism and that was definitely undesirable. The CDU is the party of big business and vitamin C (connections). Beyond that they really have no platform, no justice issues, or whatever. I remember voting for the CDU in 1983 because I had the idea that there are more wealthy people in the CDU so the corruption which we had experienced from the SPD (Social Democratic Party) and their affiliate Neue Heimat (Housing and real estate arm) should be less.

This was extremely naive and later I lost out through a CDU run scheme (Leuna-Minol), which nullified my rights as an original land owner in the defunct East Germany. Today, these party platforms are no longer all that relevant, because there are a lot of other influences which set parameters. There are EU rules, the human rights charta, international treaties and organisations like the WTO who determine what can and cannot be done, not to forget the rating agencies which influence budgets before they go to parliament.

In my time in Germany, I experienced parties, including the CDU, as channels to train and test people for office. People join their respective youth organisations when they are about 16, and then they work themselves up the ladder through volunteer work and reliability, meaning never say a word out of place, never push an idea that mega money does not like. The network is also used to stifle reporting or action about corruption. Many young people cannot afford to do volunteer work; they have to study, work to pay rent etc, so it is a certain selection that you find in the CDU. It is not surprising that you do not find a CDU platform here, because it really is only a network for vitamin C. 121.209.48.228 (talk) 00:52, 3 July 2009 (UTC)

Not only the CDU is a network for vitamin C (connections); the same goes for its sister party with which it forms a common grouping in the German Parliament, the CSU, FDP the main coalition partner of the CDU (which is even more pro-business than CDU/CSU), SPD, Alliance '90/The Greens, and The Left. Most People, however, won't agree that the CDU doesn't have a platform, as the government program 2009-2013 of the CDU (Regierungsprogramm 2009-2013), does show traces of conservative ideologies and principles, which distinguishes it from other parties. Your argument that party platforms are bounded by other institutions setting parameters is true; this can be proven by looking at how government programs (Regierungsprogramme) of the parties have evolved over the years, as the aforementioned institutions setting parameters have increased their influence.

Yet a certain selection of people are found in all parties, as the members work themselves up the ladder by volunteer work.

Is the CDU centrist or center-right? There seems to be an editing war going on about that. Please clarify. By the words of the discussion page so far, the CDU seems more right-of-center than any of the parties in the Bundestag. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.148.187.139 (talk) 05:38, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

The answer is not that easy. traditionally the CDU is clearly center-right. Today it has become modern in the CDU to call themself "middle" party. The term "middle" is here simmilar to the english "third way" and also has roots in the same time. For an encyclopedia it would be most appropriated to describe them as a party of the conservative (or right) middle. In american it's supposed to be caleld neo-conservative then, but i'd not not recommand to use this term, but stay with the conservative (or right) middle. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.222.217.160 (talk) 20:55, 14 April 2010 (UTC)

I mostly agree. It is ridiculous to call the CDU a "centre" party when there is no serious party to the right of it in Germany, let alone the Bundestag. The CDU is a big party and emcompasses a lot of very different people. While there might be some centrist politicians in the CDU (Heiner Geißler, Horst Köhler), there are also distinct right-wingers to be found (such as Roland Koch, Stefan Mappus or Günther Oettinger) and the majority if its influential politians are centre-right (Angela Merkel, Wolfgang Schäuble, Kristina Schröder, Ronald Pofalla, etc.). "Centre-right" would definitely be more accurate. Most parties in Germany claim the "centre" for themselves (SPD, FDP, even the Greens to some extent). To describe the CDU as centre here is buying in into their PR propaganda. Janfrie1988 (talk) 14:21, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

Please also have a look at the articles on Centre-right and Centrism. The definition in the former fits far better. "Parties of the centre-right generally support democratic capitalism, the market economy, limited forms of government regulation, private property rights, and opposition to socialism and communism. Such definitions generally include political parties that base their ideology and policies upon conservatism and economic liberalism." In the article on centrism it even says that the CDU calls itself centre but is really rather right- than left-wing, which is accurate. Janfrie1988 (talk) 00:30, 31 May 2010 (UTC)

Sofortiger Ausstieg

Die CDU Deutschland setzt sich fuer die sofortige Stilllegung aller Deutschen Kohlekraftwerke DATUM 01.05.2011 wegen der groessten Europaeischen Chemischen Gefahr ,dem Kohlendioxid CO2, der Kraftwekrsbetreiber RWE, EON, ENBW, Vattenfall, Stadtwerke ein http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_europäischer_Kraftwerke_nach_Emission.

Ist denn die Alphastrahlung, Betastrahlung, Gammastrahlung (Kernspaltung) gefaehrlich?

62.200.86.169 (talk) 18:27, 12 April 2011 (UTC)