Christian Democratic Union of Germany

La Christian Democratic Union of Germany (in German): Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands, pronounced/ıkɪžstl αç demoıksa felttýðæææ ̧ ̧dːt ̧r/or its acronyms CDU, pronounced################( listen)) is a German political party. It defines itself as a "center party, Christian Democrat, Liberal and Conservative." On a European scale, he is a member of the European People's Party. It was founded in 1945 after World War II as an alliance of Christian leaders. After the partition of Germany, the Christian Democratic Union of the GDR continued to exist in the eastern part, which was part of the National Democratic Front dominated by the Unified Socialist Party. With the fall of the Berlin Wall, the RDA CDU was again integrated into the Western CDU.

The CDU is present in all the federal states of Germany with the exception of Bavaria, where there is the CSU (Christian Social Union), an independent party with a similar tendency, although with a regionalist nuance. In the German Parliament, the CDU and CSU form a joint group. At the European level, both are members of the European People's Party (EPP).

Among the most important historical personalities of the CDU are Chancellors Konrad Adenauer (1949-63), Ludwig Erhard (1963-66), Kurt Georg Kiesinger (1966-69), Helmut Kohl (1982-98) and Angela Merkel (2005-2021).

In the German parliamentary elections on September 26, 2021, the CDU won 18.9% of the vote (152 seats). Together with its sister party, the Bavarian CSU, which won 5.2% (45 seats), the CDU/CSU achieved the worst result in its history, falling behind the Social Democratic Party (SPD). After the elections, a coalition government was formed between the SPD, the Greens and the FDP with Olaf Scholz as Chancellor of Germany, with which the CDU became the leader of the opposition.

The state with the largest presence of the CDU is Saxony-Anhalt (37.1%, 2021) and the one with the least presence is Hamburg (11.2%, 2020).

Situation in federated states

Member of parliament. Presiding the government.Member of parliament. In the government.Member of parliament. In the opposition.
Rule in coalition
North Rhine-Westphalia (with Los Verdes)
Hesse (with the Greens)
Saxony (with SPD and Greens)
Saxony-Anhalt (with SPD and FDP)
Schleswig-Holstein (with the Greens)
He's a government partner.
De Los Verdes en Baden-Wurtemberg
SPD and Greens in Brandenburg
He's in the opposition in:
Lower Saxony, Berlin, Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, Renania-Palatinado, Sarre and Turingia

Ideology

Throughout its history, the CDU presented various political programs. Ahlen's 1947 program still advocated a so-called Christian socialism; two years later, in the Düsseldorf program for the first post-war federal elections, the "social market economy" was propagated. Decisive for the development of the party was the "program of principles" voted in 1978 in Ludwigshafen, prepared by a commission led by Richard von Weizsäcker (later Federal President). The second "principles program" it was decided at the party congress in Hamburg in 1994 and bears the title "Freedom in Responsibility".

In its programme, the CDU talks about the "Christian conception of the human being and his responsibility before God". One of the CDU's goals is to address all Christian denominations, in exchange for the Center Party, its exclusively Catholic forerunner during the Weimar Republic. The CDU defends the social market economy within a state of federal law. On a foreign scale, he wants to deepen European integration and relations with the United States.

In recent years, the CDU has placed particular emphasis on the areas of economic, fiscal, educational, foreign and security policy. The title of his electoral program for the 2005 federal elections carried the title "Growth. Job. Security". In addition, the CDU defends a reduction in bureaucracy and tried to encourage a debate on patriotism.

In 2007, a party congress in Hanover voted for a third program of principles, under the title of "Freedom and security. Principles for Germany". In it, the CDU defines itself as the "popular party of the center" and defends its social-Christian, liberal and conservative roots. It reaffirms the importance of the "Christian conception of the human being", on which the three values "freedom, solidarity and justice" are based. It proclaims the goal of creating a "society of opportunity" in which citizens live "free and safe". One of the central aspects of the program is the role of the family as the nucleus of society; To promote the number of children, the CDU wants to improve the compatibility between professional and family life, increasing the number of free places in nurseries. In addition, the CDU defends the maintenance of tax advantages for families.

The main ideological axes of the CDU are economic liberalism, Christian democracy and support for the United States in matters of foreign policy. However, the practice of power of the CDU is characterized by a certain elasticity. The Merkel government has abolished military service, has paved the way for the recognition of gay marriage (rejected by two-thirds of the CDU deputies, but approved by members of the left and the center) and has undertaken the closure of nuclear power plants; measures that were never included in the electoral program of the party. The conservative government was intractable with Greece during the debt crisis, demanding harsh austerity measures, granting hundreds of thousands of refugees asylum during the 2015 migration crisis. The party for decades promoted a conservative view of family and society -with women away from politics- before taking a woman to the chancery in 2005.

History

Foundation

After the fall of Nazi Germany at the end of World War II, the need for a new political order in the country was imminent. But simultaneously began independent movements emerging in Germany, each with the aim of planning a "Christian-Democrat." The "Union movement" was established in Berlin on June 26, 1945, and in North Rhine-Westphalia in September of the same year.

The founding members of the CDU consisted mainly of former members of the Center Party, the German Democratic Party, the German National People's Party, and the German People's Party. Several of these individuals, including the founder of the Christian Democrats in Berlin, Andreas Hermes, and future German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, were imprisoned for their involvement in the German resistance to Nazism. However, in the Cold War years after World War II until the 1960s, the CDU also attracted numerous conservative and anti-communist former Nazis or Nazi collaborators in its higher ranks (such as Hans Globke and Theodor Oberländer).

At first, it was not clear which side would be favored by the victors of the war, but in the late 1940s, the US and UK governments began to lean towards the CDU and away of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). Western powers appreciated the CDU's restraint, flexibility, and courage as an anti-communist force, appealing to European voters at the time. Also, Adenauer had received early confidence from the British.

The party was divided over issues such as rearmament within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) of the so-called Western Bloc and German reunification as a neutral state. Adenauer refused to consider the SPD as part of the coalition until they were sure they shared his anti-communist position. The principle of reunification refused to alienate Germany from the Western alliance made it more difficult for the party to anchor among Protestant voters.

Scandal over the illegal financing of the party in 1999

After the reunification of Germany, so that the CDU would not be defeated by the socialist opposition, the party received money to finance its electoral campaign from the French government, led by President François Mitterrand, who was interested in the company French oil company Elf Aquitaine to take over the Leuna refinery, located in East Germany and owned by the public company Minol. These operations to fraudulently accept money had been carried out during the CDU government of Chancellor Helmut Kohl in the 1990s, although this information was hidden and not discovered until 1999, with the victory of the opposition.

The operation was executed in December 1994, the CDU's conservative majority in the Bundestag passed a law annulling all rights of owners. It was discovered that they had in accounts in the canton of Geneva (Switzerland) more than 300 million German marks in illegal funds, at least 256 appropriated from the sale to Elf Aquitaine.

Angela Merkel's party presidency (2000-2018)

In 1998, Helmut Kohl lost the chancellorship election to Gerhard Schröder and resigned as CDU leader. His successor was Wolfgang Schäuble and Angela Merkel became Secretary General. Then the donations scandal began to threaten the gains of the new leadership of the party. In this situation, Merkel published an article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper where she demanded that her party distance itself from Helmut Kohl. Later, an aspect of the same scandal spilled over to Schäuble, who had to hand over the leadership of the party.

Then, with 96% of the votes, Merkel was elected party leader in April 2000. On the other hand, Edmund Stoiber, leader of the CSU, was competing with Merkel for the candidacy for the chancellorship in the 2002 federal elections, and Merkel he gave way to the Bavarian politician. Stoiber lost to Schröder, but three years later the chancellor called snap elections, in which a "Grand Coalition" with the SPD Social Democrats secured Merkel the chancellor post in the 2005 federal elections.

Leadership by Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer

On December 7, 2018, Annegret was elected president of the CDU in the federal congress of that party. The until that moment general secretary of the formation prevailed over the other two candidates, Friedrich Merz and Jens Spahn. In this way, the CDU opted for the more centrist and Europeanist line of Angela Merkel, who after 18 years left the leadership of the party.

On February 10, 2020, she announced her resignation from the party presidency and therefore to be a candidate for Chancellorship to replace Merkel. The decision is related to the crisis in the land of Thuringia due to the joint vote of conservatives and liberals with the extreme rightists of Alternative for Germany. She continued in the position until January 16, 2021, when Armin Laschet was elected as the formation's new president.

Leadership by Armin Laschet

Leadership by Friedrich Merz

Following his failure in the 2021 federal elections, in which the CDU/CSU won only 24% of the vote and was no longer able to form a government, party leader Armin Laschet resigned. For the first time in the party's history, members were able to vote for a new leader. They chose Friedrich Merz, a conservative-liberal who once internally opposed Angela Merkel's centrist line. He will have the task of leading the conservative opposition to the government of Olaf Scholz, who is in continuity with Angela Merkel, whose he was finance minister.

Affiliate and voter profile

The number of affiliates has steadily decreased since the 1990s, from 790,000 in 1990 to 400,000 in 2021.

Of the party members, 52% are Catholic, 38% Protestant, 1% of another religion and 10% atheist. The CDU is traditionally the most popular party among businessmen, farmers and the liberal professions.

The party benefits from the aging of the population and the greater participation of older people in elections. More than half of its members are over 60 years of age. The party is gradually gaining ground among voters with an immigrant background (especially those from Turkey): in 2018, a survey indicated that 40% of them preferred the CDU-CSU.

In parliament, the CDU remains largely closed to women and people of foreign origin. Women only represent 22% of their deputies, compared to more than half of Die Linke and the Greens and 44% of the SPD. Furthermore, only 3% of its deputies are of immigrant origin, the lowest representation of any political group in Parliament.

European Union

Ursula von der Leyen de la CDU es la presidenta de la Comisión Europea desde el 1 de diciembre de 2019.

In the field of EU policy in Germany, the CDU sees itself as "the" European party. This claim is justified by the European politics of Konrad Adenauer and subsequent party chancellors, as well as by a tradition that programmatically points to a European state and the unification of the Christian West. However, the idea of the state has receded into the background with the introduction of internal market regulation and German reunification.

Former Chancellor Helmut Kohl is described in the party (but also across party and national borders) as a convinced European, as European integration was promoted in his chancellery, for example by signing the agreements for the euro, the internal market or the Schengen Agreement.

In the wake of the euro crisis, the CDU is repositioning itself for European integration, but in a less critical way than its Bavarian sister party, the CSU. The party's MEPs are committed to the further development of the European Union into a European confederation. As of 2009, the CDU-led federal government led by Angela Merkel relied more on intergovernmental regulations, for example in the context of the Euro Pact. However, at its party conference in 2011, the CDU decided on a position propagating the community method and called for a political union based on federal principles.

The party is against Turkey's accession to the European Union. Instead, it advocates a privileged partnership. Above all, it argues that Turkey frequently violates human rights and that the Turkish government denies the 1915 Armenian genocide. Furthermore, Turkey must recognize Cyprus as a sovereign state, as it is a prerequisite that EU member states recognize each other.

Election results

Konrad Adenauer's electoral propaganda of 1957.

Federal Elections

Year	# Of direct votes	# Of votes by list	% of votes by list	# Of obtained	+/-	Candidate	Outcome
1949		5,978,636	25.2	115/402		Konrad Adenauer	Government with Liberals
1953	9,577,659	10,016,594	36.4	197/509	82	Konrad Adenauer	Government with Liberals and Nationalists
1957	11,975,400	11,875,339	39.7	222/519	25	Konrad Adenauer	Absolute majority
1961	11,622,995	11,283,901	35.8	201/521	21	Konrad Adenauer	Government with Liberals
1965	12,631,319	12,387,562	38.0	202/518	1	Ludwig Erhard	Government with Liberals (1965/66)
							Government of Great Coalition (since 1966)
1969	12,137,148	12,079,535	36.6	201/518	1	Kurt Georg Kiesinger	Opposition
1972	13,304,813	13,190,837	35.2	186/518	15	Rainer Barzel	Opposition
1976	14,423,157	14,367,302	38.0	201/518	15	Helmut Kohl	Opposition
1980	13,467,207	12,989,200	34.2	185/519	16	Franz Josef Strauss	Opposition (1980-82)
							Government with Liberals (since 1982)
1983	15,943,460	14,857,680	38.1	202/520	17	Helmut Kohl	Government with Liberals
1987	14,168,527	13,045,745	34.4	185/519	17	Helmut Kohl	Government with Liberals
1990	17,707,574	17,055,116	36.7	268/662	83	Helmut Kohl	Government with Liberals
1994	17,473,325	16,089,960	34.2	244/672	24	Helmut Kohl	Government with Liberals
1998	15,854,215	14,004,908	28.4	198/669	46	Helmut Kohl	Opposition
2002	15,336,512	14,167,561	29.5	190/603	8	Edmund Stoiber	Opposition
2005	15,390,950	13,136,740	27.8	180/614	10	Angela Merkel	Government of Great Coalition
2009	13,856,674	11,828,277	27.3	194/620	14	Angela Merkel	Government with Liberals
2013	16,233,642	14,921,877	34.1	255/631	61	Angela Merkel	Government of Great Coalition
2017	14,030,751	12,447,656	26.8	200/709	55	Angela Merkel	Government of Great Coalition
2021	10,451,524	8,775,471	18.9	152/736	48	Armin Laschet	Opposition

European Parliament elections

Year	# Of vows	% of votes	# of seats obtained	+/-
1979	10,883,085	39.0 (#2)	33/81
1984	9,308,411	37.5 (#1)	32/81	1
1989	8,332,846	29.5 (#2)	24/81	8
1994	11,346,073	32.0 (#2)	39/99	15
1999	10,628,224	39.2 (#1)	43/99	4
2004	9,412,009	36.5 (#1)	40/99	3
2009	8,071,391	30.6 (#1)	34/99	6
2014	8,807,500	30.0 (#1)	29/96	5
2019	8,437,093	22.6 (#1)	23/96	6

In the Bundesländer

The CDU is not running in the Bavarian elections due to its alliance with the CSU.

Regional Parliament	Last election	Votes	%	Scalls	+/-	Status
Baden-Württemberg	2021	1.168.975	24.1 (#2)	42/154		Government with Alliance 90/Los Verdes
Berlin	2023	428.228	28.2 (#1)	52/159	12	Opposition
Baden-Württemberg	2019	196.988	15.6 (#3)	15/88	6	Government with SPD and Alliance 90/Los Verdes
Bremen	2019	391.709	26.7 (#1)	24/84	4	Opposition
Hamburg	2020	453.717	11.2 (#3)	15/123	5	Opposition
Hesse	2018	776.910	27,0 (#1)	40/137	7	Government with Alliance 90/Los Verdes
Lower Saxony	2022	1.017.276	28.1 (#2)	47/146	3	Opposition
Mecklenburg-West Pomerania	2021	121.566	13.3 (#3)	12/79	4	Opposition
North Rhine-Westphalia	2022	2.552.276	35.7 (#1)	76/195	4	Government with Alliance 90/Los Verdes
Renania-Palatinado	2021	535.318	27.67 (#2)	31/101	4	Opposition
Sarre	2022	129.154	28,50 (#2)	19/51	5	Opposition
Saxony	2019	695.560	32.1 (#1)	45/119	14	Government with Alliance 90/Green and SPD
Saxony-Anhalt	2021	394.810	37.1 (#1)	40/97	10	Government with SPD and FDP
Schleswig-Holstein	2022	601.964	43.4 (#1)	34/69	9	Government with Alliance 90/Los Verdes
Turingia	2019	241.049	21.7 (#3)	21/91	13	Opposition