Christian Social Union in Bavaria
The Christian Social Union in Bavaria is a Christian-democratic and conservative political party in Germany. Having a regionalist identity, the CSU operates only in Bavaria while its larger counterpart, the Christian Democratic Union, operates in the other fifteen states of Germany. It [|differs from the CDU] by being somewhat more conservative in social matters, following the Catholic social teaching. The CSU is considered the de facto successor of the Weimar-era Catholic Bavarian People's Party.
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 or simply CDU/CSU. The CSU has had 46 seats in the Bundestag since the 2017 federal election, making currently it the smallest of the seven parties represented. The CSU is a member of the European People's Party and the International Democrat Union.
The CSU currently has three ministers in the cabinet of Germany of the federal government in Berlin, including former party leader Horst Seehofer who is Federal Minister of the Interior while party leader Markus Söder serves as Minister-President of Bavaria, a position that CSU representatives have held from 1946 to 1954 and again since 1957.
History
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, but lost thereafter as the SPD and the Free Democratic Party 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.
Initially, the separatist Bavaria Party successfully competed for the same electorate as the CSU, as both parties saw and presented themselves as successors to the BVP. The CSU was ultimately able to win this power struggle for itself. Among other things, the BP was involved in the “casino affair” under dubious circumstances by the CSU at the end of the 1950s and lost considerable prestige and votes. In the 1966 state election, the BP finally left the state parliament.
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. The Economist later suggested that this exceptional result was due to a backlash against Schröder's government in Berlin. 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, Andreas Scheuer and Gerd Müller.
The CSU forms after 2018 Bavarian state election 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. Together, they are called The Union. The CSU operates only within Bavaria and the CDU operates in all other states, but not Bavaria. While virtually independent, 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. Below the federal level, the parties are entirely independent.Since its formation, the CSU has been more conservative than the CDU. 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, 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.
Like the CDU, the CSU is pro-European, although some Eurosceptic tendencies were shown in the past.
Leaders
Party chairmen
Ministers-President
The CSU has contributed eleven of the twelve Ministers-President of Bavaria since 1945, with only Wilhelm Hoegner of the SPD also holding the office.| Minister-President | From | To |
| Fritz Schäffer | 28 May 1945 | 28 September 1945 |
| Hans Ehard | 21 December 1946 | 14 December 1954 |
| Hanns Seidel | 16 October 1957 | 22 January 1960 |
| Hans Ehard | 26 January 1960 | 11 December 1962 |
| Alfons Goppel | 11 December 1962 | 6 November 1978 |
| Franz Josef Strauss | 6 November 1978 | 3 October 1988 |
| Max Streibl | 19 October 1988 | 27 May 1993 |
| Edmund Stoiber | 28 May 1993 | 30 September 2007 |
| Günther Beckstein | 9 October 2007 | 27 October 2008 |
| Horst Seehofer | 27 October 2008 | 13 March 2018 |
| Markus Söder | 16 March 2018 | Present day |