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Germany: Wide divisions among Christian Democrats
The ferocity of the recent internal party disputes within the Christian Social Union (CSU) has even surprised some of those involved. In mid-January, when Edmund Stoiber finally announced he would be leaving office as the Bavarian state premier and head of the CSU in the autumn, he hoped to stabilise the situation. But all attempts to bring the crisis under control through high-level talks and appeals for unity have failed.
The CSU, which operates exclusively in the state of Bavaria, is the sister party of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and they form a joint parliamentary faction in the Bundestag (federal parliament).
The clash over the party presidency between the Bavarian State Economics Minister Erwin Huber and the Federal Economics Minister Horst Seehofer clearly shows how wide the rifts are inside the party—divisions that have been covered up by the party’s authoritarian structures and secret dealings.
Most media comments have only dealt with the events superficially and have ascribed the dispute to a personal power struggle, intrigues and political ambitions. However, it is necessary to examine the crisis of the CSU in a wider historical context.
Like the CDU, the CSU developed after the Second World War not as a classical party with a clear programmatic line and a clearly delineated electorate, but as a melting pot of different parties and political currents—a so-called “peoples party” (Volkspartei). It addressed itself to the most varied social layers: farmers and artisans, but also workers and industrialists, traders and small manufacturers, civil servants and intellectuals, students, apprentices and pensioners.
More
http://wsws.org/articles/2007/feb2007/csu-f03.shtml
The clash over the party presidency between the Bavarian State Economics Minister Erwin Huber and the Federal Economics Minister Horst Seehofer clearly shows how wide the rifts are inside the party—divisions that have been covered up by the party’s authoritarian structures and secret dealings.
Most media comments have only dealt with the events superficially and have ascribed the dispute to a personal power struggle, intrigues and political ambitions. However, it is necessary to examine the crisis of the CSU in a wider historical context.
Like the CDU, the CSU developed after the Second World War not as a classical party with a clear programmatic line and a clearly delineated electorate, but as a melting pot of different parties and political currents—a so-called “peoples party” (Volkspartei). It addressed itself to the most varied social layers: farmers and artisans, but also workers and industrialists, traders and small manufacturers, civil servants and intellectuals, students, apprentices and pensioners.
More
http://wsws.org/articles/2007/feb2007/csu-f03.shtml
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