Christian Social Union of Bavaria

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

Christlich-Soziale Union in Bayern


Image:CSU logo.jpg

Leader	Erwin Huber

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

Political Ideology	Christian democracy, Social conservatism
International Affiliation	Christian Democrat International and International Democrat Union
European Affiliation	European People's Party
European Parliament Group	European People's Party - European Democrats
Colours	Blue (campaign colour)

Website	www.csu.de

See also	Politics of Germany Political parties Elections

The Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU – Christlich-Soziale Union in Bayern e.V. (help·info)) is a Christian democratic political party in Germany. It operates exclusively in the state of Bavaria, while its sister party, the CDU, operates in the rest of the country. On the federal level, the CSU is often perceived as the more socially conservative of the two parties. At times, especially when the CDU showed weaknesses, there has been considerable tension up to threats to break up the cooperation. Most of the time, however, they work together very closely.

Franz Josef Strauß (1915–1988) is seen as having set the ideological basis of the party, although he was too young to be a founding leader of the party, which began as a continuation of the Weimar-era Bavarian People's Party and, to a lesser extent, of the Catholic Centre Party.

The CSU has led the Bavarian state government practically since it came into existence, and without the need for a coalition government for most of the time. This level of dominance is unique in post-war Germany. On the federal level, it forms a common fraction in the Bundestag (Federal Parliament) with the CDU. Edmund Stoiber took over the CSU chairmanship early in 1999. He ran for Chancellor in 2002, but lost. In 2003, the CSU was re-elected as the Bavarian government with an overall majority. On 18 January 2007, Stoiber announced his decision to stand down from the posts of minister-president and CSU chairman by 30 September after having been under fire in his own party for weeks.

The CSU has a strong support in the rural parts of Bavaria, but 5 of the 8 Bavarian cities with more than 100,000 citizens (including the three largest cities Munich, Nuremberg, and Augsburg) have elected mayors from the German SPD as of December 2007.

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 ministres in Berlin: Michael Glos (Minister of economy and technology) and Horst Seehofer (Minister of Agriculture).