Merkel’s Sister Parties are CDU and CSU. Those parties share a common parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Germany’s Parliament.
CSU is only organized in the German state of Bavaria while the CDU operates in the other 15 states.
Policies of the parties have generally been the same, until now.
In the wake of the success of the anti-immigration AfD party in German regional elections on Sunday, Merkel is Under Renewed Attack by the head of CSU and others.
Bavarian conservative leader Horst Seehofer, head of the CSU, sister party to Ms Merkel’s CDU, pledged to resume his fight against the chancellor’s contentious refugee policy following the dramatic advance of the anti-immigration Alternative für Deutschland party.
“It cannot be that the answer to the people after such an election result is: everything goes on as before,” said Mr Seehofer. “This is a tectonic shift in the political landscape in Germany.”
His rapid intervention signals that the political pressure on Ms Merkel will increase as she tries to rally support for her open-doors refugee policy in advance of a key EU-Turkey migration summit later this week.
Ms Merkel responded to the results by pledging to stick to her guns. Steffen Seibert, her spokesman said: “We will stay on course and pursue it further with all our strength.”
Populist or Popular?
The comment of the day goes to James Hanshaw who commented on the Financial Times website …
The FT is at it still. All anti-status quo parties are derided as being populist rather than popular. It is a pity the FT cannot be neutral and live up to its slogan “without fear or favour”. It is loaded with both in fear and favour of the status quo.
The AfD is not just ant-immigration, it is against the euro too. I think there is also another wrong in this article – I believe the Greens have won in Baden-Württemberg, the first time they have won a state. The Greens have been around for a long time and now I suppose they will be labelled populist by the FT.
The Financial Times image has CDU at 30.3% in Baden-Württemberg. That number is wrong. The Green Party did indeed win the big prize with First German State Victory.
Support for the Greens in the state, the biggest of three that voted on Sunday, was 30.7 percent, followed by 27.3 percent for German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, according to projections from public broadcaster ZDF as of 8:09 p.m. local time. While the Greens dislodged the CDU in the last election in 2011, they did so after placing second and forging a coalition with the third-placed party.
Green Victory
Move aside CDU. At best, CDU will be a junior partner in government of Baden-Württemberg. Instead of Greens + CDU, it may very well be Greens + SPD + FDP.
Refugee Solution
Curiously, the Greens support Merkel on immigration.
I propose sending all the German refugees to Baden-Württemberg. Those who vote for refugees can have them.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
