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CONCEPT – THE GERMAN POLITICAL SPECTRUM 2018
Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment
- Macro structure: Germany has a federal, multi-party, parliamentary political system. All parties in Germany have to respect the Constitution (“Grundgesetz”) in their principles, agendas and actions. If a party is deemed to be a danger to the liberal democratic order by the Federal Constitutional Court (“Bundesverfassungsgericht”), it can be prohibited.
- Bundestag: In the German Parliament (“Bundestag”), elected representatives from different parties choose a chancellor. He or she is the main holder of executive power in the country and in charge of forming a government. Every German party promotes particular sets of ideas, priorities and values, and comes from a particular historical background. In Germany, parties are often referred to by specific colours.
- Dominant parties: The Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Christian Democratic Party (CDU) have been dominant in the last five decades. The federal and state government in Germany usually consist of a coalition in which the parties which have won the majority of votes negotiate power put their policies into practice.
- CDU / CSU
- Chairpeople: Angela Merkel(CDU), Horst Seehofer(CSU)
- Voters: People over the age of 60, churchgoers, living in rural areas - especially in southern Germany - still represent the hardcore of CDU and CSU voters. The CDU has also traditionally done well among small business owners and people with lower or medium education levels.
- 2017 Bundestag election result: 33 percent (246/709 seats)
- History: The CDU was founded in West Germany in 1950 in the aftermath of World War II as a gathering pool for all of Germany's Christian conservative voters. It became the most dominant political force in the post-war era, unifying Germany and leading the government for 47 of those 67 years, alongside its Bavaria sister-party, the Christian Social Union (CSU).
- CDU stands for Christian Democratic Union of Germany (“Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands”). CSU is short for Christian Social Union (“Christlich-Soziale Union”). CDU and CSU work together in a single group in the German parliament, with CSU operating only in the state of Bavaria and CDU covering the other 15 states of Germany.
- Black is known to be the colour of the CDU. It was founded after the Second World War as various conservative German groups and associations came together to shape a unified political party. The CDU, which is classified as a people’s party (“Volkspartei”), attracts voters across all social classes and groups.
- The CDU has around 431,900 members (as of 2016), but the CSU is considerably smaller(around 142,400 members as of 2016). Its colour is light blue. Although many see the two effectively a single political body, CDU and CSU are not on the same page on all the issues, namely CSU's strict positions on immigration.
- SPD
- SPD stands for Social Democratic Party of Germany (“Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands”). Traditionally known as the working class's party, SPD gradually moved from an initial leftist labourers' association to a party ready to shed its anti-capitalist views in favour of entering a coalition with conservative parties. The party currently has around 432,700 members (as of 2016).
- Chairperson: Andrea Nahles
- Parliamentary leader: Andrea Nahles
- 2017 Bundestag election result: 20.5 percent (153/709 seats)
- Voters: The SPD has traditionally been the party of the working classes and the trade unions. The SPD's most fertile ground in Germany remains in the densely-populated industrial regions of western Germany, particularly the Ruhr region in North Rhine-Westphalia, as well as the states of Hesse and Lower Saxony.
- History: The SPD was founded in 1875, making it Germany's oldest political party. In the tumultuous first decades of the 20th century, the party acted as an umbrella organization for a number of leftist movements, trade unionists, and communists. But with the founding of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in 1919, the SPD became the permanent home of the social justice reformers, rather than the revolutionaries – though that didn't stop its politicians from being sent to concentration camps during the Third Reich.
- SPD is Germany's oldest political party. Alongside CDU, it is classified as a people’s party (“Volkspartei”) which means that it has a lot of Members and supporters. Social justice and the betterment of social infrastructure are among SPD’s mottoes. Red is known to be the colour of SPD.
- THE GREEN PARTY
- Chairpeople: Annalena Baerbock, Robert Habeck
- Parliamentary leaders: Katrin Göring-Eckardt, Anton Hofreiter
- 2017 Bundestag election result: 8.9 percent (67/709 seats)
- Voters: The Greens rely heavily on the well-educated, urban demographic for their voter base - and its strongholds tend to be major cities in western Germany, especially where universities are located. However, the party's voters have also aged significantly over its 30-year history: fewer than 10 percent of Green voters are now under 35. By the same token, Green voters have become more affluent over the years, and the Greens struggle to attract voters from lower income classes.
- History: The Green party is probably the most successful counter-culture movement in Germany's post-war political history. The party, whose official name is Alliance '90/The Greens, grew out of an assortment of social protest movements of the 1980s that eventually unified.
- Once known as the party of activists and hippies, the Green party („Bündnis 90/Die Grüne”) is now a party of the middle class, with only 10% of its members under 35 years old. The party came out of post-war movements aimed at protecting the environment and social rights in the 80's. As many of these ideas eventually became mainstream in the political sphere, the Green Party itself shed some of its idealism in favour of pragmatism and political gain.
- The Green Party advocates for gender equality and is co-chaired by a male and a female politician. Its colour is known to be green and it has around 61,600 members (as of 2016).
- AfD
- AfD stands for Alternative for Germany („Alternative für Deutschland“). It was originally founded as a Eurosceptic party against Germany’s support of failing economies in the European Union. Eventually it transformed into the anti-migrant, anti-Islam, populist party it is today. Light blue is the known as the colour of AfD. The party has around 26,400 members (as of 2016).
- Chairpeople: Jörg Meuthen, Alexander Gauland
- Parliamentary leaders: Alexander Gauland, Alice Weidel
- Voters: The AfD has poached voters from all the other major parties except the Greens, and has simultaneously succeeded in mobilizing many non-voters. The AfD scores best among middle income earners - though that is by no means its exclusive voter base, and draws voters from across social classes. Its membership, meanwhile, has one significant feature - only 15 percent are women.
- At the Bundestag election on September 24, 2017, the AfD gained 12.6 percent of the electorate votes and thus entered the Bundestag for the first time. The official colour of AfD is light blue, but some think it should be known with the colour brown. Since 1925, Brown has been considered to be the colour of the right-wing movement. Brown has been the official colour and symbol of the Nazis.
- History: The right-wing nationalist Alternative for Germany (AfD) has surged to prominence in the four years of its existence. Founded just five months before the 2013 election as a euroskeptic party, the AfD very nearly entered the Bundestag. Since then, Germans have elected the AfD to every state parliament in regional elections as well as the European parliament.
- The AfD was originally created by a group of neo-liberal academics as a protest against the single European currency. They were angered specifically by Merkel's decision to bail out Greece in 2010 following Europe's financial crisis. But a power struggle in 2015 ended with the ouster of party leader Bernd Lucke, who was replaced by Frauke Petry.
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