The Christian Social Union in Bavaria (German: , CSU) 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 (CDU), operates in the other fifteen states of Germany. The CSU is more conservative than the CDU and sits on the centre-right to right-wing of the political spectrum. Founded in 1945, 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 (die Unionsfraktion) or simply CDU/CSU. The CSU has had 44 seats in the Bundestag since the 2025 federal election, making it currently the sixth largest of the seven parties represented and the largest parliamentary faction as part of CDU/CSU with 208 seats. The CSU is a member of the European People's Party and the International Democracy Union.
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. From 1962 to 2008 and from 2013 to 2018, the CSU had the absolute majority in the Bavarian Landtag.
History
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 (BP) 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.
Franz Josef Strauß (1915–1988) 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 in 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 (SPD) but lost thereafter as the SPD and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) managed to secure an absolute majority together, forming a social-liberal coalition.
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 Economist: Old soldiers march into the unknown" 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 by then constituted 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 had three ministers in the Fourth Merkel cabinet, namely Horst Seehofer (Minister of the Interior, Building and Community), Andreas Scheuer (Minister of Transport and Digital Infrastructure) and Gerd Müller (Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development).
The 2018 Bavarian state election yielded the worst result for the CSU in the state elections (top candidate Markus Söder) since 1950 with 37.2% of votes, a decline of over ten percentage points compared to the last result in 2013. After that, the CSU had to form a new coalition government with the minor partner Free Voters of Bavaria.
The 2021 German federal election saw the worst election result ever for the Union. The CSU also had a weak showing with 5.2% of votes nationally and 31.7% of the total in Bavaria. In the 2023 Bavarian state election, the CSU remained on 85 seats (with 37.0% of the vote) and continued its coalition government with the Free Voters.
In the 2025 German federal election the CSU received 37.2% votes in Bavaria.
Organisation
The CSU is only organized in the Free State of Bavaria and only runs for election there. At the federal level, it forms a parliamentary group in the German Bundestag with its sister party, the CDU. The Hanns Seidel Foundation is close to the CSU.
Content Structure Eight working groups, eleven working committees, eight commissions, and seven forums develop the substantive and strategic positions of CSU policy. Outside the party are the Union of Trainees and Students in Bavaria (SU Bayern) and the Association of Christian Democratic Students (RCDS), an association of university groups affiliated with the CDU/CSU.
Political Academy of the CSU In addition to that, the CSU offers various programs, such as the Political Academy of the CSU. The prestigious two-year program provides different lectures, workshops and trainings for the participants. It is highly selective with only thirty members per year.
Praesidium The handling of the day-to-day business and questions of economic activity of the party is the task of the party's praesidium, which, in addition to the party chairman and his deputies, the secretary general, the treasurers and secretaries, as well as the managing director and the chairman of the finance commission, have seven members elected by the board. The praesidium is considered the closest leadership circle of the CSU.
State leadership The internal party administration and organisation is the responsibility of the so-called state leadership, which is based in the Franz-Josef-Strauß-Haus in Munich-Schwabing. It is led by the Secretary General (since 6 May 2022 Martin Huber) and the managing director (since March 2020 Tobias Schmid).
Regional organisation Regionally, the CSU is subdivided into ten district associations, 105 county associations and almost 3,000 local associations.
Ideology and platform
The CSU pledges to support small and medium enterprises, opposing tax increases on these companies. In the 2006 fiscal year, the CSU presented a budget for Bavaria that was the first state to have no new debt, achieved primarily through rigorous spending cuts by all ministries. The party also states that for a new regulation to be introduced, an old regulation must be eliminated.
The CSU differs from the CDU by being more conservative in social matters. For example, the party calls for harsher punishments for those who break the blasphemy law in Germany and is generally opposed to liberalising abortions. Because of its patriotic rhetoric, which emphasizes the "Heimat", and calls for restrictions on immigration and maintaining a "Leitkultur", the CSU has been accused of exhibiting right-wing populist tendencies and adopting rhetorical elements of the AfD.
The CSU relies on the three-tier school system and justifies it in the dispute over comprehensive schools with Bavaria's good results in the PISA study. The multi-tier school system in Bavaria is seen as flexible, since all Bavarian secondary schools enable their students to obtain an intermediate school certificate.
For a long time, the CSU supported the charging of tuition fees, but in October 2012 parts of the CSU, in particular CSU chairman Horst Seehofer, were already considering abolishing them. In April 2013, the Bavarian State Parliament decided to abolish tuition fees, with the support of some CSU members.
The CSU strongly opposes the introduction of a general speed limit on German motorways.
Relationship with the CDU
The CSU is the sister party of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Together, they are called the Union. The CSU operates only within Bavaria, and the CDU operates in all states other than 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 (SPD). Below the federal level, the parties are entirely independent.
The CSU has been described as 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 (distinctive and non-federal), 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 ChairmanFromTo1stJosef Müller17 December 194528 May 19492ndHans Ehard28 May 194922 January 19553rdHanns Seidel22 January 195516 February 19614thFranz Josef Strauss18 March 19613 October 19885thTheodor Waigel16 November 198816 January 19996thEdmund Stoiber16 January 199929 September 20077thErwin Huber29 September 200725 October 20088thHorst Seehofer25 October 200819 January 20199thMarkus Söder19 January 2019Present day
Ministers-president The CSU has contributed eleven of the twelve Ministers-President of Bavaria since 1945, with only Wilhelm Hoegner (1945–1946, 1954–1957) of the SPD also holding the office.
Minister-PresidentFromToFritz Schäffer28 May 194528 September 1945Hans Ehard (first time)21 December 194614 December 1954Hanns Seidel16 October 195722 January 1960Hans Ehard (second time)26 January 196011 December 1962Alfons Goppel11 December 19626 November 1978Franz Josef Strauss6 November 19783 October 1988Max Streibl19 October 198827 May 1993Edmund Stoiber28 May 199330 September 2007Günther Beckstein9 October 200727 October 2008Horst Seehofer27 October 200813 March 2018Markus Söder16 March 2018Present day
Regional Leadership District AssociationChairman Lower BavariaChristian Bernreiter Upper BavariaIlse Aigner Upper PalatinateAlbert Füracker Lower FranconiaSteffen Vogel Middle FranconiaJoachim Herrmann Upper FranconiaHans-Peter Friedrich SwabiaKlaus Holetschek AugsburgVolker Ullrich MunichGeorg Eisenreich Nuremberg - Fürth - SchwabachMichael Frieser
Election results Federal parliament (Bundestag)