Government, Political Parties

Several political parties are represented in the Bundestag. Since 1998 the ruling party has been the Social Democratic Party (SPD), Germany’s oldest party. Founded in 1875, the SPD has developed from a Marxist socialist workers’ party into a broadly based people’s party, which now also emphasizes Christianity and humanism. The SPD supporters include trade union workers and white-collar and public employees, especially teachers. In recent years, the SPD has championed environmentally oriented economic reforms, environmental concerns in general, women’s rights, and the rights of asylum-seekers. Since 1998 Chancellor Gerhard Schroder has presided over a so-called Red-Green coalition between the SPD and the Green Party.

The Green Party has been gaining strength since it was first represented in the Bundestag in 1983. The Greens support environmentalism, feminism, and pacifism. Despite the enormous environmental problems in former East Germany, the Greens have had little support there. They have, however, joined forces with Federation 90, a party that has grown out of the East German citizen movements that first opposed the Communist dictatorship.

The major opposition party is the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which is closely allied with the Christian Social Union (CSU) of Bavaria. The CDU/CSU controlled the government from 1982 to 1998, usually in a coalition with the much smaller Free Democratic Party (FDP). This coalition brought about German unification in 1989 and 1990 against considerable opposition. The CDU and the CSU were both established in 1945. Under Chancellor Helmut Kohl, the CDU/CSU alliance was conservative on economic and social questions, such as abortion rights, although it supported the welfare state, which provided a wide range of social services to its citizens. Among the CDU/CSU supporters are churchgoing Catholics and Protestants from all walks of life, farmers, and nonunion workers. The FDP, founded in 1948, is a party of liberal and libertarian business and professional people, white-collar workers, and farmers.

Also represented in the Bundestag is the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), the successor to the state-run Communist Party of East Germany. The PDS voters are white-collar employees from former East Germany, including many university-educated and highly trained civil service and management professionals who are discontent with unification. The PDS has almost no support outside of former East Germany and tries to represent the regional interests of this area.

Other parties run candidates in every election but have not yet managed to gain representation in the Bundestag. Some have won seats in state legislatures. Among them are radical right groups such as the Republicans, the German People’s Union, and the National Democrats.