Bavaria’s conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), the sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), saw its share of the vote fall to 37.2 per cent in Bavaria’s state election on Sunday, from 47.7 per cent five years ago.
That was the worst result since 1950, indicating the increasing fragmentation of Germany’s political scene as thousands of voters switched to the Greens on the centre-left, who stand for European integration and stringent environmental rules, and the rightwing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD).
Support for the Greens surged to 17.5 per cent from 8.6 per cent in 2013. The AfD won 10.2 per cent of the vote. The Free Democrats returned to the regional parliament after securing 5 per cent of valid votes.
The left-of-centre Social Democrats (SPD), Ms Merkel’s junior coalition partner, emerged as the biggest loser, taking just 9.6 per cent of the vote. Many members blame the party’s dismal performance on its continued participation in Ms Merkel’s grand coalition government. In the Bundestag election in September 2017 both the CDU and SPD achieved its worst result since the creation of the Federal Republic in 1949. The CDU/CSU and SPD have formed three of the past four federal governments.
The CSU will be forced to form a coalition government with, most likely, independent Free Voters, a regional opposition group that took 11.6 per cent of the vote.
Horst Seehofer, CSU chairman and federal interior minister, is seen as the main source of instability in Ms Merkel’s grand coalition. He provoked a coalition crisis earlier this year over asylum policy, which nearly brought down the government. The dismal performance in Bavaria of both the CSU and SPD raises questions whether Ms Merkel’s governing coalition can survive a full term in office.
Bavaria is one of Germany’s most populous and prosperous states, accounting for almost one-fifth of the nation’s economy. The southern state is home to business giants such as Siemens, Allianz and BMW and enjoys Germany’s lowest regional unemployment rate.
Photo: Giorgio Montersino
