Politics of GermanyBy: Benedict Gombocz

Government of Germany

Government (Regierung): Federal parliamentary republic and multi-party democracy

President (Bundespräsident):Joachim Gauck (No party; New Forum/Alliance 90 1989-1990)

Chancellor (Bundeskanzlerin): Angela Merkel (CDU)

President of the Bundestag (Präsident des Deutschen Bundestages) : Norbert Lammert (CDU)

President of the Bundesrat (Präsident des Bundesrats): Horst Seehofer (CSU)

Bundestag represented parties Christian Democratic Union

of Germany (Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands, CDU)

Christian Social Union in Bavaria (Christlich-Soziale Union in Bayern, CSU)

Social Democratic Party of Germany (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, SPD)

Free Democratic Party (Freie Demokratische Partei, FDP)

The Left (Die Linke, LINKE) Alliance ‘90/The Greens

(Bündnis 90/Die Grünen)

Years of German federal elections and the winning party 1990: CDU/CSU 1994: CDU/CSU 1998: SPD 2002: SPD 2005: CDU/CSU 2009: CDU/CSU

State parliament represented parties

Free Voters (Freie Wähler, FW) Pirate Party Germany (Piratenpartei

Deutschland, PIRATEN) National Democratic Party of Germany - The

People’s Union (Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands – Die Volksunion, NPD)

South Schleswig Voter Federation (Südschleswigscher Wählerverband , SSW)

Citizens in Rage (Bürger in Wut, BIW) German Communist Party (Deutsche

Kommunistische Partei, DKP)

Christian Democratic Union of Germany

Christian democratic and conservative party

Founded in 1945 and currently the largest party ahead of the Social Democratic Party of Germany

Regarded as part of the centre-right of the German political spectrum

Forms the CDU/CSU grouping (also known as the Union) together with its sister party, the Christian Social Union of Bavaria, in the Bundestag

Member of the European People’s Party (EPP) and sits in the EPP Group in the European Parliament

Christian Social Union in Bavaria Christian Democratic and

Conservative Party Founded in 1945 Operates only in Bavaria while

its sister party, the Christian Democratic Union, operates in the other 15 states

The smallest of the six parties represented in the Bundestag, it only has 45 seats

Founded as a continuation of the Weimar-era Catholic Bavarian People’s Party

Currently governs at federal level with both its sister Christian Democratic Union and Free Democratic Party

Social Democratic Party of Germany Social-democratic liberal party Second largest party behind the

Christian Democratic Union and the oldest parliament represented party

Governed at federal level in grand coalition with the Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union between 2005 and 2009

Defeated in the federal election of 2009 with its share of votes having decreased from 34.2% to 23%, it is currently the largest Bundestag represented opposition party

Full member of the Party of European Socialists and Socialist International

Free Democratic Party

Centre-right classical liberal party Founded on 11 December 1948 Currently serves as junior coalition

partner to the Union (Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union) and is the third largest Bundestag represented party with 93 members

Has held the balance of power in the Bundestag for most of the Federal Republic’ history has been in federal government longer than any other party as junior coalition partner to either the CDU/CSU (1949-56; 1961-66; 1982-88; since 2009) or the Social Democratic Party (1969-82)

The Left

Democratic socialist party and most left-wing Bundestag represented party

Founded on 16 June 2007 as merger of the Party of Democratic Socialism- successor of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (the ruling party of the former East Germany) and Electoral Alternative for Labour and Social Justice (WASG)

Won 76 out of 622 seats after polling 11.9% of the vote in 2009 federal elections

Member of the Party of the European Left and largest party in the European United Left-Nordic Green Left group in the European Parliament internationally

Alliance ‘90/The Greens

Green and centre-left party

Founded in 1980 as The Greens and 1993 with merger of the Greens and Alliance 90

Won 10.7% of the votes in 2009 federal elections

With 68 out of 622 seats in the Bundestag , it is the second smallest Bundestag represented party

Free Voters

Received 10.2% of the vote in 2008 Bavaria state election and gained first 20 seats in the Landtag

Pirate Party Germany

Civil libertarian and social liberal Party based on model of Swedish Piratpartiet

Founded on 10 September 2006

Supports preservation of current civil rights in telephony and on the Internet; particularly opposes European data retention policies and Germany’s new Internet censorship law Zugangserschwerungsgesetz

Favors civil right to information privacy and copyright, education, and genetic patents policies

National Democratic Party of Germany – The People’s Union Far right nationalist party Founded on 28 November

1964 as successor to the German Reich Party

Merged with far right German People’s Union on 1 January 2011 , which added the ‘The People’s Union’ to the party name

Often described as a neo-Nazi organization and “the most significant neo-Nazi party to emerge after 1945”

Currently represented in only two of Germany’s sixteen state parliaments, it has no seats at federal level

South Schleswig Voter Federation

Regional social liberal and ethnic minority interests party; represents the Danish and Frisian minorities

Founded in 1948 Does not identify itself with

left-right scale, but bases its policies on Scandinavian countries

Represented in the diet (Landtag) of Schleswig-Holstein and several regional and municipal courts

In most recent Schleswig-Holstein election of 2009, it gained 4.3% of the vote and won four seats

Citizens in Rage

Right-wing populist voter’s association

Founded in March 2004 as successor to the Bremen section of the Law and Order Offensive Party (“Schill party”)

Its focus has been on important issues like crime fighting and immigration policy

Took part in Bremen parliamentary election of 2007

Won 3.7% of the popular state statewide in Bremen state election of 2011

German Communist Party Communist, Marxist-Leninist party Founded in 1968 to take the place

of the banned Communist Party of Germany

Remained on the political fringe and never won more than 0.3% of the total votes in federal elections

Had relatively larger support in the 1970s; managed to get at least 2.2% in elections Hamburg; at least 3.1% in elections in Bremen; at least 2.7% in Saarland

Entered a significant decline in the years following German reunification; as of 2008, membership is only some 4,000

Angela Merkel

Chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union and current Chancellor of Germany, the first woman to hold the office

Born on 17 July 1954 in Hamburg Also served as chairwoman of the

CDU-CSU parliamentary coalition from 2002 to 2005

Led a grand coalition with the Christian Social Union from 2005 to 2009

Was also President of the European Union in 2007 and chaired the G8 and played an important role in the negotiation of the Treaty of Lisbon and the Berlin Declaration

Horst Seehofer

Chairman of the Christian Social Union and current Minister-President of Bavaria

Born on 4 July 1949 in Ingolstadt Also was Federal Minister for

Health and Social Security from 1992 to 1998 and served as Federal Minister of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection in Angela Merkel’s cabinet from 2005 to 2008

Became the new chairman of CSU at a party convention on 25 October 2008 with 90% of the votes

Was elected Minister-President of Bavaria on 27 October by the Landtag with votes from the Free Democratic Party

Sigmar Gabriel

Chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany

Born on 12 September 1959 in Goslar

Previously served as Minister-President of Lower Saxony from 15 December 1999-4 March 2003

Became the SPD’s “Representative for Pop Culture and Pop Discourse” from 2003 to 2005 after being voted out of office

Was the Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety in Angela Merkel’s first cabinet

Philipp Rösler

Chairman of the Free Democratic Party and the current Federal Minister of Economics and Technology and Vice Chancellor of Germany

Born on 24 February 1973 in the former South Vietnam

Physician by profession; served as Minister for Economics and Deputy Prime Minister of Lower Saxony between February and October 2009

Also served as Federal Minister of Health in Angela Merkel’s second cabinet from 2009 to 2011

Is of Vietnamese origin and was adopted by a German couple when he was an infant

Gesine Lötzsch

President of The Left (jointly with Klaus Ernst)

Born on 7 August 1961 Was born in the former East

Germany and joined the Socialist Unity Party of Germany in 1984; was also a member of its successor parties- Party of Democratic Socialism (1990-2005) and The Left (from 2007)

Was elected to the Bundestag for the Party of Democratic Socialism in 2002

Has been criticized for suggesting former Stasi employees as members of parliaments and governments

Klaus Ernst

Co-chair of the Left (together with Gesine Lötzsch)

Born on 1 November 1954 in Munich

Has served as a member of The Left in the Bundestag since 2005

Became a member of the German Metalworkers’ Union in 1972; took the chair of regional trade unions youth organization in 1974 in Munich (until 1979), becoming a member of the SPD

Studied political economy at the University of Hamburg between 1979 and 1984

Claudia Roth

One of the two party chairs of Alliance ‘90/The Greens (together with Cem Özdemir)

Born on 15 May 1955 in Ulm Came into contact with the

Green Party on election campaign tours

Became press spokesperson for the Greens in the Bundestag in 1985, in spite of being a newcomer to this position

Elected for the first time as a Member of the European Parliament for the Greens in 1989

Cem Özdemir

Co-chairperson of Alliance ‘90/The Greens, along with Claudia Roth

Born on 21 December 1965 in Bad Urach

Was a Member of Parliament of the Bundestag for eight years (1994 to 2002) and of the European Parliament for five years (2004 to 2009)

Is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy

Is the son of a Circassian gastarbeiter family from Turkey; acquired German citizenship in 1983

Results of 2009 federal elections – Chart

Summary of 27 September 2009 election results

Christian Democratic Union: 32.0% Christian Social Union in Bavaria: 7.4% Social Democratic Party of Germany: 27.9% Free Democratic Party: 9.4% The Left: 11.1% Alliance ‘90/The Greens: 9.2% Pirate Party Germany: 0.1% National Democratic Party: 1.8% Human Environment Animal Welfare: 0.0% The Republicans: 0.1% Ecological Democratic Party: 0.2% Family Party: 0.0% Others: 0.7%

DAS ENDE (THE END)