the Christian conservative party (CDU) applies the principles of
Christian democracy and emphasizes the "Christian understanding of humans and their responsibility toward God". However, CDU membership consists of people adhering to a variety of religions as well as non-religious individuals. The CDU's policies derive from
political Catholicism,
Catholic social teaching and political
Protestantism as well as
economic liberalism and
national conservatism. The party has adopted more
liberal economic policies since
Helmut Kohl's term in office as the Chancellor of Germany (1982–1998).
As a
conservative party, the CDU supports stronger punishments of crimes and involvement on the part of the
Bundeswehr in cases of domestic
anti-terrorism offensives. In terms of immigrants, the CDU supports initiatives to integrate immigrants through language courses and aims to further control immigration.
Dual citizenship should only be allowed in exceptional cases.
In terms of
foreign policy, the CDU commits itself to
European integration and a strong
relation with the United States. In the
European Union, the party opposes the entry of Turkey, preferring instead a privileged partnership. In addition to citing various human rights violations, the CDU also believes that Turkey's unwillingness to recognise
Cyprus as an independent sovereign state contradicts the European Union policy that its members must recognise the existence of one another.
The CDU has governed in four federal-level and numerous state-level
Grand Coalitions with the
Social Democratic Party (SPD) as well as in state and local-level coalitions with the
Alliance 90/The Greens. The CDU has an official party congress adjudication that prohibits coalitions and any sort of cooperation with either
The Left or the
Alternative for Germany.
[57]
CDU
officially prohibits any cooperation with the AfD, but does not clearly define what that means. In the
eastern federal states, however, there is ongoing tolerance or cooperation of CDU at the local and district level with the right-wing radical AfD.
[58][59][60] CDU-head Friedrich Merz polarizes with political approaches to the AfD and called the CDU in 2023 one «Alternative with substance».
[61] Political observers from abroad say that the CDU's boundaries to the far-right are eroding.
[62][63]
2
2
1
