Germany’s Christian Democrats are unsure whom to hug
The centre-right is wary of teaming up with the far right
This should be a happy time for German conservatives. True, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the venerable right-of-centre party, has been out of power since Angela Merkel ended her 16-year reign as chancellor in 2021. But in just two years the ruling coalition, led by the left-of-centre Social Democrats (SPD), has withered in opinion polls (see chart). The three parties in government can now jointly muster barely 35%. The CDU and its Bavarian sister party by themselves command around 30%, a respectable rise from the 24% that they actually scored in the 2021 vote.
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This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Which way to turn?”
From the November 11th 2023 edition
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