# With which German party would you identfiy with? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 22, 2015, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-which-german-party-would-you-identfiy-with/723105 "2015-06-22T00:02:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MaverocK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@MaverocK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaverocK)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-which-german-party-would-you-identfiy-with/723105/1 "2015-06-22T00:02:36Z")
I am not very familiar with the US politics despite reading relatively much about it. I currently live in Germany as a student pursuing academic degree and I am relatively good at guessing what kind of people vote for which party. I also think there is a somewhat strong relationship with a individual’s personality and the political party he/she identifies with, but this is another story. 🙂 If you translate your political views in the Germany’s political context, which party would be likely to represent your ideas/views/perspective/whatever? Don’t restrict yourself with my question. Tell us what you think, Liberals equivalent, for example, would be. Think in terms of mathematics, Liberals is a set and there are lots of subsets in this set so go ahead and guess the equivalents of these subsets as well. 😛 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-which-german-party-would-you-identfiy-with/723105/2 "2015-06-22T01:02:38Z")
I’ll do that as soon as you give us a comprehensive list of Germany’s relevant political parties and what they stand for, and what they oppose. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-which-german-party-would-you-identfiy-with/723105/3 "2015-06-22T01:22:41Z")
Considering my views are broadly speaking New Deal liberalism/old-school social democracy and liberal internationalism, I’d probably be on the left of the Social Democratic Party in Germany although opposed to multicultural tendencies. I personally like the Christian Democrats though since they helped establish the social market economy in Germany and have become less neoliberal compared to most other centre-right parties in the West. Even now, Merkel hasn’t been too bad on a domestic level, but in Eurozone policy… The Greens are out since they completely embrace the worst multiculturalist, anti-science, and hipster tendencies of the modern left (as well as briefly advocating for pedophilia legalization) while Die Linke is permeated with communist apologists. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-which-german-party-would-you-identfiy-with/723105/4 "2015-06-22T01:25:33Z")
Oktoberfest! ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-which-german-party-would-you-identfiy-with/723105/5 "2015-06-22T01:43:45Z")
> **[List of political parties in Germany](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_Germany#The_parties)** > > This article lists political parties in Germany. > The Federal Republic of Germany has a plural multi party system. The largest by members and parliament seats are the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), with its sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU) and Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). > Germany also has a number of other parties, in recent history most importantly the Free Democratic Party (FDP), Alliance 90/The Greens, The Left, and more recently the Alternative for Germany (AfD)... Social democratic party. However wikipedia says they are ‘center left’ by German standards. By US standards they are hard left. I have no idea what the CDU would equate to in the US. ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-which-german-party-would-you-identfiy-with/723105/6 "2015-06-22T02:44:52Z")
SPD ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-which-german-party-would-you-identfiy-with/723105/7 "2015-06-22T02:50:22Z")
Which ones want to beat the Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons to death with a rock? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-which-german-party-would-you-identfiy-with/723105/8 "2015-06-22T09:56:26Z")
I fall somewhere between Alliance 90/Green Party and The Left, but I’d more likely vote for the former. And **Qin** , c’mon, the paedo thing was one small vocal sub-faction, in the 80s. It has nothing to do with the current A90/GP. Hell, were you even _born_ then? And anti-science? You mean anti-nuclear-power? While that’s not my personal stance, I give any people who were downwind of Chernobyl some leeway in their thinking. Especially when they can back it up with the incredible rate of renewable generation Germany boasts of. I’ll grant the multiculturalism, but why do you say it like it’s a bad thing? And _hipsterism_? Have you _seen_ the Green leadership? They look like members of a PTA, not the crowd at Coachella. ---
**Author:** ![Uniqueorn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uniqueorn/32/2807_2.png) [@Uniqueorn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uniqueorn)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-which-german-party-would-you-identfiy-with/723105/9 "2015-06-22T14:47:57Z")
I tend to vote Green, but have to admit that the two smartest politicians of this generation (in my opinion) are in the Left party (Wagenknecht and Gysi) and might deserve my vote in future. ---
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-which-german-party-would-you-identfiy-with/723105/10 "2015-06-22T17:36:36Z")
[Free Democratic Party](Free Democratic Party (Germany)) is the best fit for me and in the US I am a Republican. The wiki focuses almost entirely on EU related issues in foreign policy so there’s still significant questions in my mind there. Generally I like the slogan, “As much government as necessary, as little government as possible” and I am classically liberal like they are. ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-which-german-party-would-you-identfiy-with/723105/11 "2015-06-22T18:03:59Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Social democratic party. However wikipedia says they are ‘center left’ by German standards. **By US standards they are hard left.** I have no idea what the CDU would equate to in the US. (bolding mine) This is correct. The CDU (Christian Democratic Union) is usually described as “center-right” for international audiences. In comparison to the political scene in the United States, that’s certainly a misnomer. IMHO, mainstream and even progressive Democrats from the US would feel absolutely comfortable in the German CDU. The conservative wing of the CDU disappeared - roughly - when Helmut Kohl stepped down as party chairman in 1998. There are - isolated- conservative holdouts, especially in some rural regions in the German states of Hesse, Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony as well as some individual politicians (for instance [Erika Steinbach](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erika_Steinbach)) and of course the Christian Social Union in Bavaria. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-which-german-party-would-you-identfiy-with/723105/12 "2015-06-22T19:20:45Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > I have no idea what the CDU would equate to in the US. I’d equate them to the Liberal wing of the Republican party (which admittedly has grown pretty small in recent years). Think New York Republicans like Michael Bloomberg, George Pataki, Nelson Rockefeller, and Jacob Javits. I’d probably be CDU if I was German. ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-which-german-party-would-you-identfiy-with/723105/13 "2015-06-22T20:19:42Z")
BTW, don’t be fooled by the designation **Christian** in **Christian** Democratic Union (CDU). This is merely a historical relict. The party is open to adherents of all religions. The majority of the membership is to a fairly large extent as secular and agnostic as the rest of the country, although I’m not aware of any militant atheists in the CDU, as opposed to the Green party or the “Left” (i. e. the communists). Traditionally, if you are fiscally conservative, but don’t believe in God (implying that the Christian Democrats aren’t really your cup of tea), you would join the Free Democrats (FDP). ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-which-german-party-would-you-identfiy-with/723105/14 "2015-06-22T22:18:15Z")
> [@Donnerwetter](#): > > BTW, don’t be fooled by the designation **Christian** in **Christian** Democratic Union (CDU). This is merely a historical relict. The party is open to adherents of all religions. My understanding is that it dates back to a pre-war period when voters of like ideology were divided into a southern Catholic party and a northern Protestant party. So people seeking to create a united national party appealed to the voters’ common Christianity. ---
**Author:** ![ctnguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@ctnguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ctnguy)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2015, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-which-german-party-would-you-identfiy-with/723105/15 "2015-06-23T01:29:23Z")
I think probably FDP? I’m a [social liberal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_liberalism) - not in the sense of “being liberal on social issues” (though I am that as well) - but in the sense described at the link. I support civil and political liberty, and also a market economy. But I also think that the government must play a role to ensure access to healthcare, education and other social services. Would the FDP be the closest party to my views? The party I vote for here in South Africa, the Democratic Alliance, has some kind of affiliation with the FDP through Liberal International. ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2015, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-which-german-party-would-you-identfiy-with/723105/16 "2015-06-23T07:42:26Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > My understanding is that it dates back to a pre-war period when voters of like ideology were divided into a southern Catholic party and a northern Protestant party. So people seeking to create a united national party appealed to the voters’ common Christianity. Yes, that is correct. The main predecessor of the CDU, the [Centre Party](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centre_Party_(Germany)), was a distinctly Catholic Party that was founded in the 19th century to protect Catholic interests against the anti-Catholics politics of the government led by Otto von Bismarck (→ [Kulturkampf - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kulturkampf) ). During the Weimar Republic, it was one of the parties that unequivocally stood by the democratic system. However, it was still a Catholic party and thus not attractive to Protestant voters. After the end of the Third Reich, the consensus was that all Christian minded politicians and voters, Catholics and Protestants alike, should unite in one party (hence Christian Democratic Union). Confessional politics played a role until the late 1950s, maybe early 1960s. Today, as I stated earlier, the CDU is as secular as anybody else. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2015, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-which-german-party-would-you-identfiy-with/723105/17 "2015-06-23T10:43:26Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > I fall somewhere between Alliance 90/Green Party and The Left, but I’d more likely vote for the former. And **Qin** , c’mon, the paedo thing was one small vocal sub-faction, in the 80s. It has nothing to do with the current A90/GP. Hell, were you even _born_ then? [/QUOTE] According to this article ([http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/past-pedophile-links-haunt-german-green-party-a-899544.html](http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/past-pedophile-links-haunt-german-green-party-a-899544.html)), it had the effective tolerance of the main party organization: > [@](#): > > The 1986 image was printed in the newsletter of the Green Party’s national working group on “Gays, Pederasts and Transsexuals,” abbreviated as “BAG SchwuP.” It wasn’t just sent to a few scattered party members, but was addressed to Green Party members of the German parliament, as well as the party’s headquarters in Bonn. I was still divided into egg and sperm in those heady days, but the late '80s aren’t ancient history either-millions from those days are still alive and certainly make up the overwhelming majority of people who are in some seat of power and influence. > [@](#): > > And anti-science? You mean anti-nuclear-power? While that’s not my personal stance, I give any people who were downwind of Chernobyl some leeway in their thinking. Especially when they can back it up with the incredible rate of renewable generation Germany boasts of. Considering Japan’s moving full steam ahead with nuclear power plants despite Fukushima and that Ukraine upgraded and expanded its nuclear capacity after 1986 , it doesn’t provide much of a excuse for a country less affected. > [@](#): > > I’ll grant the multiculturalism, but why do you say it like it’s a bad thing? And _hipsterism_? Have you _seen_ the Green leadership? They look like members of a PTA, not the crowd at Coachella. I’m certainly not against foreign immigration and Germany’s policy in accepting refugees from many parts of the globe is certainly commendable, but European societies are less accustomed (compared to America or Canada) with assimilating large immigrant populations and large unassimilated populations tend to become pockets of poverty, crime, and radicalism on the one hand while encouraging nativist political movements on the other. For better or worse, political studies do indicate that there’s less support for social welfare legislation when the perceived benefactors are the “Other”-hence why the more racially diverse United States has been tardy in developing one compared to more homogeneous Europe. As for the hipster crowd, the “Don’t Trust Anyone Over Thirty” rule is long dead-to the modern college students of today, the veterans of the '60s be they feminist professors, “progressive” politicians, or rock stars are sages and philosophers. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2015, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-which-german-party-would-you-identfiy-with/723105/18 "2015-06-23T10:45:08Z")
> [@ctnguy](#): > > I think probably FDP? I’m a [social liberal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_liberalism) - not in the sense of “being liberal on social issues” (though I am that as well) - but in the sense described at the link. I support civil and political liberty, and also a market economy. But I also think that the government must play a role to ensure access to healthcare, education and other social services. Would the FDP be the closest party to my views? The party I vote for here in South Africa, the Democratic Alliance, has some kind of affiliation with the FDP through Liberal International. The FDP used to be an actual social liberal party, but these days it seems to be basically a generic neoliberal party and additionally got wiped out in the last election. Quite frankly the more moderate elements of the SPD are basically social liberal these days. ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2015, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-which-german-party-would-you-identfiy-with/723105/19 "2015-06-23T13:28:52Z")
In Germany, everything and everybody has to be “social”. It says so [in the constitution](http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_gg/englisch_gg.html) where the word “social” is mentioned no less than 17 times. Social courts (in which you can sue the government if you feel you deserve to be paid more money by a government agency) are a separate branch of the judiciary. There even is a [Federal Social Court](http://www.bsg.bund.de/EN/Home/home_node.html). The FDP traditionally has two major factions: A fiscally conservative, pro-business faction (i. e. anti-social, heartless, unscrupulous, profit-grinding sweatshop owners and rack-renting landlords) and a civil-rights faction (i. e. bleeding-heart liberals, anti-police, soft on crime and terrorism). Before 1969, the FDP also had a conservative, nationalist faction (the FDP party chairman from 1960 to 1968, Erich Mende, used to wear the Knight’s Cross he was awarded in WWII at social functions (as can be seen in →[this picture](http://img.welt.de/img/geschichte/crop115695501/2469561185-ci16x9-w780-aoriginal-h438-l0/Erich-Mende-bei-Empfang-in-Bonn-1960.jpg)). ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2015, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-which-german-party-would-you-identfiy-with/723105/20 "2015-06-23T13:35:16Z")
Alternative for Germany. They seem to be the only ones who realize what a horrible idea the Euro was and is. I like what I read about the FDP so I would also be open to them. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-which-german-party-would-you-identfiy-with/723105.md?page=2)