The Munich CSU stood out from its parent party in two respects in the state elections on Sunday: Firstly, contrary to the Bavaria-wide trend, the Christian Socialists in the state capital increased their number of votes compared to 2018, by 3.7 percentage points to now 28.5 percent . And on the other hand, at least some participants at the meeting of their district executive committee on Monday evening came to the conclusion that a coalition with the Greens is certainly a prospect – at least in the local city council.
“The decline of the SPD is obviously permanent,” said Hans Theiss, for example, when analyzing the election results. The deputy parliamentary group leader of the CSU/Free Voters in the city council drew the conclusion: “If black-green is the only two-party alliance that is mathematically possible in Munich in the medium term, this option will be looked at more intensively politically with a view to the local elections in 2026 must.” And parliamentary group leader Manuel Pretzl confirmed: “In Munich there is no apodictic rejection of an alliance with the Greens.” Completely in contrast to the attitude of CSU chairman Markus Söder.
In this case, Pretzl prefers to stick with his party colleague Josef Schmid, the former mayor and current member of the state parliament, who once said: “Democratic parties should be able to form coalitions with each other.” Joint government work with the Greens represents a “very big challenge,” as Pretzl admitted, given the number of very different political positions. His Munich party leader Georg Eisenreich goes even further. He couldn’t see any trend at the board meeting and there was no decision, he says. In terms of content, the two major parties in Munich are “far, far apart”. One should not look at the situation “in purely arithmetical terms”.
But fundamentally, parts of the Munich CSU point out that a distinction must be made between the electorate in the city and in the countryside: for Munich CSU voters, the prospect of cooperation with the Greens is probably not as daunting as it is for Christian Social supporters in the rural regions, it is said. And given the fact that the Munich Greens, on an apparently stable base of voters, have survived the headwind that was blowing against them because of the traffic light government in Berlin, the CSU will probably have to live with its political rival in the long term.
The result at least means some recovery
Overall, there was a very relaxed atmosphere at the meeting of the Munich CSU district executive committee on Monday evening, according to participants. In fact, you can easily imagine how they patted each other and especially their city boss Georg Eisenreich on the shoulders in the face of a state election campaign that, from their point of view, ended quite successfully. The growth of the Munich Christian Socialists did not yet return to the level of the 2013 state elections (36.7 percent), when they were faced with the popular Munich mayor Christian Ude as the SPD’s top candidate. But after the crash of five years ago, the result at least represents some recovery.
Above all, no other party in the state capital has gained a similar amount compared to 2018, not even the AfD, which has emerged powerfully in the Free State (in Munich only 7.1 percent, an increase of 0.7 percentage points) or the Free Voters (6.9 /plus 0.8). And the CSU candidates once again won the most direct mandates in the city, five out of nine. In this respect, the Munich CSU may not have been the big winner in this state election, but a positive outcome is definitely justified.
“Great team performance”
Manuel Pretzl, who also serves as deputy district chairman, attributed the positive election result to “the fact that we presented ourselves as a reliable partner with a bourgeois-liberal policy.” In this context, party colleague Theiss praised the unity that the party had shown this year. “It used to be different,” he recalled and summarized: “The CSU’s strong gain in Munich is the result of a great team performance, which we owe above all to our chairman Georg Eisenreich.” Bavaria’s incumbent Minister of Justice laid a thematic framework across all constituencies in the state capital and thus ensured a uniform impression.
In Munich they certainly stayed away from populist criticism of the government traffic light policy in Berlin. “We set our own topics, and they worked,” summarized Pretzl: Affordability and security of life in Munich were the focus; “Reason instead of ideology” was perhaps the most controversial slogan. The Munich CSU is “consciously pursuing a civil, serious, metropolitan policy,” explained Pretzl, citing as an example the reluctance to address the issue of accommodation for refugees. The Munich Christian Socialists did not run a populist campaign, but rather tried to deal with the issue responsibly.