CDU/CSU

CDU/CSU (Christlich Demokratische Union/Christlich-Soziale Union) is the centre-right alliance that forms Germany's governing bloc under Chancellor Friedrich Merz following the February 2026 federal elections. CDU operates across all German Laender except Bavaria, where CSU is the sister party. The alliance won the 2025 election on a platform of economic reform and energy security, and its Economy Ministry is driving the controversial 10 GW hydrogen-capable gas plant auction law that the Coalition's SPD junior partner threatened to block in April 2026.

Founded in 1945 as a post-war Christian democratic movement, CDU/CSU has governed Germany for most of the post-war period, including under Chancellors Adenauer, Kohl, and Merkel. Angela Merkel's 16-year chancellorship (2005-2021) shaped modern CDU policy including the controversial Energiewende (energy transition), the nuclear phase-out accelerated after Fukushima in 2011, and — latterly — deep entanglement with Russian gas via Nord Stream 2. Friedrich Merz leads CDU from its more economically liberal and fiscally conservative wing, and has made reversing Germany's industrial decline a central theme.

The CDU/CSU's energy agenda in 2026 is defined by two tensions: the need for new dispatchable gas capacity as a bridge fuel during the renewables buildout, and pressure from the supply crisis — Hormuz LNG disruption, the Russian gas ban, and Hammerfest maintenance — to accelerate both storage refill and alternative supply. The Coalition's capacity to pass the gas plant law without SPD defection tests Merz's ability to hold a Coalition that controls a narrow parliamentary majority.