At the federal level, it forms a common ' CDU / CSU ' faction in the Bundestag with the CDU, which is frequently referred to as the Union Faction ( die Unionsfraktion ).

He ran for Federal Chancellor in 2002, but his preferred CDU / CSU and FDP coalition lost against the SPD candidate Gerhard Schröder's SPD-Green alliance.

Even after the 2009 general election, the CDU / CSU emerged as the largest party in Germany, yet both lost votes predominantly to the FDP.

While virtually independent, at the federal level, the parties form a common CDU / CSU fraction.

No Chancellor has ever come from the CSU, although Franz Josef Strauss and Edmund Stoiber were CDU / CSU candidates for Chancellor in the 1980 election and the 2002 election, respectively, which were both won by the SPD.

In Germany, for instance, coalition government is the norm, as it is rare for either the Christian-Democratic Union of Germany and Christian Social Union in Bavaria ( CDU / CSU ) or the Social Democratic Party of Germany ( SPD ) to win an unqualified majority in a national election.

For example, Helmut Kohl's CDU governed for years in coalition with the Free Democratic Party ( FDP ), from 1998 to 2005 Gerhard Schröder's SPD was in power with the Greens and from 2009 Angela Merkel, CDU / CSU was in power with the FDP.

This was the situation in Germany in 2005 when Angela Merkel became Chancellor: in early elections, the CDU / CSU did not garner enough votes to form a majority coalition with the FDP ; similarly the SPD and Greens did not have enough votes to continue on with their formerly ruling coalition.

A grand coalition government was subsequently forged between the CDU / CSU and the SPD.

The CDU / CSU ended up holding the Chancellory while the SPD took the majority of cabinet posts.

In 2002, Stoiber politically outmaneuvered CDU chairwoman, Angela Merkel, and was elected the CDU / CSU's candidate for the office of chancellor, challenging Gerhard Schröder.

In the run up to the 2002 election the CSU / CDU held a huge lead in the opinion polls and Stoiber famously remarked that "... this election is like a football match where it's the second half and my team is ahead by 2 – 0.

The SPD had mounted a huge comeback, and the CDU / CSU was narrowly defeated ( though both the SPD and CDU / CSU had 38. 5 % of the vote, the SPD was ahead by a small 6, 000 vote margin ).

He was accused by many in the CDU / CSU of offering " half-hearted " support to Angela Merkel, with some even accusing him of being reluctant to support a female candidate from the East.

It has been in federal government longer than any other party, as the junior coalition partner to either the CDU / CSU ( 1949 – 56, 1961 – 66, 1982 – 98, and since 2009 ) or the Social Democratic Party ( 1969 – 82 ).

It is believed that this was partly due to tactical voting by CDU and Christian Social Union of Bavaria ( CSU ) alliance supporters who hoped for stronger market-oriented economic reforms than the CDU / CSU alliance called for.

However, because the CDU did worse than predicted, the FDP and the CDU / CSU alliance were unable to form a coalition government.

It is organised since 1977 by the Junge Union, the youth branch of Germany's two main conservative political parties, the CDU and CSU, and attracts all age groups from Abensberg and surrounding areas.

The CSU currently governs at the federal level with the CDU and the liberal Free Democratic Party ( FDP ).

The CSU operates only within Bavaria, and the CDU operates in all other states, but not Bavaria.

Since its formation, the CSU has been more conservative than the CDU.

In Germany, the coalitions rarely consist of more than two parties ( where CDU and CSU, two non-competing parties which always form a single caucus, are in this regard considered a single party ).

While the conservative wing of the German political spectrum, primarily formed of the CDU and CSU, enjoys considerable support, this support tends to be less extended to Stoiber.

At other times, for example after the 2002 federal election, a coalition between the FDP and CDU / CSU was impossible primarily because of the weak results of the FDP.

Therefore, the FDP wasn't able to form a coalition with its preferred partners, the CDU / CSU parties.

Instead, the CDU formed a Grand coalition with the SPD, and the FDP entered the opposition.

The Christian Democrats lost votes compared to 2002, reaching only 35. 2 %, and failed to get a majority for a " black-yellow " government of CDU / CSU and liberal FDP.

' ( Strong applause from CDU / DA, DSU, FDP, partly SPD and the deputies standing up in their seats.

After negotiations, the Saarland Greens rejected the option of a left-wing ' red-red-green ' coalition with the SPD and The Left ( Die Linke ) in order to form a centre-right state government with the CDU and Free Democratic Party ( FDP ), a historical first time that a Jamaica coalition has formed in German politics.

In June 2010, in the first state election following the victory of the CDU / CSU and FDP in the 2009 federal election, the " black-yellow " CDU-FDP coalition in North Rhine-Westphalia under Jürgen Rüttgers lost its majority.

As a consequence, the FDP switched allegiance to the CDU and Schmidt lost his parliamentary majority in 1982.

After failing to keep their majority in the general election 36 days after the wall went up, the CDU / CSU again needed to include the FDP in a coalition government.

After the election of 1969, the SPD preferred to form a coalition with the FDP, ending the uninterrupted post-war reign of the CDU chancellors.

The FDP began talks with the CDU / CSU to form a new government.

On 1 October 1982, the CDU proposed a constructive vote of no confidence which was supported by the FDP.

The CDU / CSU won 48. 8 %, while the FDP won 7. 0 %.

Merkel and Bundestag President Norbert Lammert have been keen to clarify that CDU references to the " dominant culture " imply " tolerance and living together ".

Although Schumacher's SPD won the most seats of any single party in the election ( though the CDU and its sister party, the CSU, together won more seats ), the CDU was able to form a coalition government with the Free Democratic Party, the Christian Social Union, and the German Party, and Adenauer was voted Chancellor.

The delegates of the Christian Democratic Union ( CDU ) already formed a united faction with their Christian Social ( CSU ) colleagues from Bavaria, as did the liberal Free Democratic Party ( FDP ) together with the Hessian Liberal-Democratic Party and the Democratic People's Party ( DVP ) from Württemberg-Baden and Württemberg-Hohenzollern.

In the same year he was elected co-chairman of the East German CDU ( together with Ernst Lemmer ).

The CDU and FDP work together and between them have a three-vote majority in local government.

Oettinger together with Warthausen's former mayor Cai-Ullrich Fark at a CDU rally in Biberach / Riss in September 2009