Election-day in Bavaria

Last weekend the bavarians voted a new state- and substate-government. And it was a catastrophe for the "CSU", the most powerful party in bavaria, which had the sole majority (above 50%) for over 30 years now. It was something unique in Germany, only in bavaria was it possible to have that. It probably even another thing that bavarians liked to have to distinguish themselves and to be special.

But this time, the voters smacked the CSU in the face by letting them drop drastically, to 43%. While this still might seem like alot, it's horrible for the party as a result in bavaria, also meaning that they will loose their sovereignty and will need a coalition partner to continue ruling bavaria - something they always were able to do by themselves before.

But not this time. No matter the reasons, the voters clearly stated that they want change. And there are first results: the head of the Party and the prime minister of bavaria resigned (even though he struggled a bit at first to actually do it but the pressure must've gotten too much).

So now it's in the news here everywhere. And everyone is analysing the reasons for this. While I'm no expert in politics at all, I have my own theory what might've played its part in this... from what I could see before, the majority of the CSU-voters are older, proud bavarians (ok, most of them are proud to be bavarians - like me to be honest) with foundations and roots in the country. The bavarian is said to be conservative and even stubborn, which is probably also true for most older inhabitants. They always voted CSU and they always will, or their fathers always voted CSU, so that's what they did too. But there are new generations of bavarians growing up, one that lives in the present and is less entangled in the strict rules and fixed structures of the past. One that has different needs and priorities than then ones before - and in my eyes the CSU is either too stubborn - like it's voter base - or too old and stiff and conservative to appeal the young voters. Yes, bavaria has always been ontop in comparison of the german states, may it be in school rankings, low crime rate, economy. And that surely was also a success of the CSU, but I think they've gone too far. Many young voters that I know from my surrounding are more liberal, like me. They want freedom more than security. They all have computers, they are everything else than conservative and religious. And so I'm not surprised that the liberal party "FDP", the "free voters" and the greens gained most during this election.

The conservatives' attempts to spy on ppls comps and their homes without jurisdictional allowance, just to "keep them safe and protect against terrorists", that's just not how you get the young voters to vote for you! One poster that the liberals used during their campaign sums this all up and actually perfectly catches what I think is one reason the CSU dropped that badly:

The liberals mainly based their campaign on one statement: "the biggest contrast to black" (black being the color of the conservative party CSU. And their success proves em right. It showed the big conservative party one thing: the voters don't approve. They want change, and they already got some now... and I bet there will be more coming when the conservatives have to team up with a more liberal party to form the new government. The liberals already announced they will first get rid of decisions like "government trojans used on computers of potential suspects". That's a step in the right direction in my eyes...

On a side note: The "mass data mining" bill was passed on the 9th of November 2007 by the CDU/CSU and SPD, opposing parties were the FDP, Greens and the Left Party. Now guess who lost most votes and who gained most?