Oops Merkel suffers a serious setback

[malaise]

http://www.forbes.com/afxnewslimited/feeds/afx/2008/09/28/afx5480340.html

<snip>
German conservatives in the southern state of Bavaria suffered heavy losses in a regional vote on Sunday, dealing a blow to Chancellor Angela Merkel ahead of a 2009 federal election.

Here are some possible implications of the result for Germany, Europe's biggest economy:

IMPACT ON MERKEL

* The result raises fears that support for the Christian Social Union (CSU) will fall in a Sept. 2009 federal election, especially as the CSU tends to perform worse in national elections than in state votes.

[livelongandprosper]

1. Merkel is CDU not CSU.

Funny that he needs those nutjobs because she is not one of them

[malaise]

2. You didn't read the link

She needs CSU
Without strong CSU support, Merkel and her Christian Democrats (CDU) will find it harder to beat their main rivals, the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), and form a ruling majority with her preferred coalition partners, the liberal Free Democrats (FDP). The result thus raises the chances of another loveless 'grand coalition' of CDU/CSU and SPD after next year's vote.

[happyslug]

3. CDU has almost no support in Bavaria, that is CSU territory

The rest of Germany is CDU, but not Bavaria:

More on the CDU:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Democratic_Union_(Germany)

More on the CSU:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Social_Union_of_Bavaria

While the article point out the post-WWII difference between the parties, one important factor is Bavaria was technically an Independent "nation" till 1918 when WWI ended. The Bavarian Army was technically a different army with different uniforms then the rest of the Germany army prior to 1919 (Hitler technically joined the Bavarian Army with the permission of the King of Bavaria rather then serve in his native Austrian Army, notice the King of Bavaria had to give him permission to serve NOT the Kaiser, who had that right in the rest of Germany). Bavaria never liked losing what was left of its independence in 1918, but was a strong base for Nazi support prior to WWII. Thus the tendency to be different, if possible, from the rest of Germany. In many ways Bavaria had been closer to Austria then Prussia before Unification in 1866 and retains those connections.

More on the Bavarian Army:
http://home.att.net/~david.danner/militaria/bavaria.htm
Global Security site on the Bavarian Army, but ignores anything post 1870:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/europe/de-kaiserliche-heer-bavaria.htm

More on Bavaria itself, even keeping a separate
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bavaria

The Bavarian Independence party (yes one exists, but most active in the 1950s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bavaria_Party