In Bavaria, Green Could Be King

Very soon, Germany’s prosperous beer and BMW belt could find itself under new management. In elections this weekend, the Christian Social Union (CSU), the sister party to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), is very likely to lose its long-held absolute majority in Bavaria.

It is hard to overstate how dramatic the shift will be. The CSU has been Bavaria’s dominant political force since Germany’s economic boom in the 1960s. And for most of that time, it has been able to rule without a coalition partner. But with a record number of parties on the ballot this year, the CSU and its traditional mainstream rival, the left-wing Social Democratic Party (SPD), have seen their supporters drift toward smaller rivals.