Under Söder, CSU gained just as many votes as the polls predicted, however the 51-year-old conservative politician will go into the history books as the person responsible for the end of a seemingly ageless domination of his party in Bavaria. If he finds a solution for how to govern further, it predicts a fundamental change in behavior towards the political opponents of the Christian Socialists.
While the support of CSU fell nearly 10 percentiles to 37.2, no other German party is able to secure at least 35 percent of the total votes except the Social Democrats in Hamburg and CDU in Saarland and Schleswig-Holstein, the homelands of their leaders. CSU in Bavaria will still gather a significiant number of voters in a constantly changing political system but it became the target of criticism from the side of alternative parties.
The Greens secured nearly 18 percent of all votes, the liberals and the AfD were convincing every fifth voter. The untraditional political conceptions and parties are not marginal anymore. While Bavaria was able to create a prosperous society with a vision for the future, the traditional parties such as CSU and SPD will be unable to challenge the fundamental changes of political culture. Horst Seehoffer wishes for a stable government in Bavaria. The issue is if he thought about a government, which could be created comfortably. If so, in Munich a red-black coalition could emerge, or a new cooperation with the Greens.
