A Conservative Party?

There's something strange going on in Berlin's grand coalition of the traditionally conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and left-leaning Social Democratic Party (SPD).

When milk prices recently rose, top politicians in the CDU was quick to demand increased subsidies for underprivileged families, while Labor Minister and SPD member Franz Müntefering warned against excessive social spending.

The apparent switch wasn't limited to milk, as the CDU has been having a difficult time defining a common party position on foreign and security policy matters.

CDU experts, including foreign policy spokesman Eckart von Klaeden, insisted on restricting the German military's involvement to Afghanistan's relatively safe northern region at the same time SPD defense expert Rainer Arnold said he didn't exclude the possibility of sending military trainers to southern Afghanistan, where the danger is significantly higher.

Reform pressure evaporates

An economic upswing at home and unexpectedly high tax revenues seem to have put the brakes on domestic reform pressure. Halfway through her four-year term, Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is also head of the CDU, was able to conclude that the government's leadership was operating as she "had imagined it."

With the statement, Merkel signaled that she would attempt to stay in power by maintaining her sober, compensatory leadership style.

Indeed, public opinion seems to attribute the country's recent successes to the grand coalition and the chancellor, while more unpopular decisions -- like raising the retirement age by two years to 67 -- are ascribed to SPD ministers.

CDU rethinks its plan

Aside from the restrictions that accompany sharing power with the party it has bitterly fought for decades, the CDU's reorientation is a consequence of its 35 percent victory in the 2005 national elections. From this near defeat, the Union's leaders quickly realized that they wouldn't find support for the radical market-reform plans they'd agreed on at the party convention in Leipzig that year.

Party leaders began altering their course and heading toward a more state-heavy, socially oriented democracy.

Today, the CDU comes across as being less ideological and closer to the people than the SPD, which is still going through a process of self-discovery following former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's "Agenda 2010" of labor market and social reforms.

Shaping its party profile

For critics within the conservative camp, however, Merkel has ruined her party's core conservative profile and become a servant of Berlin's center-left.

Amidst continual discussions over the new party platform, leading Union politicians have warned their fellow party members of a loss of conservative values. In their view, the middle-class vote cannot be won without a conservative party profile.

But the CDU's search for an accent to its own profile within the grand coalition is a sensitive topic. If party leaders tried to take a path that diverged from that of the governing coalition, they would open the door to doubts about their credibility and competence.

The long, smoldering struggle between the conservatives and the free-market liberal FDP on the one side and the left-leaning members of the CDU on the other is likely to intensify during continued platform debates. But finding the right balancing act between the two poles has become a hallmark for the CDU and a key reason behind its success.

If Merkel and Co. aren't able to find a binding consensus it will increase the possibility of a clearly left-leaning administration taking over in Germany the next time voters go to the polls in national elections.