[Frantzie]

BMW, Porsche, Mercedes, Audi and other auto workers are proud of their work and cars. They are union but not filthy gangster blood suckers like the UAW.

[Clemenza]

They are union but not filthy gangster blood suckers like the UAW.But, sadly, loyal to the SPD to a man.

[Nikas777]

In the USA the Unions turned to the Mafia for help against the Corporates hiring union busting thugs/Pinkertons because we had in this country a hands off approach by the govyt to these disputes (though sometimes the govt sided with business and other times with unions).

In Germany, thanks to the Christian Democratic model the govt acts like a referee between unions and business owners to make sure they reach an equitable agreement. Also, Europe has the tradition of guilds to influence how a union should view itself and behave.

[SolidWood]

German unions are extremely powerful. They aren't as thuggish as US unions, but that's only because they are already so mainstream and entrenched in the political system.

the really conservative & pro-business party is the CSU or Christian Social Union

The Bavarian sister of the CDU, the CSU is socially more conservative than the CDU, but it is economically more leftist. Seehofer, their head, during this election positioned himself as pro-Welfare and "social" (as in the CSU name) and attacked repeatedly the FDP as "heartless".

The FDP clearly is the only real pro-capitalist party. Too bad it is socially liberal.

The nice thing about Germany is they do not have a Muslim running the country.

But they can "pride" themselves to have the first openly homosexual foreign minister and vice-chancellor.