Bavaria vs. the unvaccinated

A seven-minute read

An English footballer once described the rules of his sport as follows: twenty two men kick a ball around for 90 minutes and in the end the Germans win. Tell this to a Bavarian though and he’d shake his head and say: “Eigentlich gewinnt immer der Bayern!”

And he wouldn’t be wrong. Bayern Munich winning the Bundesliga is just about as certain as death and taxes. Meanwhile when Germany won the World Cup in 2014, six of the starting eleven were Bayern players.

As in football, so in politics: In Bavaria a handful of parties campaign in state elections every five years - and when the votes are counted the Christian Social Union (CSU) always win.

Excluding a three-year blip in the 1950s, the conservative party has dominated Bavarian politics to an extent unparalleled in any other corner of Germany. Crushing victories are the norm: CSU leaders have lost their jobs for failing to win 50 percent of the vote.

The CSU are a peculiarity, they only exist in Bavaria and form a conservative alliance with the Christian Democrats (CDU) in the Bundestag. 

Like a nationalist party in provinces of Spain or the United Kingdom, their main electoral strategy is playing to local pride. According to the CSU narrative, the best beer, cars, footballers and mountains all have one thing in common - they’re found in Bavaria.