Ideology
Initially, the Republicans was a conservative party close to the CSU, with a moderate nationalist approach. As Schönhuber soon became leader of the party, it however radicalised and became increasingly nationalist. His positions included to abolish trade unions, reduce the welfare state, expel all foreigners and return to Germany's 1937 borders. The latter included campaigning for the unification of the then-existing West and East Germany, which helped boost the party's popularity in the late 1980s. The party also attacked the European Union as an infringement on German sovereignty following the enactment of the Maastricht Treaty. The ideology of the Republicans is mainly characterised by nationalism, although the party itself rejects such a label, instead regarding itself as "national" or "patriotic".
Read more about this topic: The Republicans (Germany)
Famous quotes containing the word ideology:
“Xenophobia looks like becoming the mass ideology of the 20th-century fin-de-siècle. What holds humanity together today is the denial of what the human race has in common.”
—Eric J. Hobsbawm (b. 1917)
“The ideology of this America wants to establish reassurance through Imitation. But profit defeats ideology, because the consumers want to be thrilled not only by the guarantee of the Good but also by the shudder of the Bad.”
—Umberto Eco (b. 1932)
“We must conclude that it is not only a particular political ideology that has failed, but the idea that men and women could ever define themselves in terms that exclude their spiritual needs.”
—Salman Rushdie (b. 1948)