"Bourgeois party" (German:bürgerliche Partei) or "bourgeois camp" (German:bürgerliche Lager) is a political term used in Europe, which can refer to aconservative or right-leaningliberal party, and is in contrast to the socialistic "left-wing camp" (German:linken Lager). The term is mainly used when the main left-leaning forces aresocial democrats andsocialists, and the main right-leaning forces against them are liberals and conservatives; it is rarely used when the main left-leaning forces include liberals.
In the political landscape of theGermanic language region, traditional bourgeois parties are as follows:
Germany:Christian Democratic Union of Germany,Christian Social Union in Bavaria,Free Democratic Party
Austria:Austrian People's Party,NEOS – The New Austria and Liberal Forum
Switzerland:FDP.The Liberals,Swiss People's Party,The CentreParties which adopted term in their name include:
Switzerland:Bourgeois Party of Switzerland (German:Bürgerlich-Demokratische Partei Schweiz)Austria:Bourgeois Democrats (German:Bürgerliche Demokraten)
Denmark:New Bourgeois (Danish:Nye Borgerlige),Bourgeois Alternative (Danish:Borgerligt Alternativ),Bourgeois Centre (Danish:Borgerligt Centrum)In theGerman-speaking media, conservative andright-liberal as well asliberal-conservative parties abroad are often referred to as "bourgeois parties" (bürgerliche Parteien).[1][2][3]
In the mid-1980s,Heiner Geißler, then secretary-general of the CDU, introduced the camp theory to theWest Germany. Within the newly formed four-party system, Geißler described the center-right partiesCDU/CSU, and FDP as the bourgeois camp, and the SPD andGreens as the "left-wing camp". In Germany, the opposite expression of "left-wing camp" is preferred as "Bourgeois party" rather than "right-wing camp" in order to excludefar-right politics from the mainstream right-leaning forces.[4][5] TheAlternative for Germany (AfD), a far-right political party founded in 2013, calls itself a "bourgeois [party]", which is criticized and generally unacceptable.[6][7]
