The traditional winter retreat of the Christian Social Union (CSU) parliamentary group, which took place from 6 to 8 January 2026 at Seeon Abbey, marks a further authoritarian and militaristic shift to the right by Germany’s ruling class.
What was formulated there in internal policy papers, speeches and interviews goes far beyond party-political positioning. In Seeon, the CSU drafted a coherent programme of mass deportations, the expansion of the police state, social counterrevolution and the large-scale rearmament of the Bundeswehr. This is a programme that largely corresponds to that of the fascist Alternative for Germany (AfD) and is supported by the entire federal government, a coalition of the Christian Democrats (CDU) with their Bavarian sister party the CSU and Social Democrats (SPD).
The retreat was dominated by agitation against migrants and refugees and by a so-called “deportation offensive 2026.” In an internal position paper, the CSU calls for “scheduled flights to Afghanistan and especially to Syria,” a dedicated deportation terminal at Munich Airport, and the withdrawal of protected status for “most Syrians.” Although the new Islamist regime in Syria is using brutal violence against minorities, the CSU claims that the country is “under reconstruction,” meaning that there is “no longer any general reason for protection.” Party leader and Bavarian Minister-President Markus Söder threatened: “2026 is the year in which deportations to Afghanistan and Syria will take place.”
These announcements are accompanied by a massive expansion of repressive state powers. The CSU is demanding increased video surveillance in public spaces, harsher penalties for attacks on police officers and a stronger prioritisation of “internal security” within the state apparatus. Media reports quote CSU sources saying that this is to become the “second pillar” of policy alongside the economy and external security.
The political content is unmistakable: immigration is criminalised, social problems are ethnicised and the security apparatus is deliberately strengthened in order to suppress growing social resistance.
This course represents an open adoption of the AfD’s programme. Demands that only a few years ago were regarded as defining features of the fascists are now being advanced by a governing party and are to be implemented immediately. Refugees are turned into scapegoats for a deep economic and social crisis, while police, intelligence services and surveillance agencies are massively strengthened.
At the same time in Seeon, the CSU announced a comprehensive “general overhaul of the welfare state.” In economic policy terms, it is calling for the corporate tax reform already agreed for 2028 to be brought forward to 1 January 2026. Corporation tax is to be reduced step by step by a total of five percentage points. In a further position paper, “economy and growth” are defined as the “first pillar” of policy, and tax cuts in the interests of the super-rich are promoted as a central means of increasing “competitiveness.”
Söder formulated the social attack openly. He declared that a reform of the welfare state would “hurt a little.” Among other things, he cited further cuts in the healthcare system as an example. Measures under discussion include a reduction in the number of health insurance funds, tougher action against alleged “skiving” and stricter monitoring of sickness certificates. In addition, the CSU is calling for compulsory nationwide language tests at pre-school age—another expansion of state control that particularly affects working-class families and migrants.
The connection between social cuts and the authoritarian restructuring of the state is obvious. While companies and the wealthy are relieved of burdens, workers and the socially vulnerable are to bear the costs of the crisis. Disciplining, control and repression form the flip side of redistribution upwards.
The reactionary character of the Seeon resolutions is particularly evident in the military programme. In a paper entitled “Seeon26,” the CSU reaffirms the federal government’s goal of making the Bundeswehr the “strongest conventional army in Europe.” This is to be achieved “not only numerically, but also technologically.” Planned measures include the creation of a European arsenal of long-range precision weapons that—according to the paper’s wording—can “strike the enemy deep into the rear.”
Equally far-reaching is the plan to build a “genuine drone army” with at least 100,000 drones of all size classes, linked to AI systems and independent space-based capabilities. Added to this is the demand for a fully monitored, “transparent Baltic Sea,” which is to be controlled “without gaps,” including through underwater drones to protect pipelines and critical infrastructure. Even the Franco-German “Future Air Combat System” is to be pursued nationally, if necessary, should partner countries withdraw—preparing the ground for independent German rearmament.
These plans tie up enormous financial and industrial resources and make clear what is at stake: social cuts and tax handouts to corporations form the basis for historically unprecedented rearmament and preparations for war. This policy is directed quite explicitly above all against the nuclear power Russia.
The aggressive orientation of this policy was also underscored by the guests attending the retreat. With Finland’s Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen and Lithuania’s President Gitanas Nausėda, two leading representatives of NATO’s war offensive against Russia in Ukraine were present. Nausėda praised the permanent stationing of a German combat brigade in Lithuania from 2027, with German troops currently being prepared for permanent deployment directly on Russia’s border.
Valtonen is known for playing down Finland’s alliance with the Nazi regime during the Second World War. In a speech in London last year, she declared: “We Finns know Russia. Russia has land borders with 14 states. Only one of them remained an independent democracy during the Second World War and the Cold War: Finland.”
In reality, Finland secured its “independence” during the Second World War through support for the Holocaust and active participation in the Nazis’ war of annihilation against the Soviet Union. Under the pretext of “defence” against the Soviet Union, the Finnish government committed numerous historical crimes, including the formation of a Waffen-SS battalion that took part in war crimes during the German invasion of Soviet Ukraine.
Nor is the war in Ukraine today about “independence” or even the defence of “freedom” and “democracy.” As in the First and Second World Wars, it is about bringing all Eastern Europe under the control of a Europe led by Germany, ultimately subjugating Russia itself and securing its raw materials.
Significantly, Chancellor Friedrich Merz had for the first time floated the prospect of deploying German troops to Ukraine just two days before his appearance in Seeon, at a summit meeting in Paris. In his speech in Seeon, he fully endorsed the plans of the Bavarian sister party. His appearance made clear that the line of Söder’s CSU is the programme of the entire federal government—including the Social Democrats.
Particularly threatening was Söder’s demonstrative commitment to the United States. He declared that Germany’s security was “unthinkable without the USA,” especially regarding military and intelligence cooperation. This declaration came only days after the illegal attack by the United States on Venezuela and the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro—an illegal war of aggression that the World Socialist Web Site has sharply condemned. European governments, including the German government, responded with empty phrases about the importance of international law, but refused to clearly condemn the attack, instead welcoming the overthrow of Maduro.
At the same time, agents of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) shot dead the mother of three Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis. A statement by the Socialist Equality Party described this act as a political murder and as an expression of a rapidly developing police state, in which immigrants are declared fair game for state violence and all opposition is suppressed in order to secure the interests of a fabulously wealthy oligarchy.
By embracing the US military, intelligence services and security apparatus despite growing transatlantic tensions, Söder and the CSU support precisely these methods. At the same time, they provide the international model for their own deportation offensive, the expansion of the surveillance state, the militarisation of society and a global policy of aggressive war.
The CSU retreat in Seeon is therefore a grave warning to the working class. Germany’s ruling class is responding to the deepest crisis of capitalism since the 1930s with the same methods as its counterpart in the United States: war abroad, social cuts, agitation against refugees and the expansion of the police state at home. This course cannot be stopped by appeals to capitalist parties, all of which support it, but only through the building of an independent, international socialist movement against war, dictatorship and capitalism.