The Christian Democratic movement

The Christian Democratic movement


In many Western European countries, Conservatives and Christian Democrats no longer wanted to revive the traditional right-wing parties. The concept of Christian Democracy, born well before the Second World War, spread quickly, and the movement rose from the ashes of Nazism.


In France, the Popular Republican Movement (MRP), stemming from those Catholics who had fought in the resistance, took that position. It really was a new party. Robert Schuman, one of the most outstanding figures in the party, was elected MP for the Moselle department on a Christian Democratic platform.


In Belgium, Luxembourg and Italy, the Christian Democratic parties had their origins in the Catholic parties that had existed before the war. In Germany, the Right was crippled by the rout of National Socialism and by the political errors committed by the Catholic Party and the Conservatives before 1933. The right-wing regrouped to form a new multi-faith party: the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) under the leadership of Konrad Adenauer.

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