Angela Merkel leads the Christliche Demokratische Union (Christian Democratic Union), aka CDU. The CDU is currently in coalition with the Christlich-Soziale Union (Christian Social Union), aka CSU; and the Freie Demokratische Partei (Free Democratic Party), aka FDP.

Social Democratic Party which is the oldest political party in Germany; the Christian Democratic Union; the Christian Social Party, which is the sister party of the CDU and is confined to Bavaria; the Greens; the far-rightist, The National Party; and the "new" Communist party of Germany.

The current chancellor of Germany in 2011 is Angela Merkel from the CDU (Christian Democratic Union) party.

Functionally, the Chancellor is elected by the Bundestag (parliament), and must receive a majority vote. While usually a member of the largest political party, it is not a requirement. The German Chancellor position it directly analogous to the English Prime Minister position.

At the time of German reunification on 3 October 1990, the CDU (Christian Democratic Union) led a conservative coalition government with their sister party, the CSU (Christian Social Union) and the FDP (Free Democratic Party). The CDU had 10 ministers, the CSU 6 ministers, and the FDP 4 ministers in a government that was led by Chancellor Helmut Kohl, CDU. Following reunification, another 5 ministers were appointed from East Germany and joined the cabinet as "ministers without portfolio". 3 ministers were from the CDU, 1 from the FDP and 1 from the DSU (German Social Union). This meant that following reunification, the make-up of the German government was 13 CDU ministers, 6 CSU ministers, 5 FDP ministers and 1 DSU minister

Modern Christian-Democratic Union was created in 1998.