Wrestling in Lederhosen

Sorry, I couldn't resist that. The Bavarian CSU is in for a leadership contest.

Edmund Stoiber, premier of Bavaria since 1993 and CSU party chairman since 1999, announced last week he would step down from his positions at the end of September.

Those with an interest in such things will remember that he failed to beat the cardboard cutout Schroeder in a previous election.

But as the party has tried to pick up the wreckage and move on, it has experienced several new crashes. Two politicians vying for the chairmanship have created two opposing camps, formed various alliances and created the conditions for a possible split in the sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union.

It seems that previous vacancies, had been filled in a manner more in keeping with the Mexican PRI than a democratic European party.

But the CSU has always considered party unity to rank above all else -- and the only way to win at the polls. Down-and-dirty internal party rumbling, like that often seen amongst the more fractious Social Democrats or members of the Left Party, has been anathema up to now to the Bavarian conservatives.

As an uncouth Anglo Saxon, I cannot help but think, that this political culture is one of the biggest problems within the EU. Why go into politics if you do not care enough about something to fight for it?

Punch and Judy politics may be out of favour with certain politicians in our fair isles as well at present. I for one however, believe that it is far superior to the alternative consensus politics we see in so much of Europe. Where politicians do deals, and the electorate gets shafted. I am therefore happy to see CSU politicians getting down and dirty, perhps it'll catch on.