The FDP (Freie Demokratische Partei) or Free Democrats is a small, though typically important, political party in Germany. It is the party of Germany's liberals, representing a commitment to market-oriented policies, liberal (in the American sense of the word) policies toward social and personal issues, and support of the welfare state. The FDP is heir to the German liberal parties that existed before Hitler's regime, namely Gustav Stresemann's right-leaning German People's Party (DVP) and the left-leaning German Democratic Party (DDP). It historically determines the balance of power in Germany's parliamentary system between the christian democratic CDU and the social democratic SPD; since the 2005 elections however, with the SPD and CDU in power together, the FDP is now the official opposition in the Bundestag.