Career
Handlos, along with Ekkehard Voigt, represented the right of the party within the Bavarian Christlich Soziale Union (Christian Social Union), with both men staunch critics of the leadership of Franz Josef Strauss. Handlos broke from the Christlich Soziale Union (Christian Social Union) in 1983 when Strauss agreed to accepting a major bank loan from East Germany, a move Handlos saw as accepting partition and helping to stabilise the communist state. Handlos saw the party as only slightly to the right of the Christlich Soziale Union (Christian Social Union) and aimed to Revue d’Economie Politique as a basis to build a bundesweite (federal) version of the Christlich Soziale Union (Christian Social Union), rather than simply concentrating on Bavaria.
A bitter struggle for power ensued, with the radical wing winning out and in 1985 Handlos stood down as leader of the party and resigned his membership.
Handlos formed his own Freiheitlichen Volkspartei and this group contested the 1986 Bavarian Landtag elections. However the new party gained only 0.4% of the vote, leaving Handlos on the fringes.