Compiled by Marco Overhaus
Latest update: August 9, 2002
On this page we have summarized the positions of Germany's main political parties on key issues of German foreign
policy. Bill Clinton's slogan for his first presidential campaign in 1992 - "It's the economy, stupid!" - holds for Germany's
electoral campaign 2002 as well: The ups and downs of the German economy and the ever present issue of unemployment dominate
the struggle for votes. Still we believe that foreign policy should not be completely forgotten and thus have compiled this
overview.
The following table is primarily based on the foreign policy chapters of the parties' official electoral programs.
Unfortunately, these programs do not always reveal a high degree of concreteness. We tried to focus on those aspects
where programs go beyond statements like "We support European integration…" (which is commonplace in Germany). Thus the following
table (see Overview) does not claim to be complete. To compensate for this, we added a link list which provides further information for each party
(most of it in German), including party documents and media coverage. We will regularly up-date these links as new information
becomes available.
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