Linke on foreign affairs and defence

The Left rejects the 100-billion-euro package for the Bundeswehr and wants to stop arms exports via Bremen through a state law. Arms manufacturers are to switch to civilian, ecologically sensible production, backed by a conversion fund.

The Left is against more money for weapons for the army. No more weapons should be shipped abroad from Bremen. A state law should make sure of this. Companies that build weapons should make other things. A fund should help them do so.

According to the platform, about 1,000 containers of munitions leave Bremen by ship each year. The party favors a ceasefire and negotiations and opposes weapons exports. The conversion fund is to be set up with the involvement of Bremen's economic development agency. The reasoning given is that arms production ties up scarce resources and energy, raises CO₂ emissions and comes at the expense of public services. The platform highlights that, at the Left's urging, the Senate did not approve the special fund in the Bundesrat.

The Left rejects nuclear sharing and calls for the nuclear weapons to be withdrawn from Büchel. Bremen should press at the federal level for this and for Germany to join the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

US nuclear weapons are stored in Germany. The Left wants these weapons removed. Germany should join a United Nations treaty. This treaty bans nuclear weapons. Bremen should push the federal government to do this.

Nuclear sharing means that Germany takes part in deterrence with US nuclear weapons within NATO. The party cites a Bundestag resolution from March 2010 on withdrawing the weapons. As a member of "Mayors for Peace," Bremen should advocate for this at the federal level. The platform condemns Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine and derives from it a duty of nuclear de-escalation. Instead of arms buildup and deterrence, the Left relies on diplomacy, negotiations and nonviolent conflict resolution.

The Left wants to keep the civil clause in the higher education law and retain the ban on recruitment by military youth officers in schools. Domestic deployments of the Bundeswehr should happen only in disasters; civilian relief organizations are to be expanded.

The army should not advertise in schools. Universities should not do research for the military. Inside Germany, the army should only help in disasters. Civilian helpers like the federal relief agency should become stronger. Universities should do more research on peace.

The civil clause commits universities to research for peaceful purposes. The Bundeswehr is to be required not to enlist minors ("straight 18"). Deployments in public services such as health care are to become unnecessary by expanding civilian crisis organizations, from the Technisches Hilfswerk (federal relief agency) to medical crisis response. At Bremen's universities, the party calls for a larger research area on peace, civilian conflict resolution and the climate effects of armaments.

The Left wants to use the port operations law to ban the shipment of arms and ammunition through Bremen's ports. In this way it aims to hinder arms exports approved by the federal government.

Weapons are shipped through the ports in Bremen. The Left wants to ban that. A state law would be changed to do so. The party wants to slow down weapons sales abroad this way.

The program argues that these weapons are used around the world and kill people. Bremen cannot prevent export licenses granted by the federal government, for example to states like Saudi Arabia. As a transshipment hub, however, the state could block exports through its own port law.