Linke on foreign affairs and defence

The Left condemns Russia's attack on Ukraine and calls for a change of strategy: diplomatic initiatives for a ceasefire in place of further arms deliveries. Targeted sanctions against the Russian leadership and arms industry are meant to increase pressure.

The Left says Russia was wrong to attack Ukraine. Russia should pull out its soldiers. But Germany should stop sending weapons. It should start peace talks together with other countries. Sanctions should hit the powerful in Russia, not ordinary people.

The platform recognizes the Ukrainian people's right to self-defense and demands the withdrawal of Russian troops. The German government is to take up peace initiatives such as those from China and Brazil; an international contact group would prepare negotiations and compromises. Sanctions would target Putin's power apparatus, the arms industry and people involved in war crimes, and would be reviewed regularly. The party rejects arms deliveries to war and crisis zones. The process is to end with reliable security guarantees, and the party also calls for large-scale humanitarian aid.

The Left welcomes the end of Assad's rule and calls for democratic elections and guaranteed basic rights in Syria. Autonomy for the Kurdish areas is to be secured, Turkish attacks are to stop, and German arms exports to Turkey are to end.

Assad's government in Syria is over. The Left wants free elections there. The Kurds in the north should keep governing themselves. Turkey should not attack them. Germany should stop selling weapons to Turkey.

The EU and NATO are to put pressure on the Turkish government so that it does not back a war against the Kurdish areas. The platform calls the attacks from Turkey a violation of international law. Germany is to establish diplomatic relations with the self-administration in North and East Syria (AANES). The party describes its model as federal, grassroots-democratic and focused on women's rights and ecology.

The Left considers NATO unsuited to providing security in Europe and wants to build a cooperative security order modeled on the CSCE instead. It would include every country on the continent and make NATO unnecessary.

The Left sees NATO as a purely military alliance. It wants a new security order for Europe. All European countries should take part. Then NATO is no longer needed, the party says.

The platform calls NATO a relic of the Cold War that enforces interests by force as well. Its guiding idea is an "OSCE 2.0" based on peaceful coexistence and détente. In the long run Russia and Turkey would also belong, provided wars of aggression have ended and a reconciliation process has begun. The United Nations is also to be reformed: the General Assembly would gain more decision-making power relative to the Security Council.

The Left wants to cut military spending sharply, abandon NATO's two-percent target and use the Bundeswehr special fund for civilian infrastructure. It rejects the planned stationing of US intermediate-range missiles in Germany, arguing that this heightens confrontation with Russia.

The Left wants to spend much less money on the military. The money should go to schools, health and social programs. The US wants to put new missiles in Germany. The Left is against that. Europe should disarm, meaning reduce its weapons.

The party rejects the NATO goal of spending two percent of economic output or more on defense. It argues that European NATO states already spend far more on the military than Russia when adjusted for purchasing power. These states should therefore take the first step and issue an invitation to a joint disarmament process. The aim is a security architecture that also includes China, India and Russia. The party also backs civil-society and global disarmament initiatives.

The Left wants to end all Bundeswehr deployments abroad. The armed forces would become a purely defensive army that is structurally incapable of attack.

German soldiers are deployed in other countries. The Left wants to bring them all home. The Bundeswehr should only defend its own country. It should not be able to attack.

The platform demands withdrawal from every current deployment abroad. The Bundeswehr would be restructured so that it is structurally unable to attack. The party bases its position on the view that war is not a legitimate tool of politics and that Germany's history commits it to antimilitarism.

The Left wants to end nuclear sharing, Germany's participation in the deployment concept for US nuclear weapons stored in Germany. These weapons are to be withdrawn, and Germany is to join the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

US nuclear weapons are stored in Germany. The Left wants them removed. Germany should sign a UN treaty. This treaty bans nuclear weapons. In the end, Europe should have no nuclear weapons at all.

The uranium enrichment plant in Gronau is to be shut down immediately because, according to the platform, it could also supply material for a nuclear weapon. The party points to debates about a German or European atomic bomb. The other EU states are also to join the ban treaty. In addition, a new treaty on eliminating intermediate- and short-range missiles across Europe is to be pursued.

The Left calls for an immediate ceasefire and a peace process in Israel and Palestine. Germany should stop delivering weapons to Israel, recognize Palestine as a state and enforce the International Criminal Court's arrest warrants.

The Left wants the fighting in Israel and Palestine to stop at once. Germany should send no more weapons to Israel. Germany should recognize Palestine as a state. Neighboring countries should recognize Israel as a state.

The platform condemns both Hamas terror and the Israeli army's conduct in Gaza and Lebanon, which it calls crimes under international law. The goal is a just two-state solution along with an end to occupation and settlement building. Palestine would be recognized within the 1967 borders; at the same time the German government would press states in the region to recognize Israel. The arrest warrants against Netanyahu, Gallant and Hamas leaders are to be recognized and enforced.

The Left wants to prohibit the export of military goods without exception. Arms companies would be transferred into common ownership and converted to civilian production.

German companies sell weapons abroad. The Left wants to ban that completely. Arms companies should belong to the public. They should make other, useful things. The jobs should stay.

The shift from arms manufacturing to civilian production, known as conversion, is to receive targeted support. Jobs and collective agreements are to be preserved in the process. The platform argues that an arms race mainly benefits the corporations and their shareholders.

The Left opposes a return to conscription and wants to stop Bundeswehr recruiting at schools, universities and education fairs. It is taking a stand against what it calls the militarization of society.

The Left does not want a military draft. No one should be forced to serve in the Bundeswehr. The Bundeswehr should not recruit young people at schools and universities. It should not send recruiting letters either.

Civil clauses, by which universities commit to research without military purposes, are to be kept and expanded. The party explicitly supports a youth alliance against conscription. Bundeswehr advertising by mail is also to stop.

The Left wants to reverse the cuts to development policy and humanitarian aid and permanently provide at least 0.7 percent of economic output for it. It also calls for debt relief for countries of the Global South, more climate aid and a worldwide billionaire tax.

The Left wants to help poor countries more. Germany should give a fixed share of its money for this. Poor countries should not have to repay part of their debts. Very rich people should pay a tax worldwide. Poor countries should also get more money for climate protection.

At least 0.2 percent of economic output would go to the poorest countries. Climate funds would rise sharply and no longer be counted against development money. Under the platform, development funds may not be used for civil-military cooperation, keeping refugees out or corporate profits. The party also demands a financial transaction tax, fair cooperation agreements instead of free trade deals, a ban on food speculation and license-free medicines from publicly funded research. The US embargo against Cuba is to end.