European policy in the coalition agreements of political parties in Germany – continuation or change after the 2021 elections?

Abstract

The article aims to provide an overview of the European policies of two successive German government coalitions: the CDU, CSU and SPD, as well as the SPD, Alliance 90/die Grünen and FDP, as defined in their respective 2018 and 2021 coalition agreements. To this end, a comparative method was used in the article, making it possible to present the views of the CDU/CSU and SPD coalition and the SPD, B90/die Grünen and FDP on European policy, and point out the differences and similarities between them. Content analysis was also employed to examine and interpret the government coalition agreements of 2018 and 2021, which were the main research material. The article was divided into several sections corresponding to the content of the two documents and to the research questions posed in their analysis. The study made it possible to verify the hypothesis that the European policies presented in the March 2018 and December 2021 coalition agreements are similar, which means that the Olaf Scholz government continues to deepen integration and expand the European Union.