euandi 2919 (Expert Interviews)

Coded recording of the political position of the parties.

Political parties were asked to position themselves with regard to 22 statements on:

(a) Welfare, family and health: social programmes should be maintained even at the cost of higher taxes;
(b) Migration and immigration: immigration [into your country] should be made more restrictive; acceptance of European values by immigrants; asylum-seekers should be distributed proportionally among EU Member States;
(c) Society, religion and culture: the legalisation of same sex marriages is a good thing; the legalisation of the personal use of soft drugs is to be welcomed; Euthanasia should be legalised;
(d) Finance and taxes: government spending should be reduced in order to lower taxes; the EU should acquire its own tax raising power; bank and stock market gains should be taxed more heavily;
(e) Economy and work: the state should provide stronger financial support to unemployed workers;
(f) Environment, transport and energy: renewable sources of energy (e.g. solar or wind energy) should be supported even if this means higher energy costs; the promotion of public transport should be fostered through green taxes (e.g. road taxing);
(g) Law and order: restrictions of personal privacy on the Internet should be accepted for public security reasons; criminals should be punished more severely;
(h) Foreign policy: the European Union should strengthen its security and defence policy; on foreign policy issues the EU should speak with one voice;
(i) European integration: judgement about European integration; judgement about the single European currency (Euro); individual member states of the EU should have less veto power; EU should rigorously punish Member States that violate the EU deficit rules; in European Parliament elections, EU citizens should be allowed to cast a vote for a party or candidate from any other Member State.

Additionally coded was: country name, party name (original language, English, and party abbreviation).