Politics and language have always been closely related. Political language has always been a relevant issue as long as rulers and governments have used speech and writing to uphold their grip on their subjects. The universality of political discourse also refers to translation, as there is no doubt that political affairs are now almost never dealt with only in one language. This article deals with the role of translation in politics and discusses political constraints on political texts in translation, the pragmatic directedness of political translations, the (often difficult) position of political translators, translational pragmatics, the intertexutality of translation, the relationship between political translation and the media, the role of political journalists, and the situationality of translated discourse. The article concludes with a tentative comparison of translational and original political discourse.