AfD on families

The AfD wants to strengthen the family of father, mother and children and counter population decline with a family policy that encourages births. It wants to reduce the number of abortions through help for families, easier adoption, anonymous birth and baby hatches.

The AfD wants to strengthen families with a father, a mother and children. More children should be born. Women should get help so they do not have an abortion. Adoption should become easier. There should be enough baby hatches.

The program cites 3,113 abortions and 19,029 live births in Brandenburg in 2022 and stresses that unborn children have a right to life. Women with unwanted pregnancies should receive special help from the state and society so that they decide to have the child. Schools and the media should convey respect for life and a positive image of marriage and parenthood. The AfD sees falling birth rates as a threat to the welfare system and cultural identity and rejects immigration as the answer.

The AfD wants abortions to remain the exception and rejects declaring abortion a human right. Counseling should follow set quality standards and inform women about the stage of fetal development and possible long-term effects.

The AfD wants few abortions. Abortion should not become a human right. Counseling for pregnant women should be stricter. It should also explain possible effects.

Violations of the duty to report abortions are to be penalized so that statistics show the real number. Pregnancy counseling should have transparent quality standards and involve fathers where possible. The AfD rejects paid surrogacy and the marketing of tissue from aborted fetuses.

The AfD wants to substantially reduce taxes and social insurance contributions for families so they can live on a single income. This includes family-based income splitting, a higher child allowance, and a refund of pension contributions at each birth.

The AfD wants families to pay less tax. Social insurance payments should also go down. A family should be able to live on one salary. Parents should get back 20,000 euros in pension payments per child.

The plan includes family income splitting, a higher child tax allowance, and full deductibility of child-related expenses. The reduced VAT rate would apply to children's goods. Child-raising costs would lower the income on which social contributions are charged, without reducing entitlements. For each birth, parents would get back 20,000 euros in pension contributions paid or be exempted from future contributions of that amount. The AfD argues that raising children supports the social systems as much as paying contributions does.

The AfD wants to phase in a Familiengeld (family allowance) and offer families interest-free loans of 25,000 euros. The aim is to ease the burden on lower-income families and encourage people to have children.

The AfD wants a new family payment. Families should also get a loan without interest. The loan is 25,000 euros. With each child, parents pay back less.

The family allowance is meant to let parents choose freely between working and taking a career break. The 25,000-euro loan would be partly forgiven with each child and fully forgiven from the third child on, with family-friendly repayment terms. The platform points to a similar model in East Germany. Employers would also receive wage subsidies, scaled by number of children, when parents return to work after parental leave.

The AfD holds up the family of father, mother, and children as the ideal and wants to end what it calls the "cult around rainbow families." It rejects extending limited custody rights to more people and adding children's rights to the constitution.

For the AfD, the best family is father, mother, and children. It does not want rainbow families to get special attention. No more than two people should have custody. Children's rights should not be added to the constitution.

So-called limited custody lets stepparents, for instance, share in everyday decisions; the AfD does not want it extended to additional people. In its view, parenthood is not a social construct. It opposes children's rights in the Basic Law because it fears parental rights would be weakened and sees children as already protected by fundamental rights.

The AfD wants to give single parents more support and reduce the effects of separation on children. Unmarried parents would automatically share custody from birth, and fathers should be able to have more contact with their children.

The AfD wants to help single parents more. Children should suffer less when parents split up. Unmarried parents should both have custody right away. Fathers should be able to see their children more often.

Special support would go only to single parents who do not push the other parent out of child-raising without good reason. Separated parents are to receive comprehensive counseling. Serious breaches of marital solidarity should be taken into account in divorce settlements, without bringing back fault-based divorce.

The AfD wants to introduce a Betreuungsgeld (care allowance) as wage replacement for parents or grandparents who care for children themselves in the first three years. Care at home should get the same financial support as daycare or childminders.

Parents should get money when they care for their small child themselves. This applies to the first three years. Grandparents can also get the money. Parents should choose freely between daycare and care at home.

The amount would be based on average net pay in the three years before the first birth, capped at the general average net salary. In addition, the family allowance would rise and working parents would get tax relief. Child benefit stays, but for children living abroad only the amount customary there would be paid. The AfD argues that children under three feel best when cared for by their own parents.

The AfD wants to provide at least 750 million euros for building and renovating daycare centers and schools and to complete the reform of daycare law. Training for childcare workers should become more attractive without lowering standards; daycare content should reflect the majority of society.

The AfD wants to spend a lot on daycare centers and schools. It is at least 750 million euros. There should be more childcare workers. The AfD does not want daycare to deal with sexuality and minorities.

A new staffing ratio would factor in staff absences. A pilot project would test shortened training under set conditions, providers would get more money for training, and daycare directors would be released for 20 hours a week everywhere. In rural areas, small private daycare centers and childminders would be funded; regional suppliers get priority for meals. What the AfD calls a "minority cult" and "early sexualization" should have no place in daycare.

The AfD calls for attendance at public nurseries, including meals, to be free in order to ease the burden on parents. It also wants more flexible opening hours and new care options after after-school care ends.

Nursery care should cost parents nothing. The meals there should also be free. Daycare should be open longer and more flexibly. This helps parents who work.

The platform notes that working parents often have to leave work by 4 p.m. to pick up their child. Small private daycare centers and childminders, especially in rural areas, would get additional support.

The AfD wants to waive BAföG repayment for young parents in training or at university and extend the standard period of study. At universities, permanent positions, support programs and childcare are meant to make starting a family easier.

The AfD wants to help parents who study or train for a job. They would not have to pay back their BAföG. BAföG is state money for students and trainees. Parents would be allowed to study longer. Every university would have childcare.

The waiver would apply when a child is born during training and the degree is completed. Students with children could extend the standard period of study by up to six semesters on request. Exam dates would become more flexible and access to distance learning easier. The program notes that student parents need four more semesters on average and drop out twice as often, and that 26 percent of female academics over 45 are childless.