AfD on families

The AfD opposes writing separate children's rights into the Basic Law, Germany's constitution. It argues that children already hold all fundamental rights and that such a clause would let the state override parents' right to raise their children.

The AfD does not want special children's rights in the constitution. It says children already have all basic rights. It fears the state would interfere more in how parents raise children. Parents should decide on raising their children.

In the AfD's view, the state should not reach into families but only provide good conditions for them. It sees separate constitutional children's rights as a way for the state to bypass parental rights. The party also wants schools to teach about marriage, partnership and family cohesion so that young people can later build stable families. Ties between generations, including grandparents and great-grandparents, are to be promoted as well.

The AfD wants to refund parents €20,000 in pension contributions for every newborn child, or exempt them from future contributions of that amount. Their later pension would not be reduced. The platform justifies this as a fairer sharing of the burdens families carry.

Parents should get back 20,000 euros in pension payments for each child. Or they pay that much less later. Their pension should stay the same. The AfD says families carry many costs. This should make up for that.

The refund or exemption would apply at every birth. According to the platform, the later pension entitlement stays uncut. The AfD points out that the birth rate has been too low since the 1970s and that old-age provision has been detached from the number of children since the 1957 pension reform. It says the costs of children are barely reflected in taxes and social contributions, which weighs especially on middle-income families.

The AfD wants to pay a caregiving salary to parents or grandparents who look after a child themselves during its first three years. It would be based on prior net pay and is meant to give families a free choice between care at home and care in a facility.

Parents should get money when they care for their small child themselves. This applies until the child turns three. Grandparents can get the money too. It should be about as high as the earlier wage. That way parents can choose freely.

The amount is to roughly match the average net wage the parents earned before their first child. The AfD cites studies saying children under three do best with their own parents. According to the platform, families should ideally be able to live on one income. The party also expects demand for daycare places to drop, easing the staff shortage in nurseries and daycare centers.

The AfD wants to write a child-friendly society into the constitution as a state goal and aims for higher birth numbers. It speaks of a demographic turnaround that, in its view, stabilizes the social systems and secures the passing on of culture.

The AfD wants more children to be born in Germany. The constitution should say that society should be child-friendly. Campaigns should encourage couples to have children. The AfD says this also helps the social insurance funds.

Besides the state goal, the platform provides for campaigns encouraging couples to have children. Parents are also to get more time: states and municipalities should promote multigenerational concepts. Employers should make work and family easier to combine through remote work, flexible hours and company kindergartens. The AfD justifies this with a birth rate that has been too low for decades and which, in its view, endangers culture and social insurance.

The AfD wants to leave sections 218 ff. of the Criminal Code unchanged but apply them more strictly. Mandatory counseling should serve to protect unborn life, and pregnant women would be shown ultrasound images during it. Doctors should not be allowed to advertise abortions.

The AfD does not want to change the abortion law. But it wants to apply it more strictly. In counseling, women should see ultrasound pictures of the child. Doctors should not advertise abortions. Pregnant women and mothers should get more help.

The platform points to about 100,000 reported abortions a year and considers the right to life of unborn children insufficiently protected. The effectiveness of the counseling rule is to be reviewed regularly, as the AfD says the Federal Constitutional Court requires. Doctors should remain free to refuse abortions on grounds of conscience. Organizations and measures that the party sees as promoting or trivializing abortion should get no funding, and it rejects a human right to abortion. It also wants more support for mothers, secure access to anonymous and confidential birth and baby hatches, and easier adoption. The AfD rejects paid surrogacy.

The AfD wants to enforce German as the binding language in daycare centers and staff nurseries and daycare with enough qualified personnel. Content such as gender mainstreaming and diversity-oriented sex education, which it regards as indoctrination, is to be removed from childcare and from the training of childcare workers.

Everyone in daycare should have to speak German. This should help children from immigrant families. Daycare centers should have enough well-trained staff. Topics like gender should not come up there. Company kindergartens should get more support.

The federal states would set up supervisory bodies to monitor the German-language requirement. According to the platform, daycare centers and schools should not convey fear but a positive outlook on life; the AfD also cites climate topics at preschool age as unwanted content. Gender mainstreaming and similar approaches would have no place in training childcare workers. The party wants to ease the staff shortage mainly through the caregiving salary, because fewer places would then be needed. Company kindergartens are to receive more support to help combine work and family.

The AfD wants children to live alternately with their mother and father as a rule after a separation. Child support would depend on how much time each parent spends caring for the child. In the platform's view, current custody and support law hardens conflicts between parents.

Some parents split up. The AfD wants the children to live with the mother and the father in turns. A parent who cares for the child more should pay less child support. Before going to court, parents must first talk with a mediator. A mediator helps people settle a dispute.

The alternating-residence model (Wechselmodell) would apply when the parents agree and live in the same school district, and the minimum subsistence level would have to be secured in both households. Mediation would become mandatory before family court proceedings, with sanctions for refusal. A parent who blocks visitation would face prompt sanctions, and custody would be called into question in repeat cases. Unproven allegations should not lead to a loss of contact. If one parent drops out of child-rearing, the single parent should get as much support as possible. The AfD also wants conditions that keep marriages and partnerships stable.

The AfD wants the same nationwide standards for when youth welfare offices may remove children from their families. This should happen only if the child would suffer greater harm by staying. The platform points to wrong decisions and large differences between states and municipalities.

Sometimes the youth welfare office takes children out of their family. The AfD wants the same rules for this all over Germany. The office should do it only if the child would be worse off at home. The children should go to relatives if possible, for example to grandparents.

Clear, uniform requirements would apply to expert reports and the experts who write them, backed by a licensing procedure. Suitable relatives such as grandparents would take priority over foster families and residential homes. Placements should be as short as possible, and contact with parents and siblings should be maintained. Parents should be involved in the measures. As causes of wrong decisions, the platform cites inadequate training, staff shortages in youth services, and missing standards for expert reports, among others.