AfD: program for the 2023 Hesse state election

The AfD wants to protect competition by tightly limiting the business activities of cities and towns. The limits in the Hessian Municipal Code (HGO) should be strictly enforced. The state antitrust authority should also be adequately resourced.

The AfD wants fair competition between companies. Cities and towns should not run many businesses themselves. There are already rules for this. The AfD wants these rules to be followed strictly. The state antitrust office should have enough resources. It checks whether companies have too much power.

The AfD rejects the EU taxonomy and the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). In the party's view, these rules steer companies in a direction the state wants and lead to a kind of planned economy.

The EU has made rules for sustainable business. Companies have to write many reports for this. The AfD is against these rules. It says the state steers companies too much this way. It says this hurts prosperity.

The AfD wants broad deregulation, with rules reviewed and scrapped where necessary. Small businesses would be relieved of reporting and statistical duties and of labor-law requirements. The growth in public-sector staff would also be reversed.

The AfD wants fewer rules for companies. Laws that are not needed should go. Small businesses should have to write fewer reports. The administration should get smaller too. This should save money.

The AfD wants to check state funding programs systematically for results and cut money for ineffective projects. Independent expert panels should accompany the programs and help decide how grants are awarded.

The state of Hesse pays for many funding programs. The AfD wants to check whether these programs work. Programs that do not work should lose their money. Experts with no party ties should have a say.

The AfD wants Bürgergeld (citizen's income) and social assistance tied strictly to actual need, with existing sanctions applied. At the same time, benefit rates should follow price developments. Foreigners who are required to leave should be deported instead of continuing to receive benefits.

The AfD wants Bürgergeld only for people who really need help. Bürgergeld is basic income support from the state. People who break the rules should get less money. The payments should rise with prices. Foreigners without the right to stay should leave and get no more benefits.

The AfD wants to substantially improve working conditions in nursing and child care and raise the standing of these professions. It justifies this with staff shortages, which it attributes to low pay, heavy strain and low social status.

There are not enough workers in nursing care and in day care. The AfD wants to make this work better. These jobs should get more respect. Pay should go up.

The AfD wants a major expansion of further training and retraining, especially for Bürgergeld recipients who want to work in nursing or child care. At the same time, providers of such programs are to be comprehensively monitored by the state to prevent misuse of public funds.

The AfD wants more training and retraining. This should mainly help people who get Bürgergeld. They should be able to become nurses or child care workers, for example. The state should check the course providers closely. That way no money is wasted.

The AfD wants people with disabilities to be more strongly included in the labor market. Their pay is to rise and higher exemption amounts would apply so that a noticeable share of their wages remains despite benefits. More trainers and support staff are to be recruited and employers given advantages.

People with disabilities should find work more easily. They should get higher pay. They should keep more of their wages, even if they get benefits. There should be more trainers and support staff. Companies that employ them should get advantages.

The AfD wants to stop companies from sidestepping mandatory social insurance through outsourcing or contracts for work (Werkverträge). Regular employment contracts are to be enforced more strongly. This is meant to protect workers and strengthen the social insurance funds, especially the pension system.

Some companies use special contracts so they pay no social insurance. The AfD wants to stop this. There should be more regular work contracts. Then workers are better insured. The pension fund also gets more money.

The AfD wants to secure older people's participation in society, including through senior citizens' councils and educational offerings in municipalities. Age-appropriate, barrier-free housing is to be promoted through a change in the law. Volunteer work by seniors should be recognized, for example with expense allowances.

Older people should be able to take part everywhere. Towns should set up senior councils. These are groups that speak for older people. There should be more homes without barriers. Older people who volunteer should get some money for it.

The AfD wants to end Hesse's system in which responsibility for people with disabilities changes with age. The Landeswohlfahrtsverband (LWV, the state welfare association) would care for them throughout their lives. The platform says this would ensure equal care across the state and cut duplicate structures.

Today, different offices help people with disabilities depending on their age. The AfD wants to change that. One body should help them for their whole life. This body is the state welfare association. The party says this means less paperwork.

The AfD calls for a special state program to help cities and towns pay for barrier-free infrastructure. The money would come from budget items the party wants to cut, which were previously earmarked for people with no prospect of staying in Germany.

Many bus and train stops in Hesse are hard to use for people with disabilities. The AfD wants to change that. The state should give towns money for this. The money should come from other spending. That spending was planned for foreigners who are not likely to stay.

The AfD wants a balanced state budget and strict application of the debt brake. Suspending it would only be possible if the state parliament declares an emergency with a two-thirds majority. All spending is to be reviewed and old debt repaid under a binding rule.

The AfD wants Hesse to take on no new debt. The debt brake should apply strictly. This is a rule against new debt. Exceptions should only be possible in an emergency. Two thirds of the state parliament would have to agree.

The AfD wants more transparency in how public projects are financed and rejects debt-financed special funds. It opposes public-private partnerships on principle because, according to audit offices, they cost too much. Privatizing essential public services should only be decided by local referendums.

The AfD does not want special funds. These are pots of money outside the normal budget, often paid for with debt. The state should also not build together with private companies. The AfD says this costs too much. Citizens should vote before important public services are sold.

The AfD wants to cut subsidies in Hesse and review all funding programs along with their procedures and institutions. It also wants wasteful use of tax money to be uncovered and punished more consistently.

The AfD wants fewer subsidies. That is money the state pays to support something. All funding programs in Hesse should be checked. People who waste tax money should face consequences.

The AfD wants to give states and municipalities more money by renegotiating how public revenue is shared between the federal government, states and municipalities. Municipalities should gain enough leeway that the property tax (Grundsteuer) can be dropped. Earmarked state grants would shrink in favor of freely usable allocations.

The AfD wants more money for states and towns. Tax money should be shared out in a new way. Towns should then no longer need the property tax. People pay this tax for land and houses. Towns should decide more freely how to spend their money.

The AfD wants to abolish the real estate transfer tax for owner-occupied homes. It argues that the tax makes moving harder and puts workers at a disadvantage who relocate for their jobs. Road construction fees charged to residents are also to be dropped across Hesse.

People who buy a house or apartment pay a transfer tax. The AfD wants to end this tax for homes people live in themselves. Moving should become easier. Road construction fees should also end. These are costs that residents pay when their street is built or repaired.

The AfD wants to abolish the property transfer tax for owner-occupied homes and scrap the property tax entirely. Municipalities would be compensated for losing the property tax. Sellers would pay real estate agent fees on purchases in the future.

People who buy a house pay a tax. The AfD wants to end this tax if you live there yourself. The yearly property tax should go too. Towns should get other money instead. The seller should pay the real estate agent.

The AfD wants to stabilize rents and prices by increasing the housing supply. Building land would be designated faster and building rights created more quickly. The state would also relieve municipalities of the follow-on costs of housing construction.

Many cities have too few homes. The AfD wants more new homes. For this, land for building should be made available faster. Permits should come faster. The state should help towns with the costs.

The AfD wants to make housing cheaper by lowering building standards and scrapping the CO2 charge. Building law would also be simplified and unified nationwide. Permits would be processed faster and more digitally.

Building is expensive. The AfD wants to lower the costs. The CO2 charge should go. The rules for fire safety, insulation, and noise protection should be looser. Building law should be the same and simpler across Germany.

The AfD wants to help more people own their homes, saying ownership builds wealth and eases costs in old age. Public housing companies would have to sell their apartments to tenants. Locals and housing cooperatives would get preference in allocations.

The AfD wants more people to own their home. Tenants in public housing should be allowed to buy their apartment. Local people should come first for building plots. Housing cooperatives should also get land more easily. Young families should be able to lease land.

The AfD wants to support low-income renters through Wohngeld (housing benefit) rather than social housing. In its view, social housing leads to units being occupied by people no longer eligible and cannot meet demand. Where Wohngeld is not enough, a municipal housing benefit would be added.

The AfD wants to rely less on social housing. People with little money should get a housing benefit. That is money to help pay the rent. In expensive cities, the town should pay an extra benefit. Cities should also secure homes for people in need.

The AfD rejects rent brakes, rent freezes, and bans on privatizing housing. In its view, such interventions worsen the problems of a housing market that would work without the state.

The AfD does not want rent caps. It does not want rent freezes either. The state should not ban the sale of public housing. The AfD says the housing market works better without these rules.

The AfD wants to loosen fire safety and heritage protection rules. In its view, these requirements make it uneconomical to keep village inns and historic town centers.

The AfD wants looser rules for fire safety. The same goes for protecting old buildings. The AfD says many village inns close because of these rules. Fixing up old houses costs too much.

The AfD wants to raise the birth rate of the native population significantly in the medium term and put the traditional family of mother, father and children at the center of policy. The state should promote having many children and set financial incentives. The party considers immigration unsuitable as a response to population decline.

Few children are born in Germany. The AfD wants native families to have more children. The state should promote this and give families financial benefits. The family of mother, father and children should get special protection. The AfD does not see immigration as a solution.

The AfD wants to abolish the posts of equal-opportunity officers and appoint family officers instead. New and existing rules would also be checked for whether they burden families.

Today there are equal-opportunity officers. The AfD wants to end these jobs. Family officers should take their place. They should check how family-friendly Hesse is. New laws should not put more burdens on families.

The AfD wants counseling centers to be required to offer pregnant women and expectant fathers an ultrasound of the unborn child. It also wants to build a broad support network for women with unwanted pregnancies so that abortions do not happen out of hardship.

Before an abortion, there is a counseling session. The AfD wants the counselors to offer an ultrasound of the child. Women should also get a list of all available help. The AfD wants more support for women with unwanted pregnancies.

The AfD rejects what it sees as the state's preference for care of small children outside the family. Parents who look after their children under three themselves should get the same financial support as daycare centers and childminders.

Some parents care for their small children at home. The AfD wants the state to support these parents with money. They should get as much as daycare centers and childminders. The AfD says small children need their parents most.

The AfD wants to write parents' right to raise their children explicitly into the Hessian constitution. It sees the children's rights added in 2018 as a way for the state to intervene in families.

The AfD wants to write parents' rights into the constitution of Hesse. Children's rights have been in it since 2018. The AfD fears the state will interfere in families because of this. Parents should be first in charge of raising children.

The AfD wants to pay a welcome bonus for every newborn child to encourage more births. Eligibility requires German citizenship and both parents having their main residence in Hesse for at least one year.

The AfD wants to give parents money for every new baby. This should encourage people to have more children. The parents must be German. They must have lived in Hesse for one year. The money comes in two parts.

Children and teenagers up to age 16 should get free admission to museums, castles, palaces and heritage sites when accompanied by a parent or guardian. The AfD wants to introduce the next generation to Hesse's cultural heritage.

Children up to age 16 should not pay admission. This applies to museums, castles and palaces. A parent must come along. The AfD wants children to get to know the history of Hesse.

The AfD wants nurseries and kindergartens to be free from the first child on. Lunch in daycare centers and at all schools should also cost nothing.

Nurseries and kindergartens should be free for parents. This should apply from the first child. Lunch at daycare and school should also be free. The food should be healthy and taste good.

The AfD wants to promote more flexible working hours, more work from home and childcare at or near the workplace. Universities should expand daycare, and students with children should get more support.

Parents should be able to combine work and family more easily. The AfD wants flexible working hours and more work from home. Companies should offer childcare. Universities should have more daycare places. Mothers should return to work easily after raising children.

The AfD wants to keep and promote Christian and Western customs in all daycare centers. It argues that fewer and fewer children and young people know their meaning and origin.

Christian customs should stay in daycare centers. The AfD wants to promote these customs. It says many children no longer know what they mean.

The AfD wants the protection of unborn life to be the foremost goal of pregnancy conflict counseling. Women would receive information on doctors and hospitals performing abortions only after intensive counseling. Victims of rape or abuse are to have unhindered access to abortion.

The AfD wants to protect unborn children. This should be the most important goal in counseling for pregnant women. Women should only learn where an abortion is possible after counseling. After a rape, an abortion should be possible without obstacles.

The AfD demands strict political neutrality from teachers, daycare staff and social workers and wants to keep the Beutelsbach Consensus without reinterpretation. Institutions it considers harmful to the community should no longer get tax and financial advantages.

Teachers and daycare staff should be politically neutral. Students should be able to state their opinion without fear. The AfD wants to strengthen the Beutelsbach Consensus for this. That is a rule against political influence in class. Some institutions should lose their tax benefits.

The AfD backs a performance-oriented, permeable system of different school types. Admission to the Gymnasium (academic high school) would be decided by uniform statewide entrance exams, and the practice-oriented Mittelstufenschule would be expanded.

The AfD wants to keep different types of schools. Performance should matter more again. Anyone who wants to go to the Gymnasium should take an exam. The exam should be the same across Hesse. The practice-oriented middle school should become more important.

The AfD opposes closing special-needs schools and considers them the best place for children with disabilities or learning impairments. Inclusion in regular schools should happen only where the degree of impairment and the conditions make success likely.

Special-needs schools are schools for children with disabilities. The AfD wants to keep these schools. It says children get the best help there. Only some children should go to regular classes. The conditions must be good for that.

The AfD wants to make teaching in Hesse more attractive: more practice during training, faster hiring, permanent instead of temporary contracts and relief from administrative work. Teachers should also be able to impose effective sanctions quickly on disruptive students.

Hesse does not have enough teachers. The AfD wants to make the job more attractive. Teachers should get permanent contracts. The state should not let them go during school breaks. Assistants should take over office work. Teachers should be able to punish disruptive students faster.

The AfD wants parents to choose freely between all-day care at school and care at home. All-day care should be free and of high educational quality; parents who look after their children themselves should receive financial compensation.

Parents should choose for themselves: all-day care at school or at home. Care at school should be free and good. Parents who care for their children at home should get money. The state should set aside enough money for this.

The AfD wants to change Hesse's sex education curriculum in force since 2016. Instead of acceptance of different lifestyles and sexual orientations, the goal should be tolerance and respect, and the note that lessons do not depend on parental consent should be removed.

Hesse has a curriculum for sex education. The AfD wants to change it. The word acceptance should be removed. Tolerance and respect should take its place. Parents should have more say. The topic should be handled with restraint in class.

The AfD wants no faith-based Islamic instruction in Hessian schools because it believes this hinders integration. Instead there should be Christian religious instruction as a required elective and non-denominational ethics classes.

The AfD does not want Islam classes that teach the faith in schools. It says they harm integration. There should be Christian religion classes. Students who do not want that go to ethics class. Mosque associations should have no influence in schools.

The AfD wants to strengthen career preparation in all types of schools. A redesigned crafts and work-studies class would be offered everywhere, and more company internships than today would become standard.

Students should be better prepared for working life. All schools should offer crafts and work-studies classes. Students should do internships at companies more often. Schools should work closely with trades and industry.

The AfD wants to keep and expand the dual vocational training system and opposes reducing the number of vocational school sites. Master craftsman courses should be free if graduates then work in Hesse. The master craftsman bonus should rise from 1,000 to 4,000 euros.

The AfD wants to strengthen training in companies and vocational schools. Vocational schools should not close. Training to become a master craftsman should cost nothing. In return, people must then work in Hesse. The bonus for new masters should rise to 4,000 euros.

The AfD wants better digital equipment in schools: Wi-Fi in every classroom, uniform tablets from grade 5 at no extra cost, and computer science as a required subject in secondary schools. In elementary school, traditional teaching of reading, writing and arithmetic should remain the focus.

The AfD wants more technology in schools. Every classroom should have fast Wi-Fi. Students from grade 5 should get a tablet without paying for it. Computer science should become a required subject. In elementary school, children should mainly learn reading, writing and math.

The AfD wants aptitude tests before admission at universities in Hesse, in order to prevent what it sees as over-academization and to reduce dropout rates. At the same time, university autonomy should be strengthened and the "Diplom-Ingenieur" degree should be available again.

The AfD wants tests before people start university. Only those who pass may study the subject. This should mean fewer students drop out. Universities should decide about their own work. The Diplom-Ingenieur degree should still exist.

The AfD wants to introduce tuition fees for students from countries outside the EU. It argues that many Chinese students, for example, take their knowledge home after graduating, so that Hesse is training its own competition.

The AfD wants to charge money for studying. This should apply to students from countries outside the EU. The AfD says many go back home after their studies. The money should go to the universities in Hesse.

The AfD wants to end what it sees as a one-sided preference for university study and boost the reputation of non-academic training. Dual vocational training should be valued as highly as a university degree. The party points to shortages of tradespeople and care workers.

There are not enough tradespeople and care workers. The AfD says politics focuses too much on university. Job training in a company should count just as much. The AfD wants to strengthen the skilled trades.

The AfD wants to keep schools and kindergartens in rural communities wherever possible and to question rules such as class sizes. Other services should be offered on a mobile basis, and hospitals would be replaced by local medical centers.

The AfD wants to keep schools and kindergartens in villages. Classes may be very small for this. Banks, shops, and libraries should travel to the people. Small centers for emergencies should replace hospitals.

The AfD wants to equip nursing homes, retirement homes, and hospices with digital devices. Residents should be able to stay in touch with relatives through assisted video calls, both in times of isolation and in everyday life.

People in care homes should be able to see their family by video. The homes should get devices for this. Someone helps residents with the video call. The AfD says many residents were very lonely during Covid.

The AfD wants to largely preserve municipal hospitals, keep them from being privatized, and fund them according to need. The state should fully meet its investment obligations and clear the investment backlog. The platform sees maintaining health facilities as a core government task.

Cities and counties run their own hospitals. The AfD wants to keep these hospitals. They should not go to private companies. The state should pay enough money for them.

The AfD wants to expand outpatient treatment and pay it better to relieve hospitals. Budgeting, the cap on fees paid to doctors' practices, is to be lifted, and the new-patient rule is to stay. It rejects insurers' clawback claims against office-based doctors.

The AfD wants to strengthen doctors' offices. Today doctors are only paid up to a limit. This limit should go. This way hospitals should have less work.

The AfD wants midwives paid substantially more to counter the shortage in postnatal care. Because liability insurance premiums have risen sharply, it wants to examine a state liability fund. Maternity wards in hospitals close to home should remain open.

Midwives help during and after birth. The AfD wants them to earn much more. Their insurance has become very expensive. The state may help with a fund.

The AfD calls for a thorough review of the state's COVID measures in health care and wants a parliamentary committee of inquiry for that purpose. It rejects mandatory COVID vaccination and favors individual counseling and personal choice. According to the platform, this should strengthen trust in the health system.

The AfD wants to look closely at the COVID period. A special committee in the state parliament should do this. The AfD rejects a duty to get the COVID shot. Everyone should decide for themselves.

The AfD wants to expand telemedicine and integrate it more firmly into standard care. A funding program is to help doctors buy the technology. The platform sees it as a supplement to in-person treatment, especially in rural areas.

In telemedicine, the doctor talks to the patient by video or phone. The AfD wants more of this. Doctors should get money for the equipment. But visits to the doctor should stay.

The AfD wants to tackle the nursing staff shortage with better working conditions, higher pay, and targeted recruitment of qualified workers. On-call shifts lasting 24 hours in hospitals are to be abolished. Minimum staffing levels are to be observed and extended to other professions.

There are too few care workers. The AfD wants better working conditions and more pay for them. Shifts of 24 hours in hospitals should end. There should be fixed minimum numbers of staff.

The AfD wants stronger public support for sports and exercise and calls for a statewide sports initiative. A state program is to address effects of the COVID period such as lack of exercise among children and teens. At the same time, health insurers are to be relieved of general prevention costs and personal responsibility strengthened.

The AfD wants to promote more sports and exercise. Many children moved too little during COVID. A state program should help them. Sports should also matter more in school.

The AfD wants to deport foreign offenders after they serve their sentence, regardless of residence status, and to impose permanent entry bans on extremists, people deemed security threats and violent offenders. People required to leave who do not go voluntarily would be detained until deportation.

Foreigners who commit crimes should have to leave after prison. This should apply whatever their residence status is. Dangerous foreigners should never be allowed back. People who must leave but stay should be locked up. The AfD wants to build more detention places for this.

The AfD wants to stop unauthorized entries and entries from safe third countries through border controls and to deport everyone required to leave immediately. It rejects the UN migration compact and the UN refugee compact because it sees national interests being put second.

The AfD wants to control the borders. Nobody should enter without permission. People who must leave the country should go at once. The AfD rejects two United Nations agreements on migration and refugees. It says Germany should decide for itself who comes.

The AfD wants to recruit skilled workers from outside Europe only as a last resort. Needed workers should come primarily from neighboring European countries, and unemployed residents should be brought into the labor market more.

The AfD wants to bring in workers from far away only if nothing else works. Workers from nearby European countries should come first. Jobless people in the country should find work. Well-trained people should not move away from Germany.

The AfD wants to replace cash benefits for asylum seekers with in-kind benefits as far as legally possible and to set up reception centers outside the EU. Asylum seekers should contribute to the costs of proceedings, housing and care. The age of unaccompanied minors should be subject to mandatory medical checks.

Asylum seekers should mostly get goods instead of money. Centers for asylum seekers should be set up outside the EU. Asylum seekers should pay part of the costs themselves. Doctors should check the age of young people who arrive without parents. Those who lie about their age should have to leave.

The AfD wants to equip all authorities involved in asylum proceedings with identity verification technology and register the data centrally and digitally in Hesse. Anyone who gives false information or refuses to cooperate should be deported promptly.

Authorities should check carefully who an asylum seeker is. They should get technical devices for this. The data should be stored in one central place. People who give false information should be deported. This also applies to asylum seekers who commit serious crimes.

The AfD wants to deport without delay everyone who is legally required to leave and to stop church asylum. Sections 25a and 25b of the Residence Act, which allow well-integrated people with tolerated status to obtain a right to stay, would be removed. Countries that refuse to take back rejected asylum seekers would lose financial aid.

The AfD wants faster deportations. Churches should no longer be able to shield people from deportation. Two rules now give some people without residence rights a right to stay. The AfD wants to scrap these rules. Countries that do not take back their citizens should get no more money.

The AfD rejects all family reunification for refugees and asylum seekers and wants families reunited in the country of origin instead. Municipalities should decide for themselves how many asylum seekers they can take in, and the federal government should cover all costs.

Refugees should not be allowed to bring their families to Germany. Families should come together again in the home country. Towns and cities should say for themselves how many people they take in. The federal government should pay all costs.

The AfD wants an organized return of all foreigners required to leave and, instead of integration measures, wants refugees to be taught skills for returning to their home countries. Naturalization should come only at the end of successful integration; those unwilling to integrate should face sanctions up to deportation.

The AfD wants refugees to go back to their home countries. They should learn useful skills for that. People who must leave the country should be taken back in an organized way. Only well-integrated people should get a German passport. People who do not want to integrate should be punished.

The AfD wants to abolish acquiring German citizenship by birth in the country and return to the descent principle that applied before 2000. It rejects dual citizenship; anyone who becomes German should give up their previous nationality.

Today, children of foreigners can become German by being born in Germany. The AfD wants to end this. Only people with German parents or people who are naturalized should be German. Nobody should have two passports. For serious crimes, the state should check whether to take citizenship away.

The AfD wants regular statistics published on how migrants from individual countries of origin fare in employment, welfare benefits, education and crime. Following Denmark's example, data should also show which groups contribute more in taxes or draw more in benefits.

The AfD wants to collect more figures about migrants. The figures should be split by country of origin. They cover work, welfare benefits, education and crime. The figures should be published regularly. Denmark is the model for this.

The AfD wants to offer immigrant and refugee women targeted German courses. Once their asylum status is recognized, they should get easy access to the labor market and to training according to their qualifications. The platform also sees integration as the women's own responsibility.

Immigrant women should be able to learn German. The AfD wants to offer them courses for this. With recognized asylum they should be allowed to work easily. There should be child care during the courses. The women should also make their own effort to integrate.

The AfD wants to end state programs that promote acceptance of homosexual and transgender people among children of kindergarten and elementary school age. It calls this early sexualization and says judging lifestyles and sexuality is up to parents alone.

The state has programs for daycare centers and elementary schools. They promote acceptance of gay and transgender people. The AfD wants to end these programs. It says only parents should talk to small children about these topics.

The AfD wants to stop funding gender studies programs, professorships and research projects and redirect the money to STEM fields. Gender-inclusive language should no longer be used by public authorities or public broadcasters.

The AfD wants to stop spending money on gender research. The money should go to subjects like math and technology. Public offices and public broadcasters should stop using gender-inclusive language. That means special word forms meant to include all genders. At universities, it should play no role in grades.

The AfD wants to stop the muezzin's call to prayer and ban full-face veils in public. Headscarves would also be banned in the civil service and for children under 14 in public institutions. Sharia courts, child marriages and polygamous marriages are to be stopped.

The AfD wants to ban the muezzin's call. That is the Islamic call to prayer. Women should not be allowed to cover their whole face in public. Headscarves should be banned for people working for the state. This should also apply to children under 14 in public institutions.

The AfD rejects gender quotas in higher education, work and politics, as well as women-only degree programs. In its view, women should prevail through performance, and plans for the advancement of women should serve only as guidance. Women who choose family over a career should not be disadvantaged and should receive basic financial security.

The AfD is against quotas for women. A quota sets how many jobs go to women. The AfD says performance should decide. Women should choose for themselves whether to work or be a housewife and mother. Housewives and mothers should not become poor.

The AfD wants to reduce pay differences between women and men for equal performance. Flexible return-to-work models and more child care are meant to make it easier for women to come back and advance. Single parents should get priority for child care places and schools.

Women and men should earn the same for the same performance. Women should be able to return to work more easily after a break. There should be more child care for this. Single parents should be first in line for a place in day care or school.

The AfD wants to renovate, expand and keep funding women's shelters and counseling centers. Awareness programs in schools and clubs are meant to protect against violence and discrimination, and doctors would have to report genital mutilation to the authorities. Prevention of sexual abuse is also to be stepped up.

The AfD wants to protect women better from violence. There should be more and better women's shelters. Women find safety there. Schools and clubs should teach about violence. Doctors should report genital mutilation to the authorities. Victims of abuse should get more help.

The AfD sees a secure energy supply at internationally competitive prices as the state government's most important task. Phase-outs of energy sources should happen only once replacements are guaranteed, and existing decisions should be reversed. The party rejects state intervention to push the energy transition.

The AfD wants safe and cheap energy. Germany should only shut down power plants when there is a replacement. Earlier decisions to shut plants down should be taken back. The AfD thinks the energy transition is not needed and costs too much.

The AfD rejects climate protection and wants to end such measures. Instead, those affected should get help adapting to climate change. The platform doubts that human CO2 emissions cause climate change.

The AfD wants to stop climate protection. It does not believe that humans change the climate much. The money should help people who suffer from climate change. They should be able to adapt to the new climate.

The AfD wants to reverse the coal phase-out and stop shutting down baseload power plants for political reasons. It considers the Energiewende (energy transition) a failure and expects much lower electricity prices from coal and nuclear plants.

The AfD wants to keep making power from coal. Safe power plants should stay on the grid. Plants that were shut down should be allowed to run again. The AfD says this makes power cheaper.

The AfD wants no further wind turbines or solar installations to be built. Existing plants should feed in power only in ways that serve the grid. The platform cites fluctuating output and risks to supply security.

The AfD wants no new wind turbines or solar plants. The AfD says wind and sun deliver power too unevenly. That puts the power grid at risk. Existing plants should follow the needs of the grid.

The AfD wants Germany's nuclear power plants to keep operating and new ones to be built. Research and development in nuclear technology should resume. The platform points to high energy density and low impact on nature.

The AfD wants to keep using nuclear power plants. It also wants to build new ones. Germany should do research on this technology again. The AfD says nuclear power is safe, cheap, and easy on nature.

The AfD wants to follow hydrogen and storage projects with an open mind but rejects a commitment to green hydrogen alone. Synthetic fuels should be developed further so that combustion engines can stay in use permanently.

The AfD wants more research on hydrogen. But it does not want only hydrogen made from green power. Synthetic fuels should also be developed further. Then cars with combustion engines can keep driving.

The AfD wants nitrate limits enforced only where drinking water is sourced. When limits are exceeded, the specific polluter should be identified instead of designating whole areas as Red Zones. The platform doubts that farm fertilizer is the cause of high nitrate levels.

Nitrate is a substance that can get into water. The AfD wants rules for it only where drinking water comes from. If a level is too high, officials should find who caused it. Whole areas should no longer get strict fertilizer rules.

The AfD wants to ban slaughter without stunning entirely, even when it is justified on religious or cultural grounds. It also rejects the import, trade, and advertising of such meat. Existing animal welfare rules are to be strictly enforced.

Some animals are killed without being stunned first. This happens for religious reasons, for example. The AfD wants to ban this in all cases. It also rejects such meat from abroad.

The AfD wants an official finding that the wolf population is secure and, on that basis, cull quotas and legally sound hunting. Losses from wolf attacks on livestock should be compensated faster and in full. Compensation schemes are to be developed for beaver damage.

The AfD wants hunters to be allowed to shoot wolves. There should be fixed numbers for this. If a wolf kills farm animals, the owner should get money quickly. There should also be money for damage from beavers.

The AfD wants no further areas of state forest taken out of use and wants the current management and conservation guidelines fundamentally revised. Hunting is to be preserved and promoted as a form of using nature.

The state's forest should stay in use. The AfD wants no more forest areas set aside. The rules for the state forest should change. Hunting should stay.

The AfD wants farmers to manage rural land on their own responsibility and rejects restrictions from the EU. It expects falling harvests due to limits on pesticides and fertilizer and sees domestic food supply at risk.

The EU makes many rules for farmers. The AfD does not want to accept these rules. Farmers should decide for themselves how they work. The AfD says there will otherwise soon be too little food from Germany.

The AfD wants to target support at small and mid-sized farms by making area payments shrink as farm size grows. It also wants to cut administrative requirements for small farms and support young farmers. The platform argues that family farms are being pushed out by agricultural corporations and land speculation.

The AfD wants to help small farms. Small farms should get more money per acre than big ones. There should be less paperwork for them. Young people should find it easier to take over a farm.

The AfD rejects the rules proposed by the EU that would ban pesticides in certain areas and reduce fertilizer use. Fertilizing according to crop needs should not be restricted. The platform points to consequences for wine growing and to an endangered fertilizer supply.

The EU wants to ban pesticides in some areas. It also wants less fertilizer on fields. The AfD is against this. Farmers should be allowed to fertilize as much as the plants need.

The AfD wants to quickly privatize the state-owned Kloster Eberbach wineries together with their land. No wind turbines should be allowed within sight of the Rheingau and Bergstraße wine landscapes.

The state of Hesse owns wineries. The AfD wants to sell them quickly. There should be no wind turbines near the vineyards. The AfD says this protects the landscape.

The AfD wants farmers to choose freely how their machinery is powered and wants farm vehicles to stay exempt from vehicle tax. Farms should get priority for electricity during shortages. The platform regards farmers as essential and battery-powered field vehicles as impractical.

Farmers should decide what powers their machines. Tractors should stay free of vehicle tax. If power is short, farms should get electricity first. The state should help pay for backup generators.

The AfD wants to support livestock farms and end any preferential treatment of vegetarian diets. Imported meat should be clearly labeled by husbandry method and origin. It wants to ban insect-based additives in food because it considers health questions unresolved.

The AfD wants to help farmers who keep animals. The state should not favor meat-free food. Meat from abroad should show where it comes from. The AfD wants to ban insects in food.

The AfD treats free choice of transportation as a civil right and wants citizens to decide for themselves which type of engine to use. It rejects a general speed limit on the autobahn, a blanket 30 km/h limit in cities, and driving bans for diesel vehicles and motorcycles.

The AfD says everyone should choose freely how to travel. Everyone should also pick their own kind of engine. The AfD wants no general speed limit on the autobahn. It also wants no 30 km/h limit across whole cities. It rejects driving bans for diesel cars and motorcycles.

The AfD calls for widening Hesse's main autobahns and quickly building planned federal roads and bypasses. It points to heavy traffic in Hesse as a transit state and to congestion, noise, and pollution in towns.

Very many cars and trucks drive through Hesse. The AfD wants to make the big highways wider. Federal roads should also be expanded quickly. New roads should go around towns. This should mean less traffic jams and noise.

The AfD opposes pushing cars out of city centers, which it says harms the economy. It rejects a congestion charge, wants lower parking fees, and wants to stop converting car lanes into bike lanes on main routes.

The AfD wants cars to keep driving into city centers. It is against a congestion charge. That is a fee for driving in the city. Parking should get cheaper. On big roads, car lanes should not be turned into bike lanes.

The AfD wants to ban heavy trucks from passing on two-lane autobahns during the day to reduce serious accidents. Rest stops and parking areas would also be expanded so drivers can take their required breaks.

Heavy trucks should not be allowed to pass during the day. This applies on highways with two lanes. This should mean fewer serious accidents. The AfD also wants to build more parking for trucks. Drivers should be able to take their breaks there.

The AfD wants to strengthen public transit to better connect rural regions with urban centers. Tracks, trains, bus networks, and on-call taxis would be expanded. Transit associations should cover at least half of their costs themselves.

The AfD wants more buses and trains. Trains should run more often. This needs more tracks and more trains. Rural areas should also get more buses and on-call taxis. Transit companies should earn half of their costs themselves.

The AfD wants to strengthen Frankfurt Airport against other European hubs and quickly build out Terminal 3. It considers the existing night-flight ban a good compromise. It demands that the EU give Fraport and Lufthansa relief from levies under "Fit for 55."

The AfD wants to strengthen Frankfurt Airport. It should become more modern and bigger. The ban on night flights should stay. The EU plans new charges for air travel. The AfD wants the airport and Lufthansa to pay less.

The AfD wants better transport links and communication networks in rural areas. Gaps in the highway network should be closed, federal roads expanded, and bus and rail better coordinated so that fewer people move to the cities.

The AfD wants to improve life in the countryside. Missing parts of highways should be built. Buses and trains should connect better. Internet and cell phone service should get better too.

The AfD wants to strengthen Hesse's data protection commissioner and secure the office's independence. The commissioner should oversee business and public administration alike without instructions and get enough staff and funding to do so. The party also wants to support IT security research.

Everyone should decide about their own data. So the AfD wants to strengthen the data protection commissioner in Hesse. The commissioner should check companies and agencies independently. The office should get enough staff and money. The AfD also wants to fund research on computer security.

The AfD wants to focus mobile network subsidies on rural areas and quickly provide broadband for everyone, over copper lines if necessary. State-funded vouchers are meant to lower connection costs and boost private demand.

Internet in the countryside is often poor. The AfD wants to spend the subsidy money there. Everyone should get good internet quickly. Vouchers from the state should make a connection cheaper.

The AfD wants to allow interference with online content only in cases of serious crimes. Users whose posts are removed by large platforms should be able to turn to independent ombudspersons acting as arbitration bodies. It rejects anonymous state reporting portals.

The AfD wants little to be deleted on the internet. Deleting should only be allowed for serious crimes. Large platforms should pay for arbitration offices. Users can complain there when their posts are deleted.

The AfD wants to standardize administrative procedures and forms on the basis of the Onlinezugangsgesetz (Online Access Act) and handle them fully digitally. This is meant to ease the burden on citizens and municipalities.

The AfD wants government offices to work digitally. Citizens should be able to handle requests fully online. The forms should be the same everywhere. This should save work for citizens and towns.

The AfD wants esports recognized as an official sport. Streamers who live and broadcast in Hesse should no longer need a broadcasting license, so that young creators are not held back.

Esports means competing in computer games. The AfD wants esports to count as a sport. Streamers show live videos on the internet. They should no longer need a broadcasting license in Hesse.

The AfD wants to allow police to carry out stops without specific suspicion across the state, especially in high-crime locations. It also calls for visible police presence and technical aids in public places, and for stronger deployment in areas it describes as no-go zones.

Police should be able to check people without suspicion anywhere in Hesse. The AfD also wants more police on streets and squares. Technical tools should be used there too. Unsafe areas should get their own police posts if needed.

The AfD wants people who have committed crimes against life to be publicly identified. Detailed information about the person and the circumstances of the crime would be released. The party justifies this as protection of the public.

The AfD wants to name people who have killed someone. The public should learn who the offender is. It should also learn exactly what happened. The AfD says protecting victims matters more than protecting offenders.

The AfD wants to target criminal organizations, clans and gangs and break up their structures. Long prison sentences, asset confiscation and the expulsion of foreign members would become the norm. Many new positions would be created in the police and the justice system for this.

The AfD wants tougher action against criminal gangs and clans. There should be long prison sentences. The state should take away the offenders' assets. Foreign members should have to leave the country. Police and courts should get more staff for this.

The AfD wants sexual crimes against children to be prosecuted firmly. Convicted sex offenders who are considered an unpredictable danger would be kept in preventive detention after their prison term. The party also calls for public education about these crimes.

The AfD wants strict prosecution of crimes against children. This includes abuse and child pornography. Very dangerous offenders should not go free after prison. They should stay in preventive detention. That means they stay locked up to protect others.

The AfD wants left-wing extremism, right-wing extremism and Islamism to be fought with equal effort. Extremist propaganda and symbols would be banned, funding cut off and foreign extremists deported. A court would decide whether something counts as extremist.

The AfD wants to fight every kind of extremism equally hard. This covers the left, the right and Islamism. Flags and symbols of extremists should be banned. Foreign extremists should have to leave the country. A court should decide what is extremist.

The AfD demands crime statistics that distinguish suspects in more detail. Multiple citizenships would be recorded and shown. The party argues that citizens are entitled to complete figures.

The AfD wants more detailed crime statistics. The statistics should show whether suspects have more than one citizenship. The AfD says citizens have a right to all the numbers.

The AfD wants to equip the police better, including with stand-off weapons for use during riots. Higher pay and benefits are meant to make the job more attractive. Anyone who wants to join the police would have to hold German citizenship.

The AfD wants to give the police better gear. This includes tools that keep violent people at a distance. Police officers should get more pay. Only Germans should be able to become police officers.

The AfD wants the state domestic intelligence office (Landesamt für Verfassungsschutz) to work free from party-political influence. Classification as a suspected case and surveillance could be made public only after a court approves. The head of the office should not be a political appointee.

The domestic intelligence office watches groups that may oppose the constitution. The AfD wants politicians to have no influence on it. The office should make a suspicion public only with a court's permission. The head of the office should not be a political appointee.

The AfD wants to expand disaster protection with a statewide siren network, repaired and new shelters, and an earmarked emergency fund. Fire departments, aid organizations and the Technisches Hilfswerk (federal technical relief agency) would get modern equipment. Allowances for volunteers would rise with the cost of living.

The AfD wants to protect people better from disasters. There should be sirens everywhere. Old bunkers should be repaired. New public buildings should include shelters. There should be a fund for emergencies such as floods. Volunteers should get more money for their expenses.

The AfD wants to bar members of the state government from also sitting in the state parliament. It argues that the separation of powers requires parliament and government to be staffed by different people.

The AfD wants a stricter split between government and parliament. People in the government should not be lawmakers at the same time. This applies to the state premier, ministers and state secretaries. The AfD says the branches of the state can then check each other better.

The AfD wants to detach the judiciary from the executive and let it govern itself. Judges and prosecutors would no longer be hired by the justice ministry, and prosecutors would no longer take instructions. The party also calls for considerably more staff and modern technology for the courts.

The AfD wants the courts to be more independent of the government. The justice system should decide for itself whom to hire and promote. Prosecutors should no longer get orders from the minister. Courts should get more staff and better technology. Cases should then move faster.

The AfD wants to make it a criminal offense to hand out public-sector jobs based on political ties. The new offense is meant to protect those passed over and, above all, to target the officials who make such hiring decisions.

Some public jobs go to political friends. The AfD wants to punish this. It wants a new criminal law for it. The law should mainly hit the people who decide.

The AfD wants to scrap the legal status of 'political civil servant' in Hesse without replacement. It objects that top officials can be appointed and sent into paid retirement without any reason given, and it considers their pension entitlements fiscally indefensible.

The government can appoint and remove some top officials without giving a reason. They still get money from the state afterwards. These officials are called political civil servants. The AfD wants to end this rule in Hesse. It says civil servants should be neutral and loyal.

The AfD wants voters to be able to influence the order of candidates on the parties' statewide lists. Instead of fixed lists, there would be open-list voting in which several votes can be stacked on one candidate.

In state elections, parties set the order of their candidates. The AfD wants to change that. Voters should help decide who is at the top of the list. They should be able to give one candidate several votes.

The AfD wants to introduce digital referendums in Hesse to strengthen direct participation. Citizens would sign in with their ID card number and vote along the lines of the Swiss model.

The AfD wants citizens to be able to vote online. They enter the number of their ID card to do so. Switzerland is the model. This should give citizens more say.

The AfD wants graves of Bundeswehr soldiers who died during or as a result of a deployment abroad to be kept permanently, as is the case for those killed in the world wars. The public purse, not the cemetery operator, should bear the costs.

Some German soldiers die on missions abroad. The AfD wants their graves to stay forever. This is already the rule for soldiers from the world wars. The state should pay the costs.

The AfD wants to protect the German language as a cultural asset and emphasize German as the language of instruction in schools and universities. It rejects language courses in immigrant languages; migrants who want to stay permanently should master spoken and written German.

The AfD wants to protect the German language. Schools and universities should teach in German. The AfD rejects courses in the languages of immigrants. People who want to live in Germany for good should speak and write German.

The AfD commits to a German Leitkultur (guiding culture) and wants state incentives to preserve cultural heritage. Funded cultural institutions and associations should be politically neutral, and what the party sees as one-sided funding should end. A new school subject, "Heimatkunde" (local and homeland studies), would also cover the history of Germany's former eastern territories.

The AfD wants to keep German culture as the guiding culture. The state should give incentives for this. Clubs and cultural venues that get state money should be politically neutral. Schools should get a new subject about the homeland. It should also cover former German areas in the east.

The AfD wants to abolish the broadcasting fee and shrink public broadcasting to a free "Grundfunk" (basic service) with about one tenth of today's programming. It would be funded by levies on corporations that distribute audiovisual content and offer streaming. The internet should be free of censorship except for criminal content.

The AfD wants to end the broadcasting fee. Public broadcasters should become much smaller. Only about one tenth of the programs would remain. Streaming companies should pay for it. There should be no censorship online, except for crimes.