AfD on families

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 platform cites an average of 1.5 children per woman and speaks of a demographic crisis. According to the AfD, Germany is failing to attract qualified immigrants willing to integrate. As elements of an active population policy it names tax relief for families and stronger protection of unborn life. Those who bear responsibility for children should get the support they need.

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 platform calls equal-opportunity officers ideological and a waste of tax money. The new family officers would continuously review and improve family-friendliness. Ministries and administrations would have to examine new laws and regulations for added burdens on families. Existing laws would be revised with the same goal. The AfD's guiding model is the family of father, mother and children, along with greater recognition of the role of mothers.

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 ultrasound offer would apply in all cases without medical or criminological grounds. Recognized counseling centers would be legally required to hand over a written list of the organizational and financial support available in the individual case, including contact points. The platform cites about 100,000 abortions a year in Germany, more than 8,150 of them in Hesse in 2021. The AfD's stated aim is that women should not have to decide out of an emergency situation.

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 platform argues that children under three mainly need a reliable attachment figure, ideally mother or father. Small children are said to have a right to be raised in the family rather than in full-day nurseries. In the AfD's view, care by parents protects children's physical and emotional health.

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 plan is a new paragraph 1a in Article 11 of the state constitution. It would state that care and upbringing of children are the natural right and primary duty of parents. The platform points to Article 6 of the Basic Law (Germany's constitution) as backing. The AfD criticizes that children's rights were put to a vote in 2018 bundled with other changes such as removing the death penalty. It fears state interference up to the removal of 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.

The sum would be paid in two installments: the first half after the birth, the second when the child turns three. The platform cites 61,000 births in Hesse in 2021 and speaks of a birth deficit. This must be offset to preserve prosperity and cultural tradition, it says. The state government should also noticeably relieve families, especially given the energy crisis. A child must not be a poverty risk.

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 platform argues that high ticket prices deter many parents. History and traditions are passed on within families, it says. In the AfD's view, visiting historic sites is part of preserving culture.

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 party argues that pensions and health care depend on future contributors and that the costs of children should be shared more fairly. Meals should be balanced, tasty and nutritious. The platform also calls for a child-appropriate staff ratio and well-trained personnel.

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.

Mothers should face no disadvantage if they spend three to four years per child on child-rearing; employers should enable a quick return to work. Workplace childcare would be promoted for children over three. For students and trainees, the platform lists loans, help finding housing, childcare and a child supplement to BAföG (student aid). It also calls for more flexible courses of study and training and easier access to distance learning.

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 platform cites surveys showing that knowledge of Christian traditions is declining among young people. The AfD regards these customs as educationally valuable. The promotion is meant to apply to all daycare centers.

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.

Pregnant women in social hardship are to receive unbureaucratic counseling on alternatives to abortion. The platform demands that neither counseling doctors and institutions nor the women who use these services face discrimination. What the AfD regards as a careless approach to abortion is to be prevented.