AfD: program for the 2022 Lower Saxony state election

The AfD demands immediate state payments for businesses that suffered losses from COVID measures. For future restrictions, income protection and full compensation should be set up from the start, especially for small businesses and the self-employed.

Many businesses lost money during COVID. The AfD wants the state to pay for these losses. This should apply above all to small businesses. If there are new restrictions, help should come right away.

The AfD wants Lower Saxony to keep its full stake in the VW/Porsche group. It justifies this with the importance of large industrial companies for jobs in the state.

The state of Lower Saxony owns part of Volkswagen. The AfD wants this to stay that way. The state should not sell any shares. The AfD says the big companies secure many jobs.

The AfD wants to reorganize the chambers of commerce and industry and the chambers of crafts. Official tasks such as training and expert certification would stay with levy-funded chambers, while lobbying and services would become voluntary.

Today, businesses must be members of a chamber. The AfD wants to change that. The chambers should still set rules for job training. For other chamber services, membership should be voluntary. Then only those who want to join will pay.

The AfD wants to attract companies and founders to rural areas with incentives and to make broadband expansion a top priority. The state should do more to promote tourism, which the party says should take precedence over wind and solar installations.

The AfD wants more jobs in the countryside. Companies should get benefits when they move there. Fast internet should reach everywhere quickly. The state should do more for tourism in Lower Saxony. Tourism should matter more than wind turbines and solar plants.

The AfD wants to activate and train unemployed and underemployed people in Lower Saxony rather than rely on immigration. It does not see a general shortage of skilled workers. It also wants to reduce the emigration of well-trained Germans.

The AfD says many people in Lower Saxony have no job. These people should get training and work. So the AfD sees no need for immigrants with little training. Well-trained Germans should stay in the country.

The AfD wants people who have paid in for many years to receive Arbeitslosengeld I (unemployment insurance benefit) for longer. Hartz IV recipients should get into regular jobs through more training and support and be allowed to earn more on the side.

People who worked for a long time should get unemployment benefit for longer. That is what the AfD wants. People on Hartz IV should get more help to find work. They should also be allowed to earn more extra money.

The AfD wants temporary agency workers to receive the same pay as comparable permanent staff from their first day of work. Flexibility for employers must not come solely at workers' expense.

Temp workers work for a while at another company. The AfD wants them to earn as much as the regular staff there. This should apply from the very first day.

The AfD endorses minimum wages as a tool against wage dumping, which it attributes to EU free movement and the immigration of low-skilled people. Temporary agency workers are also to receive a flexibility bonus.

The AfD supports the minimum wage. It should protect people from very low pay. Temp workers should get extra pay on top of their wage. Temp workers are hired by one firm and lent to others.

The AfD wants targeted training for unemployed people and Hartz IV recipients, coordinated with small and medium-sized businesses. Employers would get integration subsidies that start high and then decline. In the party's view, current measures miss what the labor market needs.

The AfD wants better training for people without work. Small and mid-sized firms should have a say. Firms get money when they hire and train jobless people. The money is high at first and then goes down.

The AfD wants job centers to stop pushing older recipients of Arbeitslosengeld II (basic unemployment benefit) into early retirement. Older employees are to be kept in the labor market as skilled workers, including through training and more flexible hours.

Job centers often send older jobless people into early retirement. The AfD wants to stop this. Older people should be able to work longer if they want. There should be more training and flexible hours.

The AfD calls for measures against the emigration of well-trained Germans and wants to stop the immigration of low-skilled people. It argues that these professionals were educated at public expense here but pay taxes and contributions abroad.

Many well-trained Germans move abroad. The AfD wants them to stay. It wants to improve conditions in Germany for that. People with little training should no longer immigrate.

The AfD wants child-rearing periods to count toward the prior insurance time required to stay in statutory health insurance in retirement. Parents, especially mothers, would then not have to switch to more expensive private coverage. Training is also meant to ease mothers' return to their former jobs.

Some mothers do not work for years because they raise children. As retirees they often must switch to costly private health insurance. The AfD wants to change that. Time spent raising children should count.

The AfD wants tasks and tax revenue clearly divided among the federal government, the states, and municipalities, with a larger share going to municipalities. Whoever assigns a task to municipalities should pay its full cost.

The AfD wants towns to get more tax money. If the state gives towns a task, it should pay for it in full. It should be clear who has which task. States and towns should be allowed to compete a little on taxes.

The AfD wants all German citizens to be liable for tax, even if they live abroad, and wants to stop profit shifting. It rejects the EU levying taxes of its own.

The AfD wants all Germans to pay taxes in Germany. This should apply even if they live abroad. Companies should pay tax here on profits made in Germany. The EU should not collect its own taxes.

The AfD wants to reduce subsidies, limit them tightly in time, and review them regularly for cost-effectiveness. According to the platform, permanent aid weakens recipients' motivation and burdens the majority.

The AfD wants fewer subsidies. That is money the state gives to companies or groups. The aid should run only for a short time. The state should check whether it pays off.

The AfD wants to narrow nonprofit status and end public support for a range of organizations and causes. In its view, many ideological and religious associations recognized as nonprofits act in a one-sided way.

The AfD wants to stop giving state money to certain groups. These include Islamic associations and projects on gender and sexual diversity. Climate projects should get no money either. Only groups that support the constitution should get tax benefits.

The AfD wants to keep the debt brake in the state constitution unchanged. This is meant to protect citizens from rising taxes and levies; the party rejects new charges such as a hotel bed tax or a horse tax.

The AfD wants to keep the debt brake. This is a rule that limits new state debt. Citizens should not have to pay more taxes. The AfD rejects a hotel bed tax or a horse tax.

The AfD wants residents in Lower Saxony to no longer pay charges when their street is upgraded. It argues that everyone benefits from good roads while the charges place a heavy burden on individual residents.

Today, residents often have to pay when their street is rebuilt. The AfD wants to end these charges. It says good roads help everyone. So residents should not pay alone.

The AfD rejects Lower Saxony's new property tax law. It expects the law to raise the burden on citizens and total revenue to grow, contrary to what other parties promised.

Lower Saxony has changed its property tax rules. The AfD is against this. It thinks people will have to pay more.

The AfD wants to lower value-added tax and move to a single rate. It also plans to push at the federal level for a much simpler income tax code.

Today there are different VAT rates. The AfD wants only one rate. That rate should be lower. Income tax rules should also become simpler.

The AfD wants civil servants and officeholders to face criminal liability when they waste tax money. They would be held liable for intent or gross negligence, similar to managing directors in the private sector.

The AfD wants a new law. People in government who waste tax money should be punished. This should apply when someone acts on purpose or very carelessly.

The AfD wants tax relief for low and middle incomes and pensions, raising the tax-free allowance to at least 15,000 euros a year. Tax brackets should be tied to inflation, and double taxation of pensions should end.

The AfD wants lower taxes for small and middle incomes. People should pay no tax on the first 15,000 euros a year. This should also apply to pensions. When prices rise, taxes should not rise along with them automatically.

The AfD wants to enshrine in the Basic Law (Germany's constitution) that cash must be accepted and paid out throughout the economy. It sees cash as threatened by decisions at EU level and by a digital euro.

The AfD wants to protect cash. All shops and companies should have to accept cash. This should be written into the constitution. The AfD fears a digital euro will push cash aside.

The AfD wants to lower the real estate transfer tax and fully exempt the first purchase of an owner-occupied home. The aim is to raise the home ownership rate, especially among average earners and young families.

People pay a tax when they buy a home. The AfD wants to lower this tax. For a first home of your own, there should be no tax at all. More people should be able to own their home.

The AfD wants more support for new housing construction instead of rent caps and rent brakes. In its view, a larger supply will slow rent increases. The plan includes a state-owned housing company, fewer building rules, faster permits and higher housing benefits.

The AfD wants more homes to be built. It believes more homes will make rents cheaper. The state should have its own housing company again. Building permits should come faster. People with little money should get more housing benefit.

The AfD wants to introduce a Betreuungsgeld (home care allowance) for the first three years of a child's life so that parents and grandparents can care for small children themselves. It points to studies it says show risks of care outside the family.

The AfD wants a new payment for parents. Parents should get it when they care for their small child at home. The payment should last three years. The amount depends on earlier pay. The AfD thinks care in the family is better for small children.

The AfD rejects writing separate children's rights into the Grundgesetz (Basic Law). In its view this would give the state an undue right to intervene in child-rearing. It regards the traditional family of father, mother and children as the ideal.

Some want to add children's rights to the constitution. The AfD is against this. It says the state could then interfere too much in parenting. The family as a whole should stay protected.

The AfD wants to develop Ehegattensplitting (joint taxation of spouses) into family splitting, where the number of children shapes the tax rate. Parents would get €20,000 in pension contributions refunded or waived per child. Families should also get cheaper access to building land and home ownership.

The AfD wants families with children to pay less tax. More children means less tax. For each child, parents should get back 20,000 euros in pension payments. Families should also get cheaper land to build on.

The AfD demands that unmarried parents also share custody from birth. Visitation rights and duties are to be strengthened for both parents. A parent who blocks contact without serious reason could lose part of their custody rights.

Unmarried parents should also share care for their child. This should apply from birth. Both parents should be able to see their child after a breakup. A parent who blocks this should get fewer custody rights.

Every child should be able to join a sports club of their choice free of charge, with the state covering the fees. The AfD wants this to counter childhood obesity, ease the burden on families and support clubs' youth programs. It also calls for more education about the dangers of digital media.

Every child should be able to join a sports club for free. The state of Lower Saxony should pay the fees. Children should move more this way. The AfD also wants more teaching about dangers online.

The AfD wants crisis counseling for pregnant women to no longer be open-ended but aimed at the woman having the child. Giving a child up for adoption should be presented more strongly as an alternative to abortion. Protection of unborn life should be covered in schools and broadcasting.

Pregnant women in crisis go to counseling. The AfD wants this counseling to speak up for the child. Women should learn more about adoption there. Schools and broadcasters should also talk about protecting unborn children.

The AfD wants to strengthen dual vocational training and expand it across the state to produce more hands-on skilled workers. A master craftsman or journeyman certificate would again be required for all self-employed trades.

The AfD wants to strengthen dual training. In dual training, people learn at a company and at a vocational school. There should be more offers in rural areas too. Anyone running their own trade business should need a master or journeyman certificate.

The AfD wants to return to the three-tier school system of Hauptschule, Realschule and Gymnasium and to bring back Diplom and Magister degree programs. Schools and universities should focus more on achievement and, in the party's view, be free of ideology.

The AfD wants three separate types of school again. These are Hauptschule, Realschule and Gymnasium. Universities should offer the old Diplom degree again. Achievement should matter more in school.

The AfD considers the current inclusion of disabled children in mainstream schools in Lower Saxony a failure and wants to end it immediately. Instead, special-needs schools (Förderschulen) should be restored and expanded, and joint schooling should not be automatic.

Today many children with disabilities learn at regular schools. The AfD does not want to continue this in its current form. There should be more special-needs schools again. These are separate schools for children with disabilities.

The AfD wants all-day schools to be the exception. It sees them as a social policy tool that mainly promotes both parents working and, in its view, harms the family and child-appropriate upbringing.

The AfD wants only a few all-day schools. It says all-day school means more childcare, not more teaching. Children should have afternoons for family, clubs and friends.

The AfD wants to equip schools with modern technology but rejects digitalizing teaching itself. The teacher and classroom discussion should remain at the center.

Schools should get modern computers and software. Every classroom should have a digital board with internet. But lessons themselves should not become digital. The teacher stays the most important part.

The AfD wants newly arrived students without sufficient German to be taught separately in preparatory classes first. In the party's view, native students must not be held back in their schooling by immigration.

Newly arrived children who do not speak German should first go to separate classes. There they learn German. They join regular classes only after a test. Schools should also teach shared values.

The AfD wants to replace denominational religious education at state schools with an ethics class. That class should cover the world religions and give special weight to Christianity.

State schools should no longer teach religion by denomination. Instead, there should be ethics classes for everyone. Children learn about the major religions there. Christianity should get special attention.

The AfD calls for a headscarf ban at all public schools and for employees in public administration. It considers the headscarf incompatible with a German Leitkultur (guiding culture) that immigrants are expected to fit into.

The AfD wants to ban headscarves at public schools. This would apply to students and teachers. Staff in government offices should not wear them either. The AfD says the headscarf does not fit German culture.

The AfD wants schools to return to normal operations, with no masks and no closures. Learning gaps from the Covid period are to be closed through remedial classes, and regular lessons are to take priority over all other tasks.

The AfD wants normal lessons in schools. Children should not wear masks. Schools should not close again. There should be extra lessons in the afternoon. This way children can catch up on what they missed.

The AfD wants to end what it calls political indoctrination in schools. In its view, the governing parties use the school system as an ideological instrument of power, so that students no longer dare to speak their minds.

The AfD says teachers push political views on students. The party calls this indoctrination. That means pressing an opinion on someone. The AfD wants this to stop. Students should be able to say what they think.

The AfD wants to preserve and expand the vocational school system and offer as many students as possible a suitable training place. The program regards dual training, which combines a company and a vocational school, as a success model and a basis of prosperity.

The AfD wants to strengthen vocational schools. Every student should be able to get a training place. The party likes training in both a company and a school. Vocational schools should also offer courses for adults.

The AfD wants to expand teaching and research in math, computer science, natural sciences and technology and considers many chairs in the humanities, especially gender studies, dispensable. Political restrictions on research, for example on nuclear energy and genetic engineering, are to end.

The AfD wants more research in technology and science. It thinks many posts for gender research are not needed. Researchers should also work freely on nuclear energy and genetic engineering. The party says politics should not limit research.

The AfD wants to strengthen the midwifery profession and relieve freelance midwives of professional liability insurance costs. Home births and birthing centers should remain available in rural areas too. The party is skeptical of the EU-mandated shift to university training for the profession.

There are too few midwives. The AfD wants to help them. Midwives pay a lot for required insurance. The AfD wants to ease that cost. Home births should stay possible.

The AfD rejects a COVID vaccine mandate and restrictions on basic rights for the unvaccinated, above all for children. It considers the vaccines insufficiently tested and their risk impossible to assess. It wants to use all legal means to prevent mandatory vaccination of children.

The AfD is against making COVID shots mandatory. This applies most of all to children. It says the vaccines were tested too briefly. People without the shot should not face disadvantages.

The AfD wants to double state funding for hospital construction from €120 million a year and create a state structural fund of €1 billion. This is meant to clear the investment backlog. It calls the sale of municipal hospitals to private chains a mistake.

Many hospitals need money for buildings and repairs. The AfD wants to double the state's money for this. A fund of one billion euros should be added. The AfD says health must not be a business.

The AfD supports local health centers as a complement to office-based doctors and wants to develop regional health networks further. This is meant to allow care to be steered locally, with citizen participation. The party is critical of hospital chains running such centers.

The AfD wants more local health centers. Doctors from many fields work together there. Doctors, hospitals and other helpers should coordinate better. Citizens should have a say.

The AfD wants rural hospitals providing basic and standard care to be brought back under municipal ownership and kept there. It rejects any further expansion of hospital corporations.

The AfD wants to keep hospitals in the countryside. Towns and districts should own these hospitals again. Big hospital companies should not gain more influence.

The AfD wants to strengthen preventive health care and calls for free school meals that meet the standards of the German Nutrition Society. Children should be able to grow up healthy regardless of their parents' income.

The AfD wants people to stay healthy in the first place. Schools should offer free meals. The food should be healthy. Schools should teach children about healthy living.

The AfD wants to give home care greater financial recognition and create incentives for relatives who provide care. Residential care should focus mainly on people with severe or multiple impairments.

The AfD wants more money for people who care for relatives at home. Caring for family should also count more toward a pension. Care homes should mainly serve people who are very ill.

The AfD wants to tackle the shortage of care workers with higher pay, binding staffing rules and less red tape. Lower Saxony should pay the highest care reimbursement rates in Germany.

There are not enough care workers. The AfD wants to pay them better. There should be fixed rules on how many care workers must be on duty. Care workers should have less paperwork.

The AfD wants ambulance services to meet the required response time everywhere, meaning the set time limit for reaching the scene. To that end, ambulance stations should be spread out more widely, air rescue expanded, and emergency practices at hospitals kept open around the clock.

Ambulances should reach people quickly. For this, there should be more ambulance stations in more places. Rescue helicopters should be used more. Emergency practices at hospitals should be open day and night.

The AfD wants to make Germany as independent as possible from the world market for medical goods and essential medicines. It justifies this with the experience of the COVID pandemic.

Germany should make important medicines itself. The country should depend less on other countries. There should be stockpiles of vital medicines. That way Germany is supplied in a crisis.

The AfD wants to abolish the DRG system, under which hospitals bill a flat rate per case. In its view, the system has pushed local hospitals into financial trouble and puts the billing case ahead of the person.

Hospitals today get a fixed sum for each treatment. This is called the DRG system. The AfD wants to abolish it. It says the system hurts small local hospitals.

The AfD wants to steer where migrants settle, following the Danish model. It holds immigration partly responsible for the housing shortage and demands that German citizens also gain access to affordable housing.

Lower Saxony lacks housing, and rents are rising. The AfD says immigration makes the problem bigger. It wants to steer where migrants move, as Denmark does. German citizens should find an affordable home more easily.

The AfD wants to stop granting full social benefits to foreigners who are required to leave the country and give them only in-kind benefits. It also wants to limit immigration of EU citizens into the welfare system.

Some foreigners have to leave Germany. The AfD wants them to get no more money from the state. They should only get things like food and clothes. People from EU countries should also find it harder to get welfare.

The AfD calls for ending current immigration policy and states that Germany and Lower Saxony are not countries of immigration. It justifies this with protecting national identity and with costs for the welfare system.

The AfD wants to stop immigration. It says Germany is not a country of immigration. The AfD sees German identity in danger. It also says many immigrants live on welfare.

The AfD wants permanent controls at Germany's borders to prevent unauthorized entry. It considers admitting asylum seekers who arrive via safe third countries to be unconstitutional.

The AfD wants constant checks at German borders. This should stop people from entering without permission. The AfD says people who come through a safe country have no right to asylum. Germany should fully control immigration again.

The AfD wants to consistently deport people without a right to stay and also return recognized asylum seekers once conditions in their home country ease. Detention pending deportation would last until departure, and cash benefits and integration programs for this group would end.

The AfD wants to deport more people. People with no right to stay should leave. They should get no more money. They should stay in detention until they leave. Recognized refugees should also go home later.

The AfD wants to reduce incentives for immigration that it sees in benefits for asylum seekers. It wants to change the rule that recognized asylum seekers are immediately treated equally in all welfare systems without having paid in.

The AfD thinks benefits for asylum seekers are too high. It says this draws people to Germany. Recognized refugees get all welfare benefits right away. The AfD wants to change that.

The AfD wants to abolish, without replacement, what the program calls the General Equal Treatment Act, because in its view the law mainly creates red tape. It also wants to restrict warning-letter associations and the right of associations to sue, and to roll back state requirements for businesses.

There is a law against unfair treatment. The AfD wants to scrap this law. It says the law creates too much work for businesses. Lawsuits by associations against companies should also be harder.

The AfD rejects gender mainstreaming and gender studies and wants to end public funding for such projects immediately. In its view, the underlying theories contradict natural science. It also wants to stop what it calls the early sexualization of children.

The AfD is against gender policy. It wants no more money for gender projects. It says most people see themselves as male or female. It also opposes early sex education in kindergarten.

The AfD wants to ban gender-inclusive written language in the justice system. In the party's view, laws and court rulings require precise and correct language.

The AfD wants to ban gender-inclusive language in the justice system. This kind of language names all genders, for example with an asterisk. The AfD says laws and rulings must be clear and easy to understand.

The AfD wants to immediately end state intervention in the energy mix, from the coal phase-out to subsidies for renewables. It sees decarbonization as a threat to Lower Saxony as an industrial location and to jobs in the auto industry.

The AfD wants to stop the energy transition. The state should no longer favor or disadvantage any type of energy. People should choose for themselves how they drive and heat. The AfD says this protects factories and jobs.

The AfD regards climate protection policy as a wrong path because, in its view, there is no proof that CO₂ has a significant effect on the climate. It calls for abolishing the CO₂ tax immediately, leaving the Paris Agreement and ending emissions trading. It rejects the Climate Action Plan 2050 and the EU's Green Deal.

The AfD does not believe that CO₂ changes the climate much. So it wants to end climate policy. The tax on CO₂ should go at once. Germany should leave the Paris climate agreement. The AfD rejects the EU's climate plan.

The AfD wants to abolish the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) because, in its view, the subsidies have failed and endanger supply security. Wind and solar plants should only be built without subsidies. It rejects subsidized plants on farmland and in nature reserves.

A law supports power from wind and sun today. The AfD wants to abolish this law. Wind turbines and solar plants should get no more state money. Fields should mainly be used to grow food. There should be no subsidized plants in nature reserves.

The AfD wants the three remaining nuclear power plants to run as long as is technically safe in order to avoid a supply gap. Research on new reactor types and nuclear fusion is to resume and get better funding. It considers a geological final repository unnecessary.

The AfD wants to keep using the last three nuclear plants. Otherwise, it says, there will not be enough power. Germany should research new reactors again. Used fuel rods should be used again. The AfD says a deep underground storage site is not needed.

The AfD considers coal and gas power plants indispensable because, in its view, renewables do not deliver plannable power. It rejects the coal phase-out as an ineffective German solo effort and demands reliable economic conditions for these plants.

The AfD wants to keep coal and gas power plants. It says wind and sun do not give secure power. The AfD rejects the exit from coal. Old plants should be replaced by new ones.

The AfD rejects a price on CO₂ on principle. As long as it exists, farmers and forest owners should be paid for the CO₂ they store. Diesel for farming should be exempt from tax.

The AfD is against a price on CO₂. CO₂ is a gas that comes from burning things. As long as the price exists, farmers and forest owners should get money. Their plants and trees take in CO₂. Diesel for farmers should be free of tax.

As a first step against rising costs, the AfD wants to abolish the EEG surcharge (the levy funding renewable power) and lower taxes on energy. It cites inflation and growing climate and environmental levies that weigh on incomes and pensions.

Energy has become expensive. So the AfD wants to end the EEG surcharge. This is an extra charge on power bills for green electricity. Taxes on energy should also go down. People should have more money left over.

The AfD wants Germany to set a maximum number of wolves, as France and Sweden have done. It justifies this with attacks on grazing animals that it says threaten farmers' livelihoods.

The AfD wants only a fixed number of wolves in Germany. Wolves kill sheep and other animals in the fields. The AfD says many animal farmers lose their income because of this.

The AfD wants to rebuild smaller, regional slaughterhouses so that animals travel shorter distances. Slaughter without stunning should not be allowed, even for religious reasons. Permits for modern barns should be easier to get.

The AfD wants more small slaughterhouses close to farms. Then animals do not have to travel so far. Animals should always be stunned before slaughter. This should also apply to religious slaughter. Farmers should be able to build new barns more easily.

The AfD wants to keep protecting existing natural areas and landscapes but not designate new protected areas or enlarge national parks. It sees these as a creeping expropriation of owners.

The AfD wants to keep protecting nature in Lower Saxony. But there should be no new protected areas. National parks should not get bigger either. The AfD says owners would otherwise slowly lose control of their land.

The AfD wants to improve conditions for family farms so that farmers can live on their income and invest. Requirements from the EU, the federal government and the state are to be rolled back. The party wants to support regional marketing and farm shops.

Farmers should be able to live well from their work. The AfD wants fewer rules for farmers. That applies to rules from the EU, the federal government and the state. Farmers should decide more for themselves. The AfD wants to support farm shops and regional sales.

The AfD wants to slow the loss of farmland and make land purchases by investors harder. Restrictions on selling agricultural land should also cover purchases of company shares. It rejects rezoning fields as nature conservation offset areas.

The AfD wants to keep farmland for farmers. Big investors should not be able to buy farmland so easily. This should also apply when they buy shares in companies. Fields should not become nature reserves just because something is built elsewhere.

The AfD wants a high level of food self-sufficiency and wants farmland used mainly to produce food. The requirement to set aside four percent of farmland should be dropped immediately. It rejects shifting EU farm money away from direct payments.

The AfD wants Germany to grow more of its own food. Fields should mainly be used for food. EU rules make farmers leave 4 percent of their land unused. The AfD wants to end this rule right away. Farmers should keep getting their EU money directly.

The AfD wants to change the tightened fertilizer rules immediately so that crops can be fertilized according to their needs. The boundaries of nitrate-polluted areas and the network of monitoring sites should be redesigned.

The AfD wants to change the strict rules on fertilizer. Farmers should be able to give plants as much fertilizer as the plants need. The state should measure nitrate in groundwater more exactly. Nitrate is a substance that can get from fertilizer into water.

The AfD wants to prop up pork prices with state aid for storage and to introduce an origin label. Dairy farms should get relief on costs, and small dairies should be protected from market concentration.

The AfD wants to help farmers with pigs and cows. The state should pay for storing pork. This should stop the price from falling further. Labels should show if the meat comes fully from Germany. Small dairies should stay in business.

The AfD wants to invest far more in transport routes and networks to clear the repair backlog for roads and bridges. Lower Saxony's ports should also get sufficient funding. Municipalities should receive more money for their roads, and construction sites should take less time.

Many roads and bridges in Lower Saxony are in bad shape. The AfD wants to spend much more on repairs. The ports should get more money too. Towns should get more money for their roads. Road works should finish faster.

The AfD rejects a registration ban on combustion engines and wants free competition between drive systems. Subsidies and regulatory interventions in favor of electric mobility are to end, with only research being supported. The party wants to promote synthetic and alternative fuels.

The AfD does not want to ban gasoline and diesel cars. The state should stop paying money for electric cars. Buyers should decide for themselves which car they want. Research on electric cars should continue. The AfD wants to support other fuels such as hydrogen.

The AfD wants roads and rail to remain state property. The railway should reinvest its profits, remove bottlenecks in the network and become quieter. Smaller district towns should be better connected to the ICE high-speed network.

Roads and rail tracks should belong to the state. The AfD does not want them sold to private companies. The railway should put its profits into the network. Trains should become quieter. Smaller towns should get better links to ICE trains.

The AfD calls for a higher commuter tax allowance because the cost of getting to work has risen sharply. It considers many traffic fines disproportionate; they should be appropriate and based on income.

Getting to work has become more expensive. So the AfD wants more tax relief for commuters. Commuters are people who travel to work. The AfD thinks traffic fines are often too high. The amount should depend on income.

The AfD rejects the Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz (NetzDG, Network Enforcement Act) and upload filters and wants freedom of expression online guaranteed by law. Social media operators are to be required to respect that legal framework instead of deleting posts under their own rules.

The AfD wants a free internet. One law makes platforms delete certain posts. The AfD does not want this law. It also does not want upload filters. These are programs that check content before it goes online. Platforms should not delete opinions under their own rules.

The AfD supports a free internet and what it calls sensible data protection. It rejects surveillance of all citizens without specific cause.

The AfD wants a free internet. It wants to protect people's data. The state should not watch everyone. Otherwise everyone counts as a suspect, the AfD says.

The AfD wants to take the Verfassungsschutz (domestic intelligence service) out of the interior ministry and run it as a separate state office. Its leadership is to answer to a parliamentary body with representatives of all parties in the state parliament. This is meant to rule out party-political influence by the minister.

In Lower Saxony the domestic intelligence service is part of the interior ministry. The AfD wants to make it a separate office. The minister should no longer have influence over it. A group from the state parliament should oversee the office. All parties in parliament should have a seat there.

The AfD rejects any further tightening of the Weapons Act and the implementation of the EU Firearms Directive. In its view, the rules only affect law-abiding sport shooters, hunters and collectors, not illegal weapons. Instead, illegal gun ownership and trafficking are to be tackled.

The AfD does not want stricter gun laws. It also rejects an EU rule on guns. The party says the rules only hit hunters, sport shooters and collectors. The state should rather act against illegal guns.

The AfD calls for tougher action against left-wing extremism. Public funding is to be granted only if recipients declare they do not support extremist structures. Violent Antifa groups are to be classified as terrorist organizations and the platform "Indymedia" is to be banned.

The AfD wants stronger action against left-wing violence. Groups should only get state money if they make a promise. They must declare that they do not support extremists. Violent Antifa groups should count as terror groups. The website Indymedia should be banned.

The AfD wants to strengthen the state police by reforming its structure and training. A public order force and municipal order offices with broader powers would take over routine tasks so the police can focus on protecting people from crime.

The AfD wants a stronger police force. A new public order force should do simple tasks. For example, it should record accidents and check speed. The police should then focus on crime.

The AfD wants to pay volunteer firefighters for operations, drills, and training, and suggests a pension scheme as an incentive. Professional fire departments would get more staff and equipment because, according to the program, their tasks are becoming more complex.

The AfD wants more people to join the volunteer fire service. They should get money for operations and drills. Their service should also raise their pension later. Professional fire departments should get more staff and equipment.

The AfD wants to better protect ambulance and rescue staff from assaults while on duty. The state would support the services with self-protection measures, such as buying stab-resistant vests.

Rescue workers are sometimes attacked at work. The AfD wants to protect them better. The state should help buy protective vests, for example. These vests protect against knife stabs.

The AfD wants to strengthen disaster response with more staff and equipment and build the state's own response units. It also wants food stockpiles for crises and a modernized system for alerting the public and emergency crews.

The AfD wants better protection in disasters. The state should get its own units for this. There should be food reserves for a crisis. People should get better warnings when there is danger.

The AfD wants a stricter prison system: lower standards for inmates, work to cover prison costs, and drug searches in cells. Relaxations of custody would require the prosecutor's consent, and rehabilitation would rank behind protecting the public.

The AfD wants stricter rules in prison. Inmates should not live better than people in nursing homes. Their work should cover prison costs. Day release and leave should need the prosecutor's approval. Safety should matter more than help for offenders.

The AfD wants juvenile sentences to be imposed very quickly and would create new judgeships for this. Minor offenses would also be punished immediately; overall, law enforcement would focus on violent, sexual, drug, and burglary crimes as well as extremist offenses.

The AfD wants fast punishment for young offenders. For this, there should be more judges. Small offenses like graffiti should also be punished right away. The AfD does not want lenient courts.

The AfD wants to raise sentencing ranges for repeat juvenile offenders significantly. The extra time is meant mainly for a longer rehabilitation phase in which the young people work and are subject to conditions.

The AfD wants tougher sentences for young people who commit crimes again and again. They should be supervised for a longer time. They should work and wear an ankle monitor. They should not get cash benefits from the state during this time.

The AfD wants repeat offenders to be held in pretrial detention as a rule and suspects with unclear identity or multiple citizenships to be detained in general. Forensic psychiatric custody (Maßregelvollzug) is to become stricter, with fewer relaxations. Protecting the public is to take priority over rehabilitation.

The AfD wants to hold more suspects in jail until their trial. This should apply to repeat offenders. It should also apply to suspects with unclear identity or several passports. Dangerous offenders should get leave less often. There should be more prison places.

The AfD wants to enforce the expulsion of foreign offenders and record the identity of all non-EU citizens entering the country. Crime statistics are to collect all data and make it available for analysis.

The AfD wants to send foreign offenders back to their home countries. The state should register everyone from outside the EU when they enter. Crime statistics should include more data. The AfD says this helps prevent crime.

The AfD rejects negotiated verdicts in criminal proceedings and wants sentences to be suspended on probation less often. Prominent or wealthy people should get no advantage in sentencing. Criminal judges are also to accompany police on duty for one week each year.

The AfD wants no deals about verdicts in criminal trials. Famous and rich people should not get lighter sentences. Probation should be granted less often. Judges should spend one week a year on patrol with the police.

The AfD wants to provide a free lawyer to every victim who joins a criminal case as a co-plaintiff and to expand the rights of victims and relatives in criminal proceedings. Witnesses, victims and judges are to be better protected from intimidation.

Crime victims should get a lawyer for free. This applies when they take part in the trial as co-plaintiffs. Witnesses and judges should be better protected. Courts should have protected rooms with video technology.

The AfD wants to expand direct democracy at the state and local level and lower the thresholds for popular initiatives, petitions for a referendum, and referendums. The platform considers the current rules ineffective because the thresholds are so high.

The AfD wants more public votes in Lower Saxony. Fewer signatures should be needed. Citizens should also be able to vote on budget questions. Switzerland is the model.

The AfD wants to expand municipal self-government and keep tasks at the lowest possible level. In the platform's view, municipalities are increasingly being overruled by the state, the federal government, and the EU.

The AfD wants towns to decide more on their own. The state, the federal government and the EU should set fewer rules. Citizens should have a say locally. Small groups in local councils should get more rights again.

The AfD wants a strict separation of the three branches of government. Members of the government would no longer be lawmakers at the same time, and parties would lose their influence over appointing judges and prosecutors.

The AfD wants to clearly separate government, parliament and courts. Ministers should not also vote in parliament. Parties should no longer pick judges. Prosecutors should not take orders from politicians.

The AfD wants voters in state elections to be able to pile up votes on candidates and split them across lists, as in local elections. Lawmakers elected via party lists would serve no more than four terms.

The AfD wants to change how the state parliament is elected. Voters should be able to spread votes across single candidates. Lawmakers from party lists should stay for four terms at most. Fewer civil servants should sit in parliament.

The AfD wants to limit public funding of parties and reduce the number of state lawmakers. In the party's view, parliament must not serve to provide for party members.

The AfD wants parties to get less money from the state. The state parliament should become smaller. Voters should decide on lawmakers' pay.

The AfD wants all jobs in the civil service and in publicly controlled companies to be advertised openly. Party membership, gender, age, and ethnicity should play no part in the selection.

The AfD wants the state to advertise all its jobs openly. Everyone should be able to check the selection. An applicant's party should not matter. Gender, age and origin should not count either.

The AfD wants to curb the influence of interest groups on state lawmakers and introduce stricter anti-corruption rules. Secret ballots in the state parliament would also become possible to prevent enforced party-line voting.

The AfD wants lobby groups to have less influence on lawmakers. Lawmakers should disclose their side jobs. Secret votes should be possible in the state parliament. That way lawmakers can decide freely.

The AfD wants new laws to apply only for a limited time at first. Only after a review of whether they work and are proportionate could they be passed permanently.

The AfD wants new laws to apply only for a set time at first. Then someone should check whether they work. Only then should they apply for good. This should keep government simpler.

The AfD wants to bind public authorities to fixed deadlines: if an office does not decide in time, an application would count as approved automatically. Rules are also to be reviewed and scrapped, planning procedures shortened and the administration further digitized.

Public offices often take a long time to decide. The AfD wants fixed deadlines for offices. If an office misses the deadline, the request counts as approved. Many rules should go. Offices should work more digitally.

The AfD wants fewer administrative levels and agencies in Lower Saxony and wants to abolish the Ministry for Federal and European Affairs and Regional Development. Municipalities are to gain more autonomy, and responsibility for grants is to be clearly assigned.

The AfD wants fewer public offices in Lower Saxony. One ministry should be closed completely. It deals with Europe and the regions. Towns and cities should decide more on their own.

The AfD wants state agencies to no longer be led by political appointees. Positions in the public service should be filled on qualifications alone.

Some heads of public offices get their job through politics. The AfD wants to end this. Only skill should count. Party, gender or origin should play no role.

Municipal companies that provide basic public services should only be privatized if local citizens agree. Any privatization should also be time-limited or reversible.

Some town-owned companies serve everyone, for example with water. The AfD wants local citizens to decide on any sale. A sale should only last for a set time. Or the town should be able to take the company back.

The AfD wants to change assembly law so that counter-demonstrations may no longer take place in the immediate vicinity of political events. Anyone taking part in blockades or violent demonstrations should face noticeable punishment.

The AfD wants to change the law on protests. Counter-protests should not be close to a political event. People there should not see or hear them. People who join blockades should be punished hard.

The AfD wants political parties to have no more influence on appointing judges and prosecutors. The judiciary would govern itself more, through a judicial selection committee and a judicial administration council.

The AfD wants independent judges and prosecutors. Parties should have no say in choosing them. Only ability and performance should count. The courts should manage themselves more.

The AfD wants to require out-of-court dispute resolution for claims under 600 euros before a case can go to the local court. The aim is to ease the burden on courts of first instance.

For small disputes under 600 euros, people should first go to a mediator. A mediator tries to settle the dispute without a court. Only after that can people sue. This should give the courts less work.

The AfD wants to hire considerably more staff for courts, prosecutors' offices and prisons and to digitalize the justice system. This is meant to speed up proceedings and ensure crimes are punished promptly.

The AfD wants to hire more judges and prosecutors. Prisons should get more staff too. Courts should work more with computers. This should make cases go faster.

The AfD rejects any mitigation of sentences on grounds of religion, culture or ideology and wants parallel justice to be prosecuted. There should be no settling of conflicts under Sharia in Lower Saxony. The party also rejects state treaties with Islamic associations.

The AfD wants only German law to apply to everyone. Religion or culture should not make sentences lighter. Sharia is Islamic law. It should play no role in Lower Saxony. The state should not sign treaties with Islamic associations.

The AfD wants the EU procurement directives to be mandatory only for large state projects. Smaller public contracts would then go more easily to local businesses, which the party says suffer from unfair competition from low-wage countries.

The EU has rules for public contracts. The AfD wants them to apply only to very large projects. Smaller contracts should go to local businesses more often. The AfD thinks competition with cheaper countries is unfair.

The AfD demands that the European Central Bank immediately stop expanding the money supply and end its low-interest-rate policy, returning to a stability-oriented policy. In the party's view, this policy drives up prices and rents and hurts savers and retirement provision.

The ECB is the central bank for the euro. The AfD says the ECB has created too much new money. That makes everything more expensive. Interest rates for savers are too low. The AfD wants the ECB to stop this right away.

The AfD wants to end the financing of other eurozone states through Target 2 balances. First, the EU treaties that prohibit state financing and shared debt are to be observed; then all powers over money, banks, taxes and budgets are to return to the national level.

Target 2 is a payment system of the euro central banks. Other countries owe the Bundesbank a lot of money there. The AfD wants to end this. There should be no shared debt in the EU. Germany should again decide alone on money, banks and taxes.

The AfD rejects all economic sanctions that were not adopted by the United Nations. In its view, sanctions are mostly ineffective and harm the domestic economy.

Sanctions are trade penalties against other countries. The AfD is against such sanctions. It makes an exception only if the United Nations decides on them. It says sanctions also hurt the German economy.

The AfD commits to the Bundeswehr, its integration into NATO and its presence in Lower Saxony. Former barracks are to stay operational for a buildup of the armed forces in times of crisis and not be used for other purposes.

The AfD supports the Bundeswehr in Lower Saxony. Old barracks should stay ready for times of crisis. Refugees should not live there and companies should not move in. Soldiers should also talk about their work in schools.

The AfD opposes combat missions of the Bundeswehr outside the alliance's territory, especially without a UN mandate. It rejects arms deliveries to war and crisis zones, including within Europe. It says the Bundeswehr's task is national defense within the Western alliance.

The AfD wants no combat missions of the Bundeswehr outside the alliance's territory. The Bundeswehr should defend its own country. Germany should not send weapons to war zones. This also applies to Europe.

The AfD wants to promote the German language and rejects gender-inclusive language in public authorities, media and institutions. It considers such forms grammatically wrong and harmful to the language as a cultural asset. Regional dialects are to be protected.

The AfD wants to protect the German language. It is against gender-inclusive wording. That means special forms that name women and men, for example with a star sign. The party also wants to keep dialects alive. Libraries should get more money for books.

The AfD wants to preserve and fund German and regional culture, customs and historic buildings. Significant structures are to be reconstructed, and local history and industrial museums are to receive more support. The party sees these as regional anchors in an age of globalization.

The AfD wants to keep customs and old buildings. Important buildings should be rebuilt. Small local museums should get more money. The party says people need their home region to feel secure.

The AfD wants to keep public funding for museums, theaters, opera houses and orchestras but expects them to focus on outstanding historical works. It criticizes what it sees as a left-leaning politicization of the arts scene and commits to artistic freedom without political directives.

The AfD wants to keep funding theaters, operas and museums. These places should mainly show famous old works. The party thinks the arts scene is too left-wing. Music schools and clubs should keep getting money.

The AfD demands that the SPD-owned media holding ddvg give up its stakes in publishing houses. In addition, press groups and commercial radio and TV broadcasters are to be separated from one another. The party justifies this with the independence of the media.

The SPD owns shares in newspaper publishers. The AfD wants the SPD to give up these shares. Newspaper companies should also not own radio and TV stations. The AfD says this makes media more independent.

The AfD wants to give notice on the state treaty with public broadcaster NDR in 2024, effective 2026, and in the long run leave all broadcasting treaties. Non-commercial broadcasting is to offer only what private stations cannot provide. Broadcasting councils are to be elected directly by citizens.

The AfD wants to end the contract with the broadcaster NDR. Public broadcasting should become much smaller. It should only show what private stations do not offer. Citizens should elect the boards that oversee broadcasting.

The AfD wants to abolish the mandatory broadcasting fee. Non-commercial radio and TV services are instead to be funded by levies on media corporations, money from patrons, and voluntary donations from the audience.

Today every household must pay for public broadcasting. The AfD wants to end this duty. The money should come from media companies and donors. People who watch or listen can give money if they want.

The AfD wants to promote recreational sports outside of clubs as well, for example with freely accessible sports facilities in parks. Health insurance contributions would depend on physical activity: lower with proof of exercise, higher for risky extreme sports.

The AfD wants more people to do sports. Parks should have exercise equipment and fitness trails again. People who prove they do sports should pay less for health insurance. People who do dangerous extreme sports should pay more.