AfD on families

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 benefit would replace wages and be based on net earnings over the previous three years. It would be capped at the average net salary. Beyond that, families should be strengthened financially so that parents can freely choose how long to care for their children themselves. The platform describes children as the biggest poverty risk and calls for firm state action against it.

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 party points to Article 6 of the Basic Law, which places the family as a whole under special state protection. It views adding children's rights as an attack on parents, children and families. The platform names the nuclear family of father, mother and children as its ideal; it does not reject other ways of living but opposes disparaging the traditional family. The state should reduce financial obstacles to family planning and recognize child-rearing and caregiving.

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.

Family splitting would continue after a separation until the children turn 18 or finish their first vocational training, up to age 27 at most. The €20,000 pension contribution relief per birth is not to reduce the later pension. The platform's stated aim is to encourage young people to start families and raise the birth rate in Lower Saxony. On housing, the AfD wants discounted building land for families alongside affordable rentals. Instead of subsidies for energy-efficient houses, it proposes partial debt waivers staggered by number of children.

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.

The platform wants to look at the effects of separation from the child's point of view and to advise and support separated parents. Because most children of separated parents live with the mother, special attention is to go to involving fathers. The AfD regards obstructing contact as serious misconduct; if the parent shows no insight, custody is to be restricted in favor of the cooperative parent. For single parents, the party calls for more support from the community so their situation does not lead to poverty. It also wants to promote home care for seniors and multigenerational houses.

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 party justifies the proposal with rising numbers of overweight children and young people's increasingly digital daily life. It also warns of internet risks such as cyberbullying, data misuse, pornography and violence. Schools and parents should take responsibility for moderate, time-limited internet use. For children who have become victims of cyberbullying or online crime, schools should take preventive action and more contact points should be set up.

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 platform cites the party's basic program, which holds that protection of life begins with the embryo, and sees this as consistent with court rulings. In the AfD's view, giving a child up for adoption deserves society's respect. Women who became pregnant through an act of violence are to be treated with particular sensitivity. Protection of the unborn should be adequately covered in school curricula and in public and private broadcasting, which the party describes as implementing existing constitutional law.