AfD: program for the 2022 North Rhine-Westphalia state election

The AfD wants to strengthen the Mittelstand (small and mid-sized businesses) through technology support, less bureaucracy and faster permits. It sees the coal phase-out and the move away from combustion engines as a threat to prosperity in North Rhine-Westphalia and wants to reverse that trend.

The AfD wants to help small and mid-sized companies. There should be fewer rules. Permits should come faster. Researchers and companies should work together more closely. The AfD sees the end of coal as a mistake.

The AfD wants to end the mandatory membership of businesses in the chambers of industry and commerce (IHK). It considers this incompatible with freedom of association and accuses the chambers of no longer representing small firms.

Anyone who starts a business today must join the IHK. The IHK is the chamber of industry and commerce. The AfD wants to end this duty. It says the chambers no longer speak well for small firms.

The AfD wants to support the skilled trades with more Meister-BAföG (aid for master craftsman training) and a higher start-up bonus for master craftsmen. Trade businesses should only be opened by people with a master certificate or years of journeyman experience, and exceptions should become rarer.

The AfD wants to support skilled trades. People training to become master craftsmen should get more money. Only well-trained people should be able to open a trade business. Exceptions should be rarer.

The AfD wants to strengthen city centers against online retail, including through longer shopping hours on weekends. Easy access by car, cleanliness and safety are to complement this.

The AfD wants more people to come back to city centers. Stores should be allowed to open longer on weekends too. There should be enough parking. City centers should be clean and safe.

The AfD calls full employment the best social policy and wants unemployed people trained in ways that fit what employers need. It plans a dedicated support program for older citizens so their expertise stays in the labor market.

The AfD wants as many people as possible to have work. Jobless people should learn what companies really need. There should be a special support program for older people. People who do not work without a good reason should be told to work.

The AfD wants stronger incentives for employers to hire people with disabilities at fair pay. Integration should begin as early as vocational training.

Many people with severe disabilities have no job. The AfD wants companies to hire them more often. Companies should get more incentives for this. The pay should be fair.

The AfD wants to limit Kindergeld (child benefit) for children living abroad to the level customary there. It sees today's full payment as an incentive to immigrate into the welfare system.

Germany also pays child benefit for children abroad. The AfD wants to change that. These children should only get the amount usual in their country. The AfD says people otherwise come just for the money.

The AfD opposes levying the wealth tax again. It sees it as double taxation that hits small and mid-sized firms and family businesses especially hard while raising little revenue.

The AfD does not want a wealth tax. That is a tax on what people own. The AfD says this money was already taxed once. The tax hurts family businesses most of all.

The AfD wants to abolish the Grundsteuer (property tax) entirely because collecting it is complicated and costly. In return, municipalities would be allowed to levy their own surcharge on income tax.

The AfD wants to end the property tax. That is a tax on land and buildings. Towns should get a share of income tax instead. Renters should usually pay less as a result.

The AfD wants to scrap the charges that residents in North Rhine-Westphalia pay toward road upgrades. It argues that these charges hit households unexpectedly and often exceed what they can afford.

Today, residents help pay when their street is rebuilt. The AfD wants to end these charges. It says the bills come suddenly. Many households cannot afford them.

The AfD wants to preserve cash and rejects any upper limit on cash payments. It sees cash as protection against negative interest rates, against disclosure of people's transactions, and against technical failures.

The AfD wants cash to stay. It also wants no limit on paying with cash. It says cash protects people's freedom. You can always pay with cash, even without technology.

The AfD wants to use the Bundesrat to permanently lower VAT to 16 percent and the reduced rate to 5 percent. It also wants to eliminate small, low-yield taxes as far as possible in order to simplify the tax system.

The AfD wants to lower the sales tax called VAT. It should drop from 19 to 16 percent. The lower rate should drop from 7 to 5 percent. Small taxes that bring in little money should go.

The AfD wants the state-owned NRW.Bank to do only business that directly benefits the state and its residents. It also wants Sparkassen (public savings banks) to remain available across the state for payment services despite mergers.

NRW.Bank belongs to the state. The AfD wants the bank to do business only for NRW. Foreign business with no link to NRW should stop. Savings banks should stay available everywhere in the state.

The AfD wants to add the debt brake from Germany's Basic Law to the constitution of North Rhine-Westphalia. Debt taken on during the COVID crisis would be fully repaid within 25 years.

The debt brake limits new government debt. The AfD wants to write it into the NRW constitution. The state should pay off its COVID debt within 25 years.

The AfD wants the state to give cities and towns enough money for their mandatory tasks and also for voluntary services. In its view, municipalities in NRW are chronically underfunded and have almost no room to act.

Cities and towns need money for their tasks. The AfD says they get too little. The state should give them enough. The money should also cover voluntary services.

The AfD wants to create a separate criminal offense for wasting taxpayers' money. It considers this as serious as tax evasion.

The AfD wants to punish the waste of tax money. There should be a separate rule for this in criminal law. The AfD says waste is as bad as not paying taxes.

The AfD wants to provide social housing for homeless people. To do so, it wants to use vacant housing containers that municipalities originally set up for asylum seekers.

More people have no home. The AfD wants to give them a place to live. Many cities have empty housing containers. Homeless people should be able to live there.

The AfD wants to make buying a home easier and cut the property transfer tax in North Rhine-Westphalia from 6.5 to 3.5 percent. It also wants allowances for first-time buyers of owner-occupied homes and more support, including for housing cooperatives.

The AfD wants more people to be able to buy their own home. Buyers pay a tax when they buy. This tax should drop from 6.5 to 3.5 percent. First-time buyers should pay less tax.

The AfD wants to simplify building regulations and limit them to what is necessary. In particular, climate protection requirements it considers excessive should go, so that building becomes simpler and cheaper.

The AfD wants fewer rules for building. Above all, rules on climate protection should go. Permits should be faster. This should make building cheaper.

The AfD rejects the Mietpreisbremse (rent brake) and rent caps and wants more new construction through favorable conditions. Low-income tenants should get more support through Wohngeld (housing benefit), because the party sees social housing construction as costly and reaching too few people.

The AfD does not want state limits on rents. Instead, more homes should be built. People with little money should get more housing benefit. Life in the countryside should also become more attractive.

The AfD wants to raise the birth rate by putting traditional family support at the center of policy. Parents would be reimbursed 20,000 euros in pension contributions per child from tax funds, alongside family-based tax splitting, lower levies and help with buying a home. The party rejects the Kindergrundsicherung (basic child allowance).

The AfD wants more children to be born. Parents should get back 20,000 euros in pension payments for each child. Families should pay less in taxes and fees. The AfD does not want a basic child allowance.

The AfD wants to encourage companies to offer parents a path back into work after a family-related break. The public sector is to give parents more weight than childless applicants when hiring.

Many parents take a break from work. The AfD wants to make it easier to come back. Companies should get help for this. The state as an employer should prefer parents when hiring.

The AfD wants to compensate parents for lost earnings when they cut back on work to care for their young children themselves. It wants to promote traditional family structures while leaving the choice of childcare arrangement to parents.

Some parents stay home for their small children. Then they earn less money. The AfD wants the state to make up for that. Parents should decide for themselves how to care for their children.

The AfD wants to keep and expand the different types of schools and opposes a move toward comprehensive schools for all. Every school should form learning groups of similar ability. Lower and intermediate secondary schools should prepare students specifically for vocational training in the dual system.

The AfD wants to keep different types of schools. It does not want one school for all. Children with similar ability should learn together. The AfD also wants to strengthen job training. Schools should prepare students better for it.

The AfD demands that children learn to read and write from first grade using cursive handwriting and the primer method. Dictations and writing exercises are to become a fixed part of German lessons again. The platform regards good handwriting as a prerequisite for success at school.

Children should learn cursive writing in first grade. They should learn with a primer. A primer is a book that introduces letters step by step. Dictations should be a fixed part of German lessons again.

The AfD wants to end the current practice of inclusion in schools and to keep and expand special-needs schools (Förderschulen). In its view, Germany already meets the United Nations' requirements on participation in education through its special school system.

Special schools are schools for children with special needs. The AfD wants to keep and expand these schools. It wants to stop joint teaching in its present form. The AfD says special schools help these children best.

The AfD wants to hire more teachers for all types of schools and reduce class sizes to 12 to 20 students in the medium term. It wants to keep and professionalize open all-day schooling. The state is to contribute substantially to its funding and cover the staff costs.

The AfD wants smaller school classes. A class should have 12 to 20 children. For this, there should be more teachers. Afternoon care at schools should stay and get better. The state should pay for the staff.

The AfD wants every school to adopt a binding dress code. The party rejects headscarves for female students until at least age 14. It justifies this with the neutrality of schools and a professional learning atmosphere.

Every school should have fixed rules for clothing. The rules apply to everyone at the school. Girls under 14 should not wear a headscarf at school. The AfD says school should be neutral.

The AfD calls for uniform nationwide standards for the tasks, grading criteria and marking of the Abitur (university entrance exam). It also wants to introduce a voluntary Propädeutikum at Gymnasien, an extended Abitur exam that prepares students for academic work.

The Abitur is the final school exam before university. It should follow the same rules all over Germany. The AfD also wants a voluntary extra exam at Gymnasium schools. It is called Propädeutikum. It prepares very strong students for university.

The AfD wants teacher-led whole-class instruction to become an essential part of learning again. Teachers are to be strengthened as authorities in both their subject and in discipline. Notable social and work behavior is to be recorded on report cards.

Teachers should lead lessons themselves again. They should teach in front of the whole class. The AfD wants more discipline at school. Report cards should show how a student behaves and works.

The AfD wants the commission for Islamic religious education to be staffed only with representatives of associations whose view of religion is committed to the European Enlightenment. Organizations to which it attributes fundamentalist tendencies, such as DITIB, are to be excluded.

North Rhine-Westphalia has a commission for Islamic religion classes. The AfD wants to allow only certain Islamic groups there. These groups should share the values of the Enlightenment. The association DITIB should no longer take part.

The AfD wants universities in North Rhine-Westphalia to offer the Diplom, Magister and Staatsexamen degrees again alongside bachelor's and master's programs. It considers the Bologna reform a failure. Teacher training is also to be restructured, with teacher training colleges and a two-year practical training period.

Universities used to offer degrees called Diplom, Magister and Staatsexamen. The AfD wants to allow these degrees again. Bachelor's and master's degrees should stay too. Teachers should also be trained differently. Their practical training should last two years.

The AfD wants to make university chairs less dependent on third-party funding and requires university leaders to safeguard open debate on campus. Approval of degree programs is to move from private accreditation agencies back to the ministry in order to cut bureaucracy.

Researchers often need money from outside. The AfD wants them to depend on it less. At universities, everyone should be able to state their views. The ministry should approve degree programs again. Today private firms do this.

The AfD rejects restrictions on fundamental rights, school closures, and a general vaccine mandate in Covid policy. Instead it calls for a protection strategy that differentiates by risk.

The AfD is against a vaccine mandate for everyone. It also does not want schools closed because of Covid. Basic rights should not be limited. Protection should depend on how high a person's risk is.

The AfD rejects COVID vaccination of children and adolescents and wants lockdowns allowed only under narrow conditions. Educators at daycare centers and elementary schools should get extra training to recognize the psychological effects of the measures on children.

The AfD is against COVID shots for children and teenagers. Lockdowns should only happen when there is great danger. The AfD says the COVID rules harmed many children. Teachers and daycare staff should learn how to deal with that.

The AfD wants to expand preventive health services and have nutrition and exercise discussed as early as elementary school. Everyone should have good medical care nearby, regardless of income and also in rural areas.

The AfD wants more preventive health services. Prevention means staying healthy before you get sick. Children should learn about food and exercise in elementary school. Everyone should have a doctor nearby, also in the countryside.

The AfD wants to fund hospitals through individual budgets rather than relying solely on per-case flat rates. Hospitals should no longer close for economic reasons, and private operators should make up no more than 60 percent of the hospital sector.

The AfD wants to pay hospitals in a different way. Each hospital should get its own budget. No hospital should close because of money. Private companies should run at most 60 percent of hospitals.

The AfD wants to improve care for older people with a package of measures, including more short-term care places, new forms of housing and stronger palliative care. No one should face money worries or a long search for a care place in old age.

The AfD wants to do more for old people. There should be more places for short-term care. Old people should be able to live on their own for a long time. Workers in elder care should get better pay.

The AfD wants to strengthen nursing staff through collectively agreed wages across the board, fixed minimum staffing levels and better career prospects. It rejects compulsory membership in the Pflegekammer (nursing chamber), which it sees as nothing but extra bureaucracy.

The AfD wants better conditions for nurses. They should get union-level pay everywhere. There should be fixed rules for enough staff. Nobody should be forced to join the nursing chamber.

The AfD wants to strengthen domestic production of medicines and medical devices to reduce dependence on global supply chains. It also wants the state to fund antibiotic research.

The AfD wants more medicines to be made in Germany. That way the country depends less on supplies from abroad. The state should pay for research on antibiotics. Antibiotics are drugs that fight bacteria.

The AfD rejects any form of mandatory vaccination and wants a state parliament committee of inquiry to review COVID-19 policy. Health policy powers are to be brought back from the EU.

The AfD does not want mandatory vaccination. Nobody should be forced to get a vaccine. The state parliament should look closely at COVID-19 policy. The EU should decide less on health policy.

The AfD wants to restore a clear line between labor immigration and asylum and to gear immigration to the country's own needs. Illegal migration is to be stopped, and everyone required to leave should leave.

The AfD wants to separate asylum from immigration for work. Germany should decide for itself who may come. People who must leave should leave. Well-trained immigrants are welcome.

The AfD demands that NRW press the federal government for more Federal Police along the border with the Netherlands and Belgium. Unauthorized persons would be turned back at Germany's borders without exception.

The AfD wants more Federal Police at the border in the west of NRW. People who may not enter should be turned back there. This should apply with no exceptions. NRW should demand this from the federal government.

The AfD wants to give asylum seekers in-kind benefits instead of cash and pay any remaining cash benefits only via chip cards. Regular work or vocational training would be barred during the asylum procedure and once someone is required to leave. The party says this would remove incentives for migration into the welfare system.

Asylum seekers should get goods instead of money. Any money left should come only on a chip card. They should not be allowed to work during their case. The AfD wants fewer people to come this way.

The AfD wants mandatory medical age assessments for unaccompanied foreign minors whenever their age is in doubt. Their families would be barred from joining them, and at 18 they would move into the asylum procedure without exception.

Some young foreigners arrive without parents. The AfD wants doctors to check their age when there is doubt. Their families should not be allowed to follow. At 18 they should enter the asylum process.

The AfD opposes municipalities or the state voluntarily taking in additional migrants. It considers aid in countries of origin or in safe neighboring states far more effective.

Some cities want to take in more migrants by choice. The AfD is against this. It prefers to help in the home countries. It says this helps more people.

The AfD wants those legally allowed to stay to enter the labor market faster and to be placed immediately in mandatory integration measures. Integration projects would be critically monitored and evaluated for success.

People who may stay should find work quickly. They must take courses right away. There they learn German and the country's values. The AfD wants to check whether integration projects really work.

The AfD wants to eliminate options that, in its view, let rejected asylum seekers prolong their stay. The hardship commission would be abolished, the church asylum agreement terminated, and refugee counseling shifted from independent organizations to state agencies.

The AfD wants to abolish the hardship commission. This body can let rejected people stay. Church asylum should end too. Only the state should advise refugees.

The AfD wants to deport significantly more people and curb Duldung (toleration) permits. To that end, the list of safe countries of origin would be expanded, the central immigration offices strengthened, and toleration permits for training and employment abolished.

The AfD wants to deport more people. Those who must leave should go or be taken back. More countries should count as safe. The offices for deportations should get more staff.

The AfD wants to replace state programs that integrate people required to leave into the labor market with a return program called "Fit4Return." It would train people in occupations needed to rebuild their home countries.

Some people have to leave Germany. The AfD wants to prepare them for going back. They should learn jobs their home country needs. The program is called Fit4Return.

The AfD opposes making dual or multiple citizenship the standard case. Anyone becoming German should, as a rule, continue to give up their previous citizenship so that, in the party's view, no conflicts of loyalty arise.

People who become German should give up their old passport. That should stay the rule. The AfD is against two passports as the normal case. It says loyalty would otherwise be unclear.

The AfD wants to abolish the municipal integration councils and the state integration council and replace them with a different body. It cites low voter turnout and what it sees as growing influence of extremist groups.

Cities have integration councils. Elected people there speak for immigrants. The AfD wants to abolish these councils. A new body should replace them.

The AfD wants to limit immigration to qualified workers and control it tightly. For skilled workers from outside Europe, a model based on Japan's would apply, with a priority check, annual quotas, and a points system.

The AfD wants less immigration and tighter control. Only people with the right training should come. People from Germany and Europe should get jobs first. Anyone who comes must already speak German and have a job offer.

The AfD wants EU free movement understood as free movement of workers and wants to stop immigration into the welfare systems. Welfare entitlements of EU foreigners are to be reduced as far as EU law permits.

EU citizens may live and work in other EU countries. The AfD supports this for workers. But it wants fewer welfare benefits for EU foreigners. Offices should check more strictly who may stay.

The AfD demands a detailed and open accounting of immigration costs as a separate item in the NRW state budget. It argues that reliable figures on the costs of refugee policy are still missing.

The AfD wants to know what immigration costs the state. The state budget should show these costs separately. The AfD says there are no clear numbers so far.

The AfD wants the local housing market to weigh more heavily when asylum seekers and recognized refugees are distributed among municipalities. In cities with a tight market, allocations should drop significantly.

Refugees are distributed among cities and towns. The AfD wants to consider the housing market when doing this. Where housing is scarce, fewer refugees should be sent. The party says this protects local people with little money.

The AfD wants to ban gender-inclusive forms in written language and points to France as a model. It regards such spellings as a change forced on the German language.

The AfD wants to ban gender-inclusive writing. That means spelling words so that all genders are included. The party thinks this harms the German language. France is its model.

The AfD wants to keep gender theory out of curricula and lessons because it considers it an ideological construct. Sex education is to be age-appropriate and respect boundaries of modesty. Curricula and teaching should, in its view, be free of political influence.

The AfD does not want gender theory in schools. Gender theory says that gender is also shaped by society. The AfD thinks this is wrong. Sex education should fit the age of the children. Parents should be told about it in advance.

The AfD wants to ban girls from wearing headscarves until the age of religious maturity. In public service, clearly visible religious symbols, including headscarves, would be generally prohibited.

Young girls should not be allowed to wear a headscarf. The ban lasts until the age of religious maturity. From that age, children decide about religion themselves. State employees should not wear headscarves either.

The AfD wants to prevent the loudspeaker-amplified muezzin call to prayer as far as the law allows. It regards the call as an expression of religious intolerance and a burden on residents.

Some mosques call loudly to prayer. This is the muezzin call. The AfD wants to stop it. It says the call disturbs neighbors and social peace.

The AfD sees boys and men as systematically disadvantaged and wants differences between the sexes to be recognized and supported. Research funding for men's and women's studies should be split evenly, and it opposes creating new posts for equal opportunity officers.

The AfD says boys and men are at a disadvantage. It wants to respect differences between boys and girls. Research money on men and on women should be shared equally. The AfD does not want new equal opportunity officers.

The AfD rejects a right to self-determination over one's sex. Adolescents should receive puberty blockers only with parental consent, and gender reassignment surgery should be available only to adults.

The AfD is against people choosing their own gender. Puberty blockers are drugs that pause puberty. Young people should only get them if their parents agree. Surgery should only be for adults.

The AfD affirms equal rights for women and men but rejects quotas on principle. The state should only ensure equal opportunity, and positions should be filled on merit.

The AfD wants equal rights for women and men. But it is against quotas. A quota sets how many women or men get a job. The AfD says only performance should count.

The AfD wants to stop spending it regards as driven by party politics or ideology. Diversity alone should not create a claim to public money, and groups the party sees as working against society should not have charitable status.

The AfD wants to stop giving state money to certain groups. It says being different gives no right to money. Some groups should also lose their charitable status. The AfD names Antifa as an example.

The AfD wants to stop building further wind turbines in North Rhine-Westphalia. It justifies this with protecting the landscape, nature and tourism.

The AfD wants no new wind turbines in North Rhine-Westphalia. It says wind turbines ruin the look of the landscape. That scares off tourists. The state should become nicer for visitors.

The AfD opposes the energy transition and wants to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement and scrap carbon taxes and emissions trading without replacement. It doubts that humans cause the warming and favors adaptation over cutting CO2.

The AfD is against the energy transition. Germany should leave the Paris climate agreement. Charges on CO2 should end. The AfD says the warming is natural. People should adapt to the climate.

The AfD wants to stop subsidizing power from wind, solar, biogas, and wood and rejects the EU's Green Deal. Wind turbines would need large minimum distances and residents' approval, and electricity prices would drop by the amount of the EEG surcharge (renewable energy levy).

The AfD wants no more state money for wind power, solar power, and biogas. Wind turbines should stand far from homes. The distance should be at least 2.5 kilometers. There should be no wind turbines in forests. Electricity should get cheaper.

The AfD wants an energy mix in which coal and nuclear power cover baseload and natural gas adds flexibility. The remaining nuclear plants would run longer, and nuclear research would be rebuilt.

The AfD wants to keep power from coal, gas, and nuclear plants. The last nuclear plants should run longer. Germany should do nuclear research again. The AfD says this keeps power secure and cheap.

The AfD wants to remove the legal exemptions for ritual slaughter without stunning on religious grounds. Live animal transports and animal testing should be reduced, while modern barns should be approved faster.

In ritual slaughter, animals are killed without being stunned. The AfD wants to ban this with no exceptions. Fewer live animals should be transported. There should also be less animal testing.

The AfD wants to provide more money for dealing with forest damage and for reforestation. It opposes wind turbines on forest land to protect wildlife, and it demands a cap on the wolf population.

Many forests in the state are damaged. The AfD wants to give more money for new trees. There should be no wind turbines in forests. The number of wolves should be limited.

The AfD wants to sharply reduce the administrative burden on farmers and cut documentation requirements. Obstacles to direct sales should also be removed and farm shops supported so regional food is easier to buy.

Farmers have to fill out many forms. The AfD wants to cut this down a lot. Farmers should be able to sell their goods directly more easily. Farm shops should get support.

The AfD wants to end blanket reductions in fertilizer use and instead determine precisely who is responsible for nitrate inputs. It wants to expand the use of pesticides to an appropriate extent.

In some areas, farmers may only use less fertilizer. The AfD wants to end this general rule. Officials should check exactly who pollutes the water. Farmers should also be allowed to use more products against pests.

The AfD rejects government subsidies for buying electric cars, charging stations and hydrogen buses. Instead, research funding should be open to all drive technologies on equal terms.

Today the state pays part of the price when someone buys an electric car. The AfD wants to stop that. It says mostly people with a lot of money buy these cars. Research money should be open to all kinds of engines.

The AfD wants to give transport policy priority in the state budget in the short and medium term and, above all, repair state roads. It rejects policies that favor or disadvantage particular modes of transport and stresses free choice of how to travel.

The AfD wants more money for roads and transport routes. Broken state roads should be fixed first. Everyone should choose freely how to travel. Citizens should vote on big transport questions.

The AfD wants to protect, promote and keep car travel affordable. It rejects diesel driving bans, access-metering traffic lights and environmental lanes, relying instead on digital traffic management and free-flowing traffic.

The AfD wants to protect driving. Driving should stay affordable. The party rejects driving bans for diesel cars. Traffic lights should be set so that traffic keeps moving.

The AfD wants to make preserving road bridges in North Rhine-Westphalia a top priority and have older bridges inspected immediately. The federal government should pay the full cost of repairing the Rhine bridges to relieve cash-strapped municipalities.

Many bridges in the state are old. The AfD wants them checked right away. The bridges over the Rhine should be repaired first. The federal government should pay for this.

The AfD wants punctual and safe local transit and wants to keep the existing structure of three regional transit authorities. Connections should be better coordinated, and transit operators, public order offices and police should jointly tackle crime.

Buses and trains should be on time and safe. The AfD wants changing between them to work better. Police and transit companies should work together against crime. Drivers should not pay more for this.

The AfD considers one-sided support for electric vehicles a mistake and wants to keep the combustion engine. It rejects the Euro 7 emissions standard because, in its view, it amounts to a ban on combustion engines.

The AfD wants to keep gasoline and diesel cars. It thinks it is wrong to support only electric cars. It rejects a strict new EU rule on exhaust. The car industry should stay in Germany.

The AfD wants to revive air travel in North Rhine-Westphalia after the COVID crisis and, via the Bundesrat, permanently abolish the aviation tax. It rejects a night flight ban at Cologne/Bonn, and Düsseldorf should get a new operating permit.

The AfD wants to strengthen air travel in the state. The tax on plane tickets should go away. Planes should still be allowed to fly at night at Cologne/Bonn. Düsseldorf airport should be able to offer more flights.

The AfD wants to promote fiber to the user, close all mobile dead zones, and digitize public services along the lines of Estonia. At the same time, it opposes digital surveillance and wants in-person contact with agencies and cash payment to remain possible.

The AfD wants fast internet everywhere. There should be no more mobile dead zones. Public offices should offer more online. But people should still be able to go in person. The AfD is against surveillance on the internet.

The AfD wants to create 10,000 police positions in NRW by 2032, bringing the total to 50,000 employees. It also calls for higher allowances, modern equipment such as body cams and Tasers, and a more visible presence on the streets.

The AfD wants 10,000 new police jobs. By 2032, the police should have 50,000 staff. Officers should get more pay for hard duties. Every patrol car should have a Taser. A Taser is a device that gives electric shocks.

The AfD wants much harsher punishment for attacks on and insults against police officers, emergency responders, and others who serve the public. It regards such acts as an attack on the rule of law.

Anyone who attacks police or rescue workers should get a harder punishment. This also covers attacks on bus drivers and office staff. Insults should be punished too. The AfD says such acts hurt the whole state.

The AfD wants to fight clan crime across all authorities and sets out a four-part list of measures. These include raids and asset seizure, but also deportations and stripping dual nationals of their German passport.

The AfD wants to act harder against criminal clans. There should be more checks and raids. Criminals without a German passport should have to leave. People with two passports should lose the German one.

The AfD wants to require police and prosecutors always to state suspects' nationality and any migration background in press releases. It argues that citizens are entitled to transparent communication from the authorities.

Police and prosecutors should always name where suspects come from. This includes their passport and any migration background. The AfD says citizens have a right to this information. Researchers should also study the topic more closely.

The AfD wants the police to protect Jewish institutions more intensively. It justifies this with a rise in insults and physical attacks against Jewish people, including in North Rhine-Westphalia.

The AfD wants better protection for Jewish institutions. The police should guard them more. The AfD says Jewish people are insulted and attacked more often. This also happens in North Rhine-Westphalia.

The AfD demands action against left-wing extremism through executive, legislative, budgetary and social policy means. The state government should examine and pursue bans on militant left-wing extremist groups. The party also wants to cut ties between the left-wing extremist scene and the youth organizations of the SPD and the Greens.

The AfD wants to act more strongly against left-wing extremism. The state government should check whether violent left-wing groups can be banned. The AfD also sees links to the youth groups of the SPD and the Greens. It wants to ban these links.

The AfD wants only people with a clearly verifiable identity to be allowed to work for private security firms. It argues that asylum seekers can also take the required competence exam, and that many of them entered the country without valid papers.

Private security firms guard buildings and events. The AfD wants only people with a proven identity to work there. The AfD says many asylum seekers have no valid papers. So they should not work in these jobs.

The AfD wants to expand disaster protection in organization and funding and raise the flood protection budget by one third. The money is to come from climate protection funds. Volunteer emergency and rescue workers are to receive a new badge of honor and a bonus.

The AfD wants to spend more money on flood protection. The money should come from climate protection. Storm warnings should reach people better. Sirens should work. Volunteers in fire and rescue services should get a bonus.

The AfD wants activities of Islamic associations that go beyond religion to be monitored, restricted or banned where there is suspicion. Cooperation with the Turkish-backed DITIB would end, and imams would have to commit to the constitution and preach in German. The party holds that Islam, as a force shaping society, does not belong to Germany.

The AfD wants to watch Islamic associations more closely. Groups that oppose the constitution should be banned. Imams should preach in German. Foreign money for mosques should stop.

The AfD wants to expand direct democracy along Swiss lines and sharply lower the signature thresholds in NRW. It argues that the state has not held a single referendum since 1950.

The AfD wants more votes by the people. Fewer signatures should be needed for this. NRW has had no referendum since 1950. The party says the hurdles are too high.

The AfD wants to cut the state parliament from the current 199 members to 129 and make its work more visible to the public. This includes an online video library of sessions and regular questioning of the government.

The AfD wants fewer members in the state parliament. There should be 129 instead of 199. All sessions should be online as videos. The government should answer questions in parliament regularly.

The AfD wants contacts between lobbyists and lawmakers or members of the government disclosed in a public register. It also rejects special councils such as a climate citizens' council, which it believes weaken elected institutions.

The AfD wants a lobby register for NRW. It shows which interest groups talk to politicians. That way everyone can see their influence better. The party rejects special councils such as a climate citizens' council.

The AfD wants NRW to hand no further powers to the federal government or the EU. It invokes the principle of subsidiarity, under which decisions should be made at the lowest level able to handle them.

NRW should not give more tasks to the federal government or the EU. The AfD wants decisions made as locally as possible. There, citizens can have a say more easily. This is called subsidiarity.

The AfD wants members of the state government to swear once again to serve the welfare of the German people. It also rejects voting rights for non-Germans and wants to sharply restrict lawmakers' outside employment.

Ministers should again swear an oath to the German people. That was the rule in NRW until 2016. Only Germans should be allowed to vote. Lawmakers should not be allowed to take new side jobs.

The AfD wants a law forbidding the Verfassungsschutz (domestic intelligence agency) in NRW from monitoring political parties. In its view, the agency is increasingly used to hamper the opposition and protect the government.

The Verfassungsschutz is a domestic intelligence agency. The AfD wants to forbid it from watching political parties. An exception should need a ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court. The party says the agency harms the opposition.

The AfD calls for dissolving the European Union by mutual agreement. It would be replaced by a new European economic and interest community organized as a confederation of sovereign states.

The AfD wants to dissolve the EU. All countries should agree to this together. After that there should be a new community. In it, the countries stay independent.

The AfD wants to modernize the Bundeswehr comprehensively and bring back compulsory military service. The platform argues that only a country able to defend itself can help shape the international order and conduct effective diplomacy.

The AfD wants to equip the army better. Young people should have to do military service again. The party says only a strong country has a say in the world. Soldiers should get more respect.

The AfD wants to enshrine German as the national language in the Basic Law and in the state constitution of North Rhine-Westphalia. It rejects gender-inclusive spelling and wants to ban any obligation on public authorities to use it. The party commits itself to a German Leitkultur (guiding culture).

The AfD wants to write German into the constitution as the national language. It is against gender-inclusive language. Public offices should not have to use it. The AfD also wants fewer English words in German.

The AfD rejects funding culture according to criteria such as gender, ethnicity or political stance. It wants to preserve orchestras, theaters, museums and other cultural institutions across the state and to maintain customs and heritage protection. Municipalities outside the big cities are to receive help for cultural centers.

The AfD wants to keep funding art and culture. Gender, origin or political opinion should play no role in this. Theaters, museums and orchestras should stay. Small towns should get cultural centers too.

The AfD wants regional building traditions to serve as the guiding model for architecture and urban planning. It justifies this with its concern about declining town centers, urban sprawl and monotonous functional buildings.

The AfD wants new buildings to fit their region. It thinks many towns look dull today. Builders should get advice on this.

The AfD rejects the revision of North Rhine-Westphalia's monument protection law because, in its view, it weakens the specialist heritage offices of the regional associations. It also opposes renaming streets and removing monuments for reasons it calls ideological.

The AfD does not want to change the law on protecting monuments. It says the expert offices would lose influence. Streets should keep their names. Monuments should stay.

The AfD demands full disclosure of ownership stakes and board memberships at the public broadcaster WDR, local radio stations and daily newspapers. It wants to admit more providers to the radio market and have the state media authority check content only for violations of the law.

The AfD wants to know who owns media. Parties should also show their shares in media. There should be more different radio stations. The media watchdog should not control content beyond what the law says.

The AfD wants to fundamentally restructure and slim down state film funding in North Rhine-Westphalia. Support for video games would be moved out of the film foundation into a separate fund and expanded.

The AfD wants to reorganize public money for films. It says too much money goes to the wrong films today. Video games should get their own fund. That fund should grow.

The AfD wants to fundamentally restructure and shrink public broadcasting. It would offer only a basic service of information, culture and regional programs and operate without the mandatory broadcasting fee.

The AfD wants to make public broadcasting much smaller. It should only offer news, culture and regional programs. People should no longer pay a fee for it. The AfD calls this model Grundfunk.

The AfD wants to renovate and expand gyms, sports fields and swimming pools so that sports are accessible everywhere and to everyone. All elementary school students in North Rhine-Westphalia should learn to swim safely, and daycare centers and schools should offer more physical activity.

The AfD wants to repair gyms and swimming pools and build new ones. Everyone should be able to do sports. All elementary school children should learn to swim safely. Daycare centers and schools should offer more sports.

The AfD wants to improve the financial position of volunteers in sports clubs and expand competitive and elite sports. Talented children should be identified early and supported in elite sports schools.

The AfD wants more support for helpers in sports clubs. They should get more money for their expenses. Gifted children should get support in sports early on. There should be more special sports schools.