AfD on the economy

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 platform commits to the social market economy and names high energy prices, bureaucracy and slow permitting as reasons companies leave. It wants to support investment in STEM education, start-ups, the pharmaceutical and chemical industries, digitalization and infrastructure. Knowledge transfer between research and business and spin-offs from universities should be promoted, and new technologies researched without ideological constraints. Permitting and oversight procedures should be streamlined and statistical reporting duties reduced.

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 platform invokes Article 9 of the Basic Law, which protects freedom of association. Anyone who registers a business currently becomes an IHK member automatically. In the AfD's view, the chambers are increasingly used as front organizations for political parties rather than representing business interests before politicians and the administration.

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 platform praises the role of trade businesses in training young people and securing skilled workers. The qualification required to open a business would be a master title or several years of qualified experience as a journeyman under Section 7b of the Trades Code. The conditions for exemptions granted by the chamber of skilled trades should become much stricter, which the AfD also justifies as consumer protection.

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.

According to the platform, retail and restaurants should be led out of the crisis together, with restaurants becoming part of the shopping experience. The AfD names car-friendliness and parking as key elements, supplemented by shuttle services to parking lots outside the center. It is open to hybrid retail, where customers get advice in the store and have the goods delivered to their home.