AfD: program for the 2026 Rhineland-Palatinate state election

The AfD wants to waive exam fees for master craftsman candidates who pass and to raise the advancement bonus. The Meisterbrief (master craftsman certificate) should not be put on a par with shorter substitute qualifications. The platform argues that university study is free of fees while master training is not.

The AfD wants to help craft workers become masters. People who pass the master exam should pay no fees. They should also get a bigger bonus. The master title should stay as demanding as it is now.

The AfD wants to relieve businesses in the state of bureaucracy. An independent regulatory review council would examine rules, and two existing rules would be scrapped for every new one. The platform sees the bureaucratic burden as a competitive disadvantage.

The AfD wants fewer rules for businesses. An independent council should check old and new rules. For every new rule, two old ones should go. The AfD says too many rules hurt businesses.

The AfD wants more business startups by expanding founder stipends and appointing a startup commissioner. State venture capital funds would get more money, and handing over existing firms would become easier. The platform notes that the state ranks 13th of 16 in startup formations per capita.

The AfD wants more people to start businesses. Founders should get more stipends. A commissioner should connect founders and investors. Young firms should get money more easily. Handing a firm over to a successor should also be easier.

The AfD wants to loosen the state's store-hours law. Stores would be allowed to stay open until midnight, and municipalities could permit six instead of four shopping Sundays a year. The platform considers the current rules stricter than in neighboring states and a disadvantage for businesses and customers.

The AfD wants stores to be allowed to open longer. In the evening they could stay open until midnight. There should be six instead of four Sundays with open stores. Stores without staff should be able to open around the clock.

The AfD wants to support restaurants and bars through less bureaucracy and lower taxes. The Schankerlaubnissteuer (liquor license tax) would be abolished immediately, and the reduced VAT rate would also apply to drinks. A new umbrella brand is meant to bring more tourists to the state.

The AfD wants to help restaurants and bars. A tax on the license to serve drinks should go. There should be less sales tax on drinks. Ads across Germany should bring more vacationers to the state.

The AfD wants to shield small and mid-sized businesses from additional requirements and give them a larger share of funding programs. New laws would be checked in advance for their effects on these firms. Public tenders should become simpler, faster and legally more certain so that small firms can bid too.

The AfD wants to strengthen small and mid-sized businesses. New laws should be checked first for their effects on these businesses. EU and federal rules should not be applied more strictly than needed. Government contracts should be easier to get.

The AfD wants to raise the Landesblindengeld (state allowance for blind people) from €410 to at least €600 and index it to inflation. It argues that the amount has not been adjusted since 2003. A separate allowance for deafblind people is also to be introduced.

Blind people get money from the state. Today it is 410 euros. The AfD wants to pay at least 600 euros. The amount should rise with prices. People who are both blind and deaf should get their own allowance.

The AfD wants to allow the state audit office to inspect state-funded workshops for people with disabilities without needing a specific reason. This is meant to ensure that the money reaches the people being cared for.

The state gives money to workshops for people with disabilities. The audit office should be allowed to check these workshops at any time. The audit office checks how state money is spent. The AfD says this makes sure the money reaches the people.

The AfD wants the Berufsgenossenschaften (employers' liability insurance associations) to stop choosing their own medical assessors. Instead, assessors are to be assigned by lottery. This is meant to make them independent and strengthen people affected by workplace accidents and occupational diseases.

Some people get sick because of their work. Then an expert checks the case. Today the insurance association picks the expert. The AfD wants a lottery to pick the expert. This should make experts independent.

The AfD wants to extend Ehegattensplitting (joint tax splitting for married couples) to include the children in a household, so that their number lowers the parents' income tax. The platform justifies this with the poverty risk of large families and single parents. Child benefit and the child supplement would remain.

Married couples pay tax together today and often save money this way. The AfD wants children to count too. Parents with more children should pay less tax. Child benefit should stay.

The AfD wants the state to take over the short-term liquidity loans of all municipalities, not just some. The money is to come from the state's budget stabilization reserve. Lower interest costs are meant to prevent further increases in property and business taxes.

Many towns and cities have high debts. So far, the state has helped only some of them. The AfD wants the state to take over these debts for all of them. There is a reserve in the state budget for this. Then towns would not have to raise their taxes further.

The AfD wants to give municipalities more state money through the municipal revenue-sharing system and pay out a larger share without earmarks. Earmarked state grant programs are to be replaced by general allocations. Local councils would then decide for themselves how to spend the money.

The state gives money to towns and cities. The AfD wants them to get more money. Towns should decide themselves how to spend it. Today the state often tells them what to do with it. That should change.

The AfD wants to abolish the charges that property owners pay when roads are upgraded. It considers them unfair, inefficient and bureaucratic. In return, municipalities would receive at least 90 million euros a year from the state.

People who own land often have to pay when their road is rebuilt. The AfD wants to end these charges. The state should give towns the missing money. That is at least 90 million euros a year.

The AfD first wants to determine how large the repair backlog in the municipalities is. A plan agreed with the municipalities is then supposed to ensure that the backlog is fully cleared within 15 years.

Many roads, sports fields and kindergartens are in bad shape. The AfD first wants to find out how much needs fixing. Then there should be a plan with the towns. Everything should be repaired within 15 years.

The AfD wants to ease the burden on citizens and businesses by cutting or scrapping taxes; it rejects new taxes. At the federal level it backs a flat income tax rate of 25 percent, higher allowances and an end to inheritance and gift tax.

The AfD thinks people pay too much in taxes. It wants to lower or end taxes. There should be no new taxes. Income tax should have one rate of 25 percent for everyone. The tax on inheritances should go away.

The AfD wants to lower the state's real estate transfer tax from five to 3.5 percent to make buying property easier. Through the Bundesrat, it also wants an allowance for owner-occupied homes that takes the number of children into account. In the long run, the tax is to be dropped entirely for owner-occupiers.

People who buy a house or apartment pay a tax. Today it is 5 percent of the price. The AfD wants to lower it to 3.5 percent. Families with children should pay even less. Later the tax should end for people who live in the home themselves.

The AfD rejects a tax on single-use packaging for takeout food and drinks, which several cities in the state are debating. It considers the tax environmentally ineffective and highly bureaucratic and wants to avoid extra costs for restaurants and consumers.

Some cities want a tax on throwaway packaging. This affects things like coffee cups and paper bags for rolls. The AfD is against it. It says the tax does not help the environment. And it makes takeout food more expensive.

The AfD wants to push at the federal level to abolish property taxes and the Gewerbesteuer (local trade tax). Municipalities would instead get a larger share of income tax revenue and their own surcharge on income and corporate tax. This is also meant to lower the running costs of housing.

The AfD wants to end the property tax. It also wants to end the trade tax. Businesses pay the trade tax to their town. Towns would get other money instead. The AfD also wants to ban towns from adding new taxes on water or living space.

The AfD rejects Sondervermögen (special off-budget funds) on principle and calls them debt-financed shadow budgets. It demands budget discipline, transparency, and debt reduction instead, so that taxes can be lowered later.

A special fund is an extra pot next to the normal budget. The state usually fills it with debt. The AfD rejects such pots. It wants to pay down debt. Taxes should then go down later.

The AfD wants to create a state fund of 50 million euros from which municipalities receive money to buy undeveloped land. This would let them take advantage of land prices that are still comparatively low and build up land reserves.

Land is still cheap in many places. The AfD wants to set up a fund with 50 million euros. A fund is a pot of money for one purpose. Towns can use it to buy empty land. Later they can turn it into building land.

The AfD wants to reduce demand for housing by deporting rejected asylum seekers. It attributes rising rents to asylum migration over the past ten years.

The AfD says rents went up because of many asylum seekers. It wants to send rejected asylum seekers back home. Then fewer people would look for a home. The AfD expects price pressure to ease then.

The AfD wants to align the state building code with the national model building code and in some areas simplify it even further. Master craftsmen in all building trades would be allowed to plan and submit smaller projects in their field themselves. This is meant to lower construction costs.

The AfD wants simpler building rules in the state. The rules should match the shared model of the German states. Master craftsmen would be allowed to hand in small building plans themselves. Today people often need an architect for that. Building should get cheaper this way.

The AfD wants to make it easier to voluntarily convert a single-family home into a two-family home. At the same time it explicitly rejects any tax on living space. The aim is to free up unused housing, for example after children have moved out.

Some houses have become too big for the people in them. The AfD wants to make it easier to turn them into two homes. This should stay voluntary. The AfD rejects a tax on living space. Some building requirements would be dropped for this.

The AfD wants to change the content of the mandatory counseling before an abortion and give mothers more support during pregnancy and after birth. In the platform's view, the counseling has often become a mere formality that says too little about the consequences of an abortion and about available help.

Women must go to counseling before an abortion. The AfD says this counseling is often too shallow. It wants to change it. Women should learn more about consequences and help. Mothers should get more support.

The AfD wants to raise the quality of daycare centers (Kitas). Municipalities are to get more help with building new ones, and the state would pay for additional childcare workers. This is meant to expand all-day care and prevent sudden closures.

The AfD wants better daycare centers. Towns should get more help to build them. There should be more childcare workers. The state should pay for them. Centers should stay open longer and not close suddenly.

The AfD wants to extend reimbursement of school travel costs to upper secondary students and those in their first vocational training. The state would cover the extra costs for municipalities. This is meant to ease the financial burden on families.

Parents today get money back for younger children's trips to school. This does not apply to the upper grades. The AfD wants to change that. Trainees in their first apprenticeship should get it too. The state should pay.

The AfD wants to create more regional child protection services that help children after sexual violence or abuse. Every city and every county is to have at least one easily reachable contact point.

Child protection services help children who have suffered violence. The state has 16 of them today. The AfD wants more. Every city and county should have at least one. Children should not have to travel far.

The AfD wants to strengthen dual vocational training because training positions are going unfilled. Every school diploma should qualify graduates for an apprenticeship, and vocational schools should be better equipped. Technical high schools would also be established.

The AfD wants to strengthen job training. Every school diploma should be enough to start training. Students should get better at math and reading. Vocational schools should get better equipment.

The AfD wants a school system with three separate school types, including a new one with a technical and practical focus, and rejects a single comprehensive school. Requirements are to rise at all school types so that diplomas suffice for vocational training or university without extra help.

The AfD wants three different kinds of schools. One new kind should teach technical and practical skills. Schools should demand more. There should be one uniform exam for the Mittlere Reife, a mid-level diploma.

The AfD wants children admitted to regular classes only once they know enough German. More school kindergartens with language support are to be set up for this. The platform also links better education to less immigration.

Children should learn German first. Only then do they join the normal class. For this the AfD wants more school kindergartens. The AfD also wants less immigration so classes get smaller.

The AfD wants to keep and strengthen Förderschulen (special-needs schools) for children with disabilities. Mainstream schools with disabled students should decide for themselves which subjects are taught jointly and which separately.

The AfD wants to keep special-needs schools and make them stronger. These are schools for children with disabilities. Regular schools should decide for themselves. They may teach children together or apart.

The AfD wants a tough approach to violence in schools. Crimes are always to be reported, and teachers are to be legally protected and have their authority strengthened.

The AfD does not want to accept violence in schools. Schools should report every crime. Teachers should get more protection. Victims should matter more than offenders.

The AfD wants digital devices used in class only where they bring a benefit. Elementary schools are to do without tablets.

The AfD wants computers in schools only when they help. Elementary schools should have no tablets. Computers should not replace teachers. Children's data should be protected.

The AfD wants to review existing sex education programs and give parents a say in the content. Schools should also be allowed to practice rituals such as raising flags and singing together.

The AfD wants to check lessons about sexuality. Parents should know the content and have a say. Schools should be allowed to keep shared customs. Examples are raising flags and singing German songs.

The AfD wants to give the state's universities money so they can support companies founded out of academic work. The platform argues that innovation and entrepreneurship get too little support there today, leaving potential unused.

The AfD wants to support start-ups at universities. A start-up is a new company that can grow fast. Universities would get money and staff for this. The AfD says too little is done today.

The AfD wants to give universities more stable core funding and reduce their dependence on third-party grants. The platform argues that this dependence endangers freedom of research and teaching. The party also opposes what it calls cancel culture at universities.

The AfD wants to give universities more fixed money. Researchers should write fewer grant applications. They should decide for themselves what to study. The AfD also wants everyone at universities to speak freely.

The AfD wants to raise the number of medical school places in the state from 500 to 750 within five years and to 1,000 in the long run. This is meant to end the doctor shortage, which the platform attributes to the age structure of the medical profession.

The AfD wants more places to study medicine. In five years there should be 750 instead of 500. Later there should be 1,000. This should make sure there are enough doctors again.

The AfD wants to secure outpatient care by making it financially easier for doctors to set up practice and by helping municipalities recruit doctors. Budget caps on treatments would be dropped, and clawback claims and cost-efficiency audits curbed.

Many doctors' offices cannot find a successor. The AfD wants to help doctors open or take over a practice. There should be money for this. Doctors should no longer have fixed spending limits for treatments. Towns and villages should also get help from the state.

The AfD wants to cut administrative work in health care substantially so that more time is left for patients. Digital tools should only be introduced with strict data protection, and the electronic patient record should require prior consent.

Doctors and nurses should have less paperwork. Then they have more time for patients. New computer programs should really make work easier. The electronic patient record should only exist if the patient says yes first. Patient data should not be stored in one central place.

The AfD wants to prevent hospital closures and provide more state investment funding for that purpose. A new fund is meant to clear the renovation backlog and absorb deficits at municipal hospitals.

Many hospitals have money problems or have to close. The AfD wants to stop that. The state should give more money to hospitals. A new fund should pay for repairs and upgrades. Towns and counties should be able to keep their hospitals this way.

The AfD wants to make nursing and medical assistant professions more attractive through higher qualifications and better pay. For doctors, working conditions, pay and work-family balance are to improve so that fewer leave for other countries or other industries.

Nurses and assistants should be able to learn more and earn more. They should take over more tasks from doctors. Doctors should get better working conditions. Work and family should fit together better. Then fewer doctors will move abroad.

The AfD wants to create significantly more places in medical school and replace the high school grade cutoff (Numerus Clausus) with a different admission procedure. The rural doctor scholarship and rural doctor quota are to be extended to more specialties.

The AfD wants more places to study medicine. School grades should no longer decide who gets a place. A new process should check who is suited for the job. Students who later work in the countryside should get a scholarship. A scholarship is money for studying.

The AfD wants to guarantee the legally required ambulance response times statewide and expand emergency rooms as needed. Volunteer first responders are to be given the same status as volunteer fire departments.

An ambulance should arrive within 15 minutes of an emergency call. A suitable hospital should be reachable within 30 minutes. The AfD wants to secure this everywhere in the state. Emergency rooms should be expanded. Volunteer first responders should be treated like volunteer firefighters.

The AfD wants foreign medical degrees and work references to be examined more closely, especially those from non-EU countries. In addition to language certificates, an equivalence exam at the level of German state or specialist exams would be mandatory.

Some doctors studied in other countries. The AfD wants to check their certificates more closely. These doctors should speak German well and prove it. They should also pass an exam like German doctors do. Without proof of language skills, they should not get permission to work.

The AfD wants the state government's COVID measures and their consequences to be investigated. People who suffered health damage from a COVID vaccination are to receive support or compensation, as are their relatives and surviving dependents. Post-vac syndrome is to be recognized as an illness.

The AfD wants to review the state's COVID policy. It asks what harm was done. People harmed by a COVID vaccine should get money or help. Their families should too. Post-vac should count as an illness. Post-vac means health problems after a vaccination.

The AfD rejects any vaccine mandate and other compulsory medical measures, citing the fundamental right to physical integrity. It wants to prevent international bodies such as the WHO from gaining influence over the state's health policy. It also opposes the new retainer payment for general practitioners.

The AfD does not want any vaccine mandate. All treatment should be voluntary. The WHO should have no say in Rhineland-Palatinate. The WHO is the World Health Organization. Family doctors should not get money for vaccinating many people.

The AfD wants more training places in nursing and scholarships tied to several years of work in Rhineland-Palatinate. It rejects the unified nursing training program and wants to return to separate professions. The Landespflegekammer (state nursing chamber) is to be dissolved.

The AfD wants to train more nurses. People who get a scholarship should then work in the state for some years. There should again be separate training for hospital nursing and elder care. The state nursing chamber should be closed.

The AfD wants every pregnant woman to be able to reach a maternity ward within 40 minutes and to have one-to-one care from a midwife. To that end, existing wards are to be kept and new ones built. The number of C-sections is to fall.

Every pregnant woman should reach a maternity ward in 40 minutes. One midwife should care only for her. The AfD wants to keep maternity wards and build new ones. Midwives should get affordable insurance. There should be fewer C-sections.

The AfD wants to introduce a care salary that gives financial security to people who look after relatives at home. Home care is to become a central part of the social security system. The platform points out that most people needing care are looked after at home.

Many people care for relatives at home. They get no salary for it. The AfD wants to introduce a care salary. It should give these people enough to live on. Care at home should become more important.

The AfD frames its migration policy as "integration or remigration." Foreigners without a right to stay would have to leave if they are criminal, extremist or dangerous, rely on welfare, or no longer have grounds for protection. German citizens, including naturalized ones, are explicitly excluded.

The AfD wants certain foreigners to leave Germany. It calls this remigration. It is about foreigners with no right to stay, for example offenders. People with a German passport are not affected.

The AfD wants to tie German citizenship to strict conditions. It should come only at the end of a successful integration process, which the program says usually takes at least ten years. Integration courses and tests would become more binding and affect welfare benefits and the right to stay.

The AfD wants to make it harder to get a German passport. People should speak German well and live from their own work. They must not have committed crimes. People who fail integration courses should face disadvantages.

The AfD wants to keep the existing border checks, which it says have proven effective against smugglers and unauthorized entry. In addition, unauthorized entry via airports is to be stopped.

The AfD wants to keep checks at the borders. It says the checks have worked well. Nobody should be able to enter without permission at airports either.

The AfD wants to deport large numbers of people who are required to leave and to centralize the procedures at state level. Hahn airport would become the central deportation airport with its own return center. Priority would go to deporting foreigners who have committed crimes or are classed as dangerous.

The AfD wants to deport many more people. The state should organize deportations centrally. A deportation center is to be built at Hahn airport. Offenders and dangerous people should go first.

The AfD wants to dissolve the state's hardship commission without replacement and carry out deportations even from church asylum. It rejects on principle the discretionary toleration permits (Duldung) granted by immigration offices. In its view, asylum decisions should not be bypassed by state bodies or churches.

The AfD wants to abolish the hardship commission. This body can let rejected asylum seekers stay. People should also be deported from church asylum. Offices should only grant toleration permits for compelling reasons.

The AfD wants to immediately stop all state programs for admission, for so-called "lane changes," and for integration. Only the voluntary departure program would remain. The party argues that society's capacity to take people in has been exceeded.

The AfD wants to stop all programs for taking in refugees right away. Integration programs should end too. Only help for leaving voluntarily should stay. The party says the state cannot take in more people.

The AfD wants to keep rejected asylum seekers in state reception facilities for as long as the law allows before distributing them to towns and cities. Overburdened municipalities would not have to take in more asylum seekers. The state would reimburse municipalities for all asylum costs.

The AfD wants to ease the burden on towns and cities. Rejected asylum seekers should only move to towns after 24 months. Overloaded towns should not have to take anyone in. The state should pay all asylum costs.

The AfD wants asylum seekers in initial reception to receive, as a rule, only benefits in kind. Payment cards would be capped at 50 euros a month, and asylum seekers would be assigned to community work. The party wants to reduce financial incentives for migration.

The AfD wants to stop giving money to asylum seekers. They should get food, clothing and hygiene items. The payment card should hold at most 50 euros a month. Asylum seekers should also do community work.

The AfD supports immigration of qualified workers where there is demand that cannot be met by local workers. Foreign vocational qualifications would be recognized with little red tape but without lower standards. The party also wants to encourage Germans who have emigrated to return.

The AfD supports skilled workers coming in when companies need them. Foreign job qualifications should be recognized more easily. But they must be as good as German ones. Germans living abroad should find it easier to come back.

The AfD rejects quota rules in working life. In its view, quotas replace performance and suitability with gender and treat women across the board as a weaker group. Jobs should go to the best applicants.

The AfD does not want quotas for women at work. A quota says how many jobs must go to women. The AfD says only skill and performance should count. The best applicants should get the job.

The AfD wants to raise the number of women's shelters in Rhineland-Palatinate from 19 to 36, so that every independent city and every county has one. The state would cover most of the municipal share of the costs. Women's emergency helplines are also to be expanded and made better known.

Women's shelters protect women and children from violence at home. Today the state has 19 of them. The AfD wants 36 shelters. The state should pay most of the cost. Helplines for women should also grow.

The AfD wants to repeal the Selbstbestimmungsgesetz (Self-Determination Act). Protected spaces such as women's shelters, saunas and changing rooms are to be open only to biological women. The platform justifies this with dangers it sees for women.

The Self-Determination Act lets people change their legal gender easily. The AfD wants to end this law. Women's shelters and changing rooms should be only for biological women. The AfD says this protects women better.

The AfD wants to cut state funds that it says promote a "gender ideology" and to keep such content out of daycare centers and schools. Gender-altering treatments would be allowed before age 18 only when medically necessary. The party justifies this with the welfare of children.

The AfD rejects what it calls gender ideology. The state should stop paying for it. Daycare centers and schools should no longer teach it. Under 18, treatments to change gender should be allowed only for medical reasons.

The AfD wants to repeal the state's climate protection law and push for an end to carbon pricing and emissions trading. In the platform's view, Germany's CO2 emissions have no relevant effect on the climate, while climate measures harm the economy.

The AfD wants to scrap the state climate protection law. The price on CO2 should also go. The AfD says Germany has hardly any effect on the climate. Climate protection should not burden the economy.

The AfD wants to push at both the state and federal level for Germany to use nuclear power plants again. The platform argues this would lower electricity prices and make Rhineland-Palatinate competitive again as an industrial location.

The AfD wants nuclear power plants in Germany again. It says nuclear power is cheap and safe. Then power gets cheaper for everyone. That also helps factories in the state.

The AfD wants to slow the build-out of wind and solar and leave them to the market without preferential treatment by the state. It cites unstable grids and high costs. Solar parks on farmland are not to be expanded further.

The AfD wants fewer new wind turbines and solar systems. The state should no longer favor them. The AfD says they make the power grid unstable and costly. No new solar parks should be built on farm fields.

The AfD wants to scrap carbon pricing on energy entirely, abolish the energy tax and cut the electricity tax to the lowest rate permitted in Europe. This is meant to keep industry in the state and relieve households.

The AfD wants to end the CO2 price on energy. The energy tax should go too. The power tax should be as low as allowed. Then fuel, heating and power get cheaper.

The AfD wants to end current climate policy and abolish the CO2 levy. Instead of trying to stop climate change, the state should adapt to it. The party justifies this with keeping industry and jobs.

The AfD wants to end the current climate policy. The charge on CO2 should go away. The AfD says Germany cannot change the climate. The state should adapt to climate change instead. That way, factories and jobs are meant to stay.

The AfD wants to allow no new wind turbines in state-owned forest and to encourage private and municipal forest owners to refrain voluntarily. Operators would also have to financially guarantee the complete removal of old turbines, including foundations.

The AfD wants no new wind turbines in the state's forest. Other forest owners should give them up by choice. Old turbines should be removed fully. The operators should pay for this, not taxpayers.

The AfD calls for active wolf management with population control to protect grazing animals. The yearly increase is to be hunted and problem wolves killed. The party considers the lowered protection status and the wolf's inclusion in state hunting law insufficient.

Wolves kill sheep and other animals in pastures. The AfD wants hunters to be allowed to shoot wolves. The number of wolves should stop growing. Wolves that cause problems should be killed.

The AfD wants to give animal shelters considerably more state money so that intake freezes end. Municipalities are to get state help in adopting cat protection ordinances, with uniform rules across the state. Online trade in pets and exotic animals is also to be regulated.

Animal shelters do not have enough money. The AfD wants to give them much more state money. Towns should get help with rules for cats. Selling animals on the internet should have stricter rules.

The AfD wants research to do without animal testing in the long run and will fund alternative methods to that end. Where animal tests are used for products, consumers should be able to see this. The state is to monitor animal experiments more closely.

Animals suffer in animal tests. The AfD wants research to manage without animal tests one day. It wants to fund other methods. Buyers should learn whether a product was tested on animals.

The AfD wants to fund humane husbandry systems for farm animals, including year-round grazing. It favors regional slaughter, including slaughter on pasture, and wants to stop long transports of live animals. Maximum transport times are to be set by law.

Farm animals should have more space and time outdoors. The AfD wants to support this kind of farming. Animals should be slaughtered close by. Long trips with live animals should stop. A law should set the longest travel time allowed.

The AfD wants to undo the revision of the state hunting law and redraft it together with hunters. Hunters are to hunt on their own responsibility without state culling requirements. The municipal hunting tax is also to go, with the state compensating for lost revenue.

The state has a new hunting law. The AfD wants to take this law back. It wants to write a different law together with hunters. Hunters should decide for themselves how they hunt. The hunting tax should be dropped.

The AfD wants to prioritize flood protection. It plans early warning systems, stormwater retention basins, infiltration areas in new housing developments and the restoration of rivers and streams to a natural state.

The AfD wants to protect the state better against floods. There should be new warning systems. Basins should hold back rainwater. In new housing areas, water should be able to soak into the ground. Rivers and streams should become more natural again.

The AfD wants to replant forest areas left bare by storms and pests with climate-adapted mixed woodland. It also rejects what it sees as excessive certification requirements for forestry operations.

Storms and pests have destroyed many forests. The AfD wants to plant new trees there. These should be mixed forests that suit the climate. Forestry businesses should have to provide fewer certificates.

The AfD wants to support beekeepers with subsidies and make fighting the Asian hornet a state responsibility. Beyond that, introduced plant and animal species are to be pushed back in order to protect native ones.

The AfD wants to give money to beekeepers. The state should fight the Asian hornet because it harms bees. Other foreign plants and animals should also be pushed back. This is how the AfD wants to protect native species.

The AfD wants to fund farming in the state, raise self-sufficiency in products such as fruit and vegetables, and reduce paperwork for farmers. Agricultural policy is to become more independent of the EU. The program justifies this with food security in times of crisis.

The AfD wants to give farmers in the state more money. Germany should grow more of its own fruit and vegetables. Farmers should have less paperwork. The EU should have less say over farming.

The AfD wants to push at the federal level for agricultural diesel to be fully tax-free and for the refund for 2024 and 2025 to be granted in full retroactively. Other charges on fuel, such as the carbon levy, are to be dropped as well. This is meant to relieve farms and strengthen their competitiveness.

Farmers need a lot of diesel for their machines. The AfD wants them to pay no tax on it. Farmers should get money back for 2024 and 2025. The carbon charge on fuel should also go.

The AfD wants to support young farmers and winegrowers with a state bonus when they take over a farm, in order to preserve family farms. A voluntary agricultural year is also meant to attract new people to the sector.

Many farms cannot find someone to take over. The AfD wants to give young farmers and winegrowers money when they take over a farm. Young people should be able to work on a farm for one year as volunteers. That way they can try out the job.

The AfD calls for special federal rules on the minimum wage for seasonal farm workers and a five-month rule so they can work on farms for longer. This is meant above all to protect small farms from high labor costs.

Farms often hire workers just for one season. The minimum wage applies to them. The AfD wants separate wage rules for these workers. They should also be allowed to work for up to five months.

The AfD wants to simplify the approval of pesticides in Germany, reform the EU pesticide regulation and thoroughly slim down the Düngeverordnung (fertilizer ordinance). Farmers are to decide on use themselves according to good professional practice. The program expects reliable harvests and stable prices as a result.

Farmers protect their plants with sprays and fertilize their fields. There are many rules for this. The AfD wants to make these rules simpler. New products should be approved more easily. The AfD trusts what farmers know.

The AfD wants to simplify the labeling of regional food and establish origin labeling. Imported meat is to be labeled, and farm shops are to be supported as a form of direct sales. Consumers should find it easier to see where a product comes from.

Many people want to buy food from their own region. The AfD wants simple rules for labels. The label should say where the product comes from. People should be able to spot meat from abroad. Farm shops should get support.

The AfD wants to support winegrowing, especially the labor-intensive cultivation of steep slopes. It rejects blanket bans on plant protection products and wants to make drone use easier instead. The Straußenrecht (the right of winegrowers to run a seasonal tavern) is to be extended to 180 days a year.

A lot of wine grows in Rhineland-Palatinate. The AfD wants to help winegrowers. Growing wine on steep hills should get extra money. Winegrowers should be allowed to serve their own wine on 180 days a year.

The AfD wants to scrap the so-called Wassercent (water cent) entirely. The charge for extracting groundwater and surface water has applied to all agriculture and forestry since 2024. In the party's view, the administrative effort is out of proportion to the revenue.

Anyone who takes water from the ground or from rivers pays money to the state. This is called the water cent. Since 2024 all farmers and foresters pay it too. The AfD wants to get rid of this charge completely.

The AfD wants to give the Landesbetrieb Mobilität (state road agency) far more money and staff to repair and expand roads and bridges. In addition, all projects in the federal transport infrastructure plan located in the state would be built. The platform sees good roads as a factor for attracting business and as a contribution to road safety.

The AfD wants to fix broken roads and bridges. The agency in charge would get much more money and staff. All planned major roads would be built. This includes the missing stretch of the A 1 highway.

The AfD wants all citizens to be able to choose freely between car, bus, rail, bicycle and walking. It rejects taxes and charges that burden particular modes such as the private car. Bike paths would be expanded without pushing out car traffic.

The AfD wants everyone to choose how they travel. Drivers should not pay extra charges. There should be more bike paths. But no parking spaces should be lost for them. Buses and trains should run better.

The AfD wants to build the Middle Rhine bridge near St. Goar with state money and put up another bridge between Mainz and Worms. The platform justifies this with the lack of Rhine crossings over long stretches and with traffic jams in the Rhine-Main area.

The AfD wants to build new bridges over the Rhine. One would be near St. Goar. The state would pay for it. Another would be built between Mainz and Worms. People would save detours and waiting time at ferries.

The AfD wants new cars with combustion engines to remain eligible for registration, opposing the EU-wide phase-out from 2035. Engines and fuels should be developed in a technology-neutral way and sold freely. The platform justifies this with jobs in the state's auto industry.

From 2035, the EU wants to stop allowing new cars with combustion engines. The AfD is against this. Such cars should stay legal. The AfD says this protects jobs in the car industry.

The AfD wants more freight to be carried by ship on the Rhine and Moselle. To that end, shallow spots are to be removed and the Moselle locks expanded. According to the platform, this would take pressure off the roads.

The AfD wants more goods to travel by ship. The Rhine and Moselle rivers should be easier to use. Shallow spots in the river should be removed. The locks on the Moselle should get bigger. Then fewer trucks would be on the roads.

The AfD wants the federal government to continue its noise-abatement program for the Middle Rhine Valley and would add state money for further noise protection. It also wants a bypass route for freight trains to be planned. Disused rail lines should only reopen if the benefits exceed the costs.

Trains make a lot of noise in the Middle Rhine Valley. The AfD wants more protection from this noise. The federal government should keep paying for it, and the state too. A new tunnel should take freight trains away from the valley. Old rail lines should only reopen if it is worth it.

The AfD wants to shorten the driving ban for trucks on public holidays to 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. and create a transit rule for holidays that do not apply in every state. It also wants additional truck parking along the state's highways. This is meant to lower logistics costs and improve road safety.

On holidays, trucks may not drive for almost the whole day. The AfD wants to make this ban shorter. It should only apply from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. There should also be more parking spaces for trucks. Drivers can take their breaks there.

The AfD wants to create a central digital platform for the skilled trades in the state. Businesses would upload documents only once and forward them to every authority involved. This is meant to save them paperwork, time and money.

The AfD wants an online platform for craft businesses. Businesses upload their papers there only once. Then they send them to the offices with one click. This means less paperwork for craft workers.

The AfD wants to actively promote artificial intelligence in the state and make Kaiserslautern Germany's AI hub. The technical university there would get more money for AI. The platform argues that AI boosts productivity and that Germany must not miss out on the development.

The AfD wants to support artificial intelligence. These are computer programs that learn by themselves. Kaiserslautern should become the main AI center in Germany. The university there should get more money.

The AfD wants to launch a state program that closes gaps in mobile coverage and provides fast internet everywhere. This is meant to help businesses, make working from home easier and make rural areas more attractive.

Some places have no cell phone signal. Some places have slow internet. The AfD wants to change that with a program. The whole state should get fast internet. This helps companies and people in the countryside.

The AfD wants to simplify administrative processes in municipalities so they can be handled fully digitally. A right to non-digital access to public offices is to remain. In addition, cooperation between municipalities is to be strengthened through simpler rules and funding.

Many public offices still work with paper. The AfD wants people to be able to apply from home on a computer. People who prefer it should still be able to go to the office without a computer. Towns should also be able to work together more easily.

The AfD wants to expand the state police from 9,148 to 10,000 full-time positions and relieve officers of administrative work. The platform cites more than a million hours of overtime and the goal of improving security.

The AfD wants more police officers in the state. There would be 10,000 full-time positions. Today there are 9,148. Officers would do less office work. That way they have more time to protect people.

The AfD wants to renovate the state police academy (Hochschule der Polizei) at Hahn Airport and add modern training facilities. The platform describes most of the buildings as being in very poor condition and sees good training as a contribution to public safety.

Police officers train at their own academy at Hahn Airport. The AfD says the buildings are in bad shape. The party wants to renovate them. It also wants a new center for operations training.

The AfD calls for a firm approach to crime with more police presence and expanded powers to intervene against suspects. Prevention would be strengthened at the same time. The platform points to higher figures for violent and sexual offenses in 2024.

The AfD wants to be strict with criminals. More police officers would be on streets and squares. The police would get more powers against suspects. The party also wants more work to prevent crime.

The AfD wants a study of unreported crime to be carried out every three years. Because police crime statistics only show offenses that became known, the study is meant to complete the picture and allow police to be deployed in a targeted way.

Many crimes are never reported to the police. The AfD wants a study on this every three years. Victims would be asked questions for it. This should help the police plan better.

The AfD wants to make police service more attractive through higher pay, allowances that count toward pensions, and optional free health care provided by the state (freie Heilfürsorge). The aim is for fewer officers to move to the federal police or neighboring states and to reach the planned staffing level sooner.

The AfD wants to pay police officers more. Allowances would also count toward their pension. Officers could choose free health care paid by the state. This should keep more officers in the state.

The AfD wants the origin of suspects to be named publicly and dual citizenship to be recorded in police crime statistics. In the platform's view, the current picture is distorted because dual citizens are counted only as Germans.

The AfD wants to name publicly where suspects come from. Police statistics would count people with two passports separately. So far they count only as Germans. The party says this is the only way to get a full picture.

Following Bavaria's example, the AfD wants to create a state border police force and monitor the borders with France, Luxembourg and Belgium, for instance with drones. The platform justifies this with cross-border crime such as the blowing up of ATMs.

Rhineland-Palatinate borders France, Luxembourg and Belgium. The AfD wants to set up its own border police. Bavaria already has one. Drones would also watch the border. This is meant to help against gangs from abroad.

The AfD wants to improve training and equipment for volunteer and professional fire departments and expand the state fire and disaster protection academy in Koblenz. The platform considers investment in buildings and technology necessary to prepare emergency personnel well.

The AfD wants better equipment for fire departments. The fire academy in Koblenz would get a new building. Volunteer fire departments would get vehicles for rough ground and floods. Professional firefighters could choose free health care paid by the state.

The AfD wants to make working in prisons more attractive. Staff would get personal protective gear, could choose free state health care instead of the civil-servant subsidy scheme, and the so-called Gitterzulage (prison service allowance) would again count toward pensions. The program cites many vacant positions and rising violence in prisons.

The AfD wants to improve jobs in prisons. Every staff member should get their own protective gear. An extra payment should also count for the pension later. The party says many jobs are unfilled and the work has become more dangerous.

The AfD wants the protection of crime victims to take priority over the protection of offenders. Victims and their relatives would get better support, and offenders would be treated more strictly. For convicted foreign offenders, the thresholds for expulsion and deportation would be lowered sharply.

The AfD wants to protect and support crime victims better. It wants to be stricter with offenders. Foreigners who were convicted should be easier to deport. Criminals should not get a German passport.

The AfD rejects tighter gun laws and wants to keep today's rules. In its view, the danger usually comes from illegally obtained weapons, not registered ones. It wants to respond with tougher penalties for illegal gun possession and for using firearms in crimes.

The AfD does not want stricter gun laws. It says illegal guns are the main danger. People who own a gun illegally should get harsher punishment. Hunters and other legal owners should be able to keep their guns.

The AfD wants violence and threats against staff in hospitals, practices and ambulance services to be punished consistently. At the same time, it wants to promote respectful behavior among the public.

Many workers in hospitals and doctors' offices experience violence. Ambulance crews are affected too. The AfD wants offenders to be punished strictly. It also wants to promote more respect.

The AfD wants to make direct democracy easier at the state and local level. Fewer signatures would be needed for a state petition for a referendum, and votes on financial matters would be allowed. According to the platform, this lets every citizen influence politics directly.

The AfD wants citizens to vote on more issues. Fewer signatures would be needed for this. Citizens could also vote on money matters. This would apply in the state and in towns.

The AfD wants to stop giving taxpayer money to reporting offices for online content. In the platform's view, these offices serve to remove non-criminal statements from social media and thereby restrict freedom of expression.

Reporting offices take tips about posts on the internet. The AfD wants to stop state money for these offices. The party says they limit free speech. People should report criminal posts to the police.

The AfD wants to shield judges from political influence and abolish the justice ministries' power to issue instructions to public prosecutors. According to the platform, citizens should be able to rely on decisions being made solely on the basis of the law.

The AfD wants to separate judges and prosecutors from politics. Today the justice ministry can give prosecutors instructions. The AfD wants to end that. There would be new bodies for judges.

The AfD wants to turn the Verfassungsschutz (domestic intelligence agency), currently a department of the interior ministry, into an independent authority. In the platform's view, the state government uses it against opposition parties, so it lacks the necessary neutrality.

The Verfassungsschutz is an intelligence agency in the state. Today it belongs to the interior ministry. The AfD wants to make it a separate authority. The party says the government uses it against the opposition.

The AfD wants to change the state's flag regulation so that the federal flag flies permanently at schools and government offices. The rainbow flag would be banned on public buildings. The platform justifies this with state neutrality and a positive relationship to the nation.

The AfD wants schools and offices to always show the German flag. The state flag may be added. The rainbow flag would be banned there. The AfD says the state must be neutral.

The AfD wants the state to reimburse municipalities in full whenever it assigns them new tasks or expands existing ones. It accuses the state government of repeatedly ignoring this principle, which is anchored in the state constitution.

The state often gives towns and cities new tasks. The AfD says: Then the state must pay for all of it. This rule is called the connexity principle. It is already in the state constitution. The AfD wants to follow it strictly.

The AfD wants to cut the number of state ministries by two and reduce senior staff. The education ministry would merge with the ministry for science and health, and the integration ministry would be dissolved entirely. The aim is a leaner and cheaper administration.

Rhineland-Palatinate has ten ministries. The AfD wants to close two of them. The ministry for integration would go away completely. Two other ministries would become one. The AfD wants to save money on top staff this way.

The AfD wants to stop paying state money to politically active organizations, arguing that such funding distorts political competition. It also wants a public database showing who receives state grants, for what purpose, and how much.

Some groups get money from the state. The AfD wants to stop giving state money to politically active groups. It says this money distorts political competition. There would also be a public list. It would show who gets grant money from the state.

The AfD wants to rebuild the EU into a league of sovereign states with few powers and to bring these demands forward through the Bundesrat (the chamber of the German states). It rejects EU taxes of its own, liability for other countries and what it sees as Germany's excessive contribution burden. The platform accuses the EU of undermining national sovereignty.

The AfD wants a smaller EU. The EU should have only a few tasks. Each country should decide more for itself. The EU should not collect its own taxes. Germany should pay less money to the EU.

The AfD wants to preserve the skilled trades as cultural heritage. It plans a digital archive, trade weeks in schools and support for businesses that practice traditional techniques. This is meant to spark young people's interest in trade careers.

The AfD sees the skilled trades as part of culture. It wants an online archive about the history of the trades. Students should learn about trades in special weeks. Businesses that use old techniques should get help.

The AfD wants to adjust funding for historic buildings to actual need, better protect museum pieces against theft, and strengthen arts education. The platform justifies this with regional identity and preserving historical heritage for future generations.

The AfD wants to keep old buildings. There should be suitable funding for this. Museums should protect their valuable pieces better from thieves. Children should keep having music and art at school.

The AfD wants to give permanent funding to the state chapter of the Bund der Vertriebenen (Federation of Expellees) and provide more money for cultural heritage from Germany's former eastern territories. A meeting center would be built for ethnic German resettlers. The platform argues the state has neglected its legal duty to preserve this heritage.

The AfD wants to care for the culture of expellees. Expellees are Germans who had to leave their homes in the east after the war. Their association in the state would get steady money. Ethnic Germans from Russia and other countries would get a meeting place.

The AfD wants to scrap the Rundfunkbeitrag (household broadcasting fee) and terminate the interstate broadcasting treaties. Today's public broadcasters are to be replaced by a slimmed-down "Grundfunk" (basic broadcaster) limited to information, education and culture. It is to be paid for by a levy on the revenues of large internet companies.

The AfD wants to end the broadcasting fee. The public TV and radio stations should become much smaller. The new service is called Grundfunk. It should only offer news, education and culture. Big internet companies should pay for it.

The AfD wants to cap the salaries of directors general at public broadcasters and of directors at public theaters and tie them to public-sector pay scales. In addition, the number of broadcasting oversight bodies is to be cut and the broadcasters' administration simplified.

The heads of broadcasters and theaters earn a lot. The AfD wants to limit these salaries. They should earn what public employees earn. The broadcasters should have fewer boards. A board is a group that advises or decides.