AfD: program for the 2022 Saarland state election

The AfD wants to support new businesses and business handovers with little red tape. The state of Saarland is to act as a venture capital provider and as a broker. The goal is to make Saarland Germany's leading state for founders.

The AfD wants to help new companies. The state should give founders money and connect them with investors. Handing a company over to a successor should also work better. Saarland should become the best German state for founders.

The AfD wants more money for state roads, a new digital agency for mobile and fiber networks, and an end to the EEG surcharge. Structurally weak regions are to be strengthened with programs, tax incentives and bonuses. The platform argues that Saarland lags behind the national average.

The AfD wants to spend more money on roads in Saarland. A new agency should push mobile networks and fast internet. The EEG surcharge should go. That is an extra charge on power bills for green electricity. Weak rural regions should get special help.

The AfD wants to support small and mid-sized businesses through less red tape and a business-friendly administration. Applications would have a maximum processing time, and public tenders would become simpler. The party sees these firms as the backbone of Saarland's economy.

The AfD wants to help small and mid-sized companies. There should be less red tape. Offices should handle applications within a fixed time. Public contracts should be easier to get.

The AfD wants to strengthen tourism in Saarland through targeted marketing, better infrastructure and less red tape for hotels and restaurants. It sees tourism as an important factor for attracting businesses and skilled workers.

The AfD wants more tourists to come to Saarland. The state should advertise better for this. Roads, bike paths and fast internet should improve. Hotels and restaurants should face fewer rules.

The AfD wants more support for restaurants, pubs, and hotels, pointing to many insolvencies among small businesses after the coronavirus crisis. The platform describes inns as key meeting places for villages, towns, and local clubs. It proposes a funding program, more flexible working hours, and no bed tax.

Many small pubs and restaurants are closing. The AfD wants to stop this. It wants to give money to pubs in rural areas. Workers in hotels and restaurants should be able to work more flexible hours. The AfD rejects a bed tax. That is a charge on overnight stays.

The AfD wants social insurance benefits to be available only after a minimum period of contributions. According to the platform, foreigners seeking protection must prove themselves worthy of help or be deported immediately. The party rejects a Europe-wide social insurance system.

The AfD wants to change the rules for social insurance. Only people who have paid in long enough should get benefits. Foreigners who seek protection should follow the rules. If not, the AfD wants to deport them. The AfD rejects one shared social insurance for all of Europe.

The AfD Saarland wants to replace the employer share of social insurance contributions with a levy on value added. Companies would then contribute to social insurance according to their economic output rather than the number and pay of their employees. The party also calls for a digital tax.

The AfD wants a new levy for companies. It is a levy on the value a company creates. Companies would pay into social insurance based on their output. Today they pay based on how many workers they have and what they earn. The AfD also wants a digital tax.

The AfD wants to create inclusive local communities so that people with disabilities can take part in work and social life on their own terms. Accessibility is to become mandatory for municipalities, and inclusion projects are to receive permanent funding. According to the platform, sheltered workshops remain the central place for participation.

The AfD wants to remove barriers for people with disabilities. Towns and cities should be required to do this. This covers public offices, doctors' offices and buses, for example. Workshops for people with disabilities should stay important. There should also be more suitable jobs.

The AfD wants to preserve and strengthen the social insurance systems and the statutory pension with its pay-as-you-go contract between generations. Parents are to pay lower pension contributions and caregivers are to get more support. Career politicians should pay into the statutory pension or professional pension funds instead of receiving a separate pension.

The AfD wants to keep the public pension system. Parents should pay lower pension contributions. People who care for relatives should get more help. Politicians should pay into the pension system like everyone else. The AfD rejects an extra pension for politicians.

The AfD calls for considerably more money for towns and municipalities, some of which it considers severely underfunded. The state development plan and the allocation of decision-making powers should be designed so that the state stays decentralized and rural areas do not fall behind.

The AfD wants to give towns and villages much more money. Local councils should decide more things themselves. The state should not put everything in a few places. Tourism in the countryside should also get support.

The AfD calls for permanently cutting value-added tax by four percentage points and scrapping the solidarity surcharge entirely. Business taxation is also to be reformed. The aim is to strengthen household purchasing power and the competitiveness of the economy.

The AfD wants lower taxes. Value-added tax should drop by four percentage points. The solidarity surcharge should end. The party also wants to change taxes for companies. People should then have more money to spend.

The AfD wants to abolish the charges residents pay when their street is upgraded. It considers them unfair and inefficient and points to high administrative costs caused by legal disputes.

Residents often have to pay when their street is upgraded. The AfD wants to end these charges completely. It thinks the charges are unfair. It says they lead to many legal disputes and cost the administration a lot of money.

The AfD wants to lower taxes and levies, especially for families. It calls for family-based income splitting, abolishing road improvement charges on property owners, and keeping taxes on real estate as low as possible. It rejects environmental and climate taxes.

The AfD wants lower taxes and fees. Families should pay less tax through family splitting. That means children count when the tax is worked out. Residents should no longer pay for upgrades to their street. The AfD rejects taxes for the environment and the climate.

The AfD wants to reduce public debt on a planned schedule and forgo new borrowing. Its reasoning is that debt burdens future generations. The platform sees savings mainly in refugee and integration policy, in subsidy programs and in the administration.

The AfD wants the state to take on no new debt. The state should pay down old debt step by step. The party says debt is a burden for children and grandchildren. It wants to save money on refugees and integration. It also wants to cut subsidies and government offices.

The AfD rejects higher taxes and levies on principle and wants to lower the Grunderwerbsteuer (property transfer tax). Families buying a home to live in are to receive an allowance per child. Road improvement levies charged to property owners are to be dropped entirely.

The AfD wants no higher taxes. The tax on buying land and houses should go down. Families should get 60,000 euros tax-free for each child. Residents should no longer pay when their street is rebuilt. The state should replace the lost money for towns.

The AfD wants a lasting improvement in the finances of Saarland's municipalities, whose debt is far above the national average. It plans adjustments to fiscal equalization, help with legacy debts and an infrastructure funding program. The federal government is also to be reminded of an announced write-off of old municipal debt.

Towns and cities in Saarland have high debts. The AfD wants to give them more money. The federal and state governments should pay for a program for buildings and roads. The federal government should also help with old debts. Towns must show that they spend carefully.

The AfD wants the Grundsteuer (annual property tax) to be based on the area of land and buildings rather than on their value. In the party's view, regular valuation is too laborious and too expensive. The area model is meant to save costs for citizens and the administration.

The property tax is a yearly tax on land and houses. Today it depends on the value. The AfD wants to count only the area. That should be simpler and cheaper. Citizens and offices should have less work.

The AfD wants Saarland to invest more because its investment rate lags far behind other German states. Putting state finances in order should not come at the expense of investment in the future. More money is to go to transport routes, hospitals and educational facilities.

Saarland invests less than other German states. The AfD wants to change that. The state should save money, but not on important investments. There should be more money for roads, hospitals and schools.

The AfD wants to preserve cash as legal tender without restriction and regards its use as a civil liberty. In the party's view, purely electronic payments open up possibilities for control that do not fit a free state under the rule of law. They would also create dependence on working technology.

The AfD wants to keep cash. Everyone should still be able to pay with bills and coins. The party says this is a freedom right. With only electronic money, the state can check too much. The technology can also fail.

The AfD wants to create more subsidized housing and make it easier to buy a home. To do so, it wants more building land developed, permitting radically simplified, and municipal and cooperative housing companies strengthened. The platform considers rent brakes and rent caps ineffective.

The AfD wants more low-cost homes. It wants more land for building. Building permits should be simpler. Cities and housing co-ops should build more homes. Buying your own home should also get easier.

The AfD wants to create a state child-rearing allowance (Landeserziehungsgeld): parents who care for their child at home during its second and third year would get 500 euros a month. The platform argues that daycare places are heavily subsidized while care at home is not.

The AfD wants a new payment for parents in Saarland. Parents would get 500 euros a month. In return, they care for their child at home in its second and third year. The AfD says parents should be free to choose.

The AfD calls for considerably more staff in public daycare. In the platform's view, the ratio of trained staff to children in Saarland falls far short of what experts consider necessary.

The AfD wants more staff in daycare centers. Then each staff member looks after fewer children. The children get more attention. The staff have less stress.

The AfD wants to make work and family easier to combine and give families more time together. To that end, working life should become more flexible. In the platform's view, families today have to adapt too much to the demands of the economy, with women and children suffering most.

The AfD wants parents to combine work and family more easily. Work should become more flexible. More people should be able to work from home. Mothers should find it easier to return to their jobs.

The AfD wants to ease the financial burden on families, including through family income splitting at the federal level and child allowances for social insurance contributions. The platform sees families as disadvantaged compared with childless people in taxation and pensions.

The AfD wants families to pay less in taxes and contributions. People with children should be better off at tax time. Raising children should count more for pensions. The school bus should also be free for the upper grades.

The AfD calls for stronger protection of children from abuse and counts abortion among this, alongside child sexual abuse and child marriage. Public money for facilities that perform abortions is to be eliminated. The party invokes Article 2 of the Basic Law.

The AfD wants to protect children better. It also means unborn children. Clinics that perform abortions should get no more money from the state. Pregnant women should get counseling and help. Schools should talk about protecting life.

The AfD wants to tackle the shortage of skilled workers through more vocational training rather than immigration. Training for the Meister (master craftsman) qualification would be free, and the state would support further training for employees. In the long run the party relies on family policy to meet demand from within the country.

Saarland lacks skilled workers. The AfD therefore wants stronger job training. Training to become a master craftsman should be free. The party does not see immigration as the answer. In the long run, more children in the country should fill the gap.

The AfD wants to split the Gemeinschaftsschule (comprehensive school) into a Realschule and a trades and crafts school. Together with the Gymnasium, this would form a three-tier system. Grades are to reflect performance clearly, and the Abitur is to become more demanding.

The AfD wants three types of school after elementary school. The comprehensive school should be split. Then there would be the Realschule and a trades and crafts school. The Gymnasium is the third type. Grades should show performance honestly.

The AfD wants students without sufficient German to be taught in separate German classes first. Only those who can demonstrably speak and write German well would join regular classes. The platform argues that otherwise the level of teaching suffers for everyone.

Some children do not speak German well yet. The AfD wants separate German classes for them. They should join normal classes only with good German. The AfD says: Otherwise all children learn less.

The AfD rejects having all children learn together without exception and wants to allow different forms of inclusion, such as separate classes within a shared school center. It also wants to strengthen Förderschulen (special-needs schools). The stated reason is the well-being of all students.

The AfD does not want all children to always learn together. Children with and without disabilities can also learn in separate classes. This could happen in the same school center. Special-needs schools should become stronger.

The AfD wants better funding for Saarland's universities while reducing the number of students. It considers the bachelor's-master's system a mistake and wants to reconnect with the older Diplom, Magister and Staatsexamen degrees.

The AfD wants more money for universities in Saarland. But there should be fewer students. The AfD rejects bachelor's and master's degrees. It wants the old degrees back, such as the Diplom.

The AfD wants to abolish gender quotas and gender studies chairs at universities and to end what it sees as one-sided politicization. Membership in the student body organization would become voluntary if necessary.

The AfD wants no more professorships for gender studies. Quotas for women and men at universities should also end. The AfD says: Universities are too one-sided politically. Students may get to choose whether they join the student body group.

The AfD wants to prevent pools in need of renovation from closing for good. All children should be required to learn to swim, and school swimming lessons should actually take place.

Many pools in Saarland are closing because money for repairs is missing. The AfD wants to keep these pools. All children should have to learn to swim. Schools should really offer swimming lessons. There should be more teaching pools and fewer fun pools.

The AfD wants visits by Bundeswehr youth officers to be written into the curriculum for the middle grades of secondary schools. The number of youth officers should rise, because the party believes the armed forces are less well known since conscription was suspended.

Youth officers are soldiers who inform students about the German army. The AfD wants their visits to be a fixed part of the curriculum. This should apply to the middle grades. There should be more youth officers. So far there are four.

The AfD Saarland commits to a German Leitkultur (guiding culture) and wants to reestablish a subject called Heimatkunde (local history and homeland studies) at all schools in the state. The aim is to preserve attachment to the homeland in future generations. The party rejects multiculturalism and globalism.

The AfD wants to bring back the school subject Heimatkunde. It teaches children about their home region. All schools in Saarland should offer it. Children should get to know and love their homeland. The AfD speaks of a German guiding culture. By this it means shared values and traditions in Germany.

The AfD rejects any further lockdowns and wants society to learn to live with the coronavirus. Unvaccinated people should not be put at a disadvantage. The platform bases this on the effects of the restrictions on livelihoods, students and young people.

The AfD wants no new lockdown. In a lockdown, the state closes many places and limits contact. People should learn to live with the virus. Unvaccinated people should not be treated worse.

The AfD wants to prevent a COVID-19 vaccine mandate and considers it disproportionate. Vaccination should remain voluntary, like the flu shot. In the platform's view, the available vaccines do not protect well enough and COVID-19 is not a serious danger for most people.

The AfD is against a vaccine mandate for COVID-19. Everyone should decide for themselves about the shot. The party says the vaccines do not protect well enough. It fears people would have to get shots again and again.

The AfD demands that the government permanently ensure enough intensive care beds and staff. Medicines and protective equipment should also be secured for everyone affected. The platform criticizes that capacity was cut during the pandemic.

The AfD wants hospitals to be better prepared. There should be enough beds for very sick people. There should also be enough staff. Medicine and protective gear should be there for everyone.

The AfD wants the state's investment funding for hospitals to match actual need and wants to stop closures and bed cuts. The number of medical school places is to rise sharply, and medical care in rural areas and maternity care are to be supported.

The AfD wants more state money for hospitals. No more hospitals or maternity wards should close. More young people should be able to study medicine. Rural areas should also have enough doctors.

The AfD wants to preserve small local pharmacies and avoid drug shortages. Discount contracts and the reimport quota are to be dropped, and incentives are to encourage drug production in Germany or the EU.

The AfD wants to keep small local pharmacies. Medicines should always be available. More medicines should come from Germany or the EU. The AfD wants to end discount contracts. These are price deals between health insurers and drug makers.

The AfD calls for a sector-wide collective agreement for all care workers that secures appropriate pay. It also wants family-friendly working hours, funded retraining and more advertising for care professions. This is meant to counter the staff shortage in care.

The AfD wants one pay agreement for all care workers. Such an agreement sets pay for a whole sector. Care workers should be paid well this way. Working hours should also fit better with family life.

The AfD wants to raise the care allowance for relatives who provide care at home to the level of the in-kind benefits paid for professional care services, and to add a yearly state subsidy. It also wants to lower nursing home costs and ease the workload of care staff. The platform argues that relatives provide most care and receive too little recognition for it.

Many people care for family members at home. The AfD wants to give them more money. The state should also pay an extra amount once a year. Nursing homes should cost less too.

The AfD calls for consistently deporting rejected asylum seekers with no right to stay and foreigners who have committed crimes. It sees asylum as temporary protection that does not lead to permanent residence. Recognized refugees should therefore be prepared for their return from the start.

The AfD wants to deport more people. This applies to rejected asylum seekers and to foreigners who commit crimes. Asylum should only be protection for a limited time. Recognized refugees should also go back home later.

The AfD wants to restrict asylum immigration to what the law requires and to reduce what it sees as financial incentives. In Saarland, refugees would receive benefits in kind instead of cash, family reunification would be strictly limited, and the age of young asylum seekers would be medically checked. It also demands full transparency about costs.

The AfD wants less asylum immigration. Refugees should get goods instead of money. Fewer family members should be allowed to follow. Doctors should check the age of young asylum seekers. Everyone should be able to see the costs.

The AfD wants to make it binding for immigrants to accept values it describes as democratic, based on the rule of law, and Christian-European. It sees integration as an obligation that immigrants owe to society. State-funded integration measures should only be offered to people with a lawful prospect of staying.

The AfD says immigrants must accept the values in Germany. They must work on their integration themselves. Only people who are allowed to stay should get help from the state. The AfD wants to preserve German identity.

The AfD wants to offer better working and living conditions to high-performing Germans and highly qualified foreigners instead of relying on asylum immigration. It names wage and tax incentives as well as lower contributions for families with children. In its view, unmanaged immigration solves neither the skills shortage nor demographic problems.

The AfD wants well-trained Germans to stay in the country. Well-trained foreigners should come too. There should be benefits on wages and taxes for this. Families with children should pay lower charges.

The AfD wants child-rearing to remain the parents' responsibility and therefore opposes writing children's rights into the Basic Law. It likewise opposes what it calls gender ideology and wants to hold on to the traditional image of the family.

The AfD says parents should raise their children, not the state. It does not want separate children's rights in the constitution. It is against new ideas about gender. The AfD wants to keep the family of father, mother and children.

The AfD affirms equal rights for women and men under Article 3 of the Basic Law. It rejects gender equality policy that, in its view, denies differences between the sexes. The state should not steer how women and men shape their lives and divide family duties.

The AfD says women and men have the same rights. But it rejects today's gender equality policy. It thinks this policy tries to make women and men the same. The state should stay out of it. Parents should decide for themselves who does which tasks in the family.

The AfD rejects quotas for women in politics and business on principle. In its view they interfere with individual freedoms and lead to new discrimination. Tasks and positions should be assigned by ability and performance, not by gender.

The AfD is against quotas for women. A quota says how many posts must go to women. The AfD says this is unfair to other people. Only skill and performance should count.

The AfD rejects spending billions on climate measures it considers ineffective and a burden on citizens. Instead, it wants to promote exports of green technology, projects in emerging economies, and reforestation.

The AfD says the climate changes because of nature and people. Germany causes only two percent of the world's CO2. So the party wants to spend less on climate measures at home. It prefers selling German green technology abroad. It also wants to plant more trees.

The AfD demands that wind turbines be at least ten times their height away from residential areas. It justifies this with health risks from infrasound, which it says a University of Mainz study has confirmed. A noise guideline of 45 decibels is also to apply.

The AfD wants more distance between wind turbines and homes. The distance should be ten times the height of the turbine. The AfD says wind turbines make very low sounds. These sounds can make people sick. There should also be a limit for noise.

The AfD rejects any further expansion of wind and solar power as long as storage and backup power plants are lacking, and it wants to stop wind power expansion and lower electricity prices. It considers the energy transition in its current form largely failed and socially unfair.

The AfD wants no more wind turbines. Solar power should not grow further either. The party says there is not enough storage for electricity. Without wind and sun, there is then no power. The AfD wants electricity to become cheaper.

The AfD demands that wind turbines stand at least 2,000 meters away from residential areas and workplaces. It justifies this with health risks that, in its view, come from the turbines' infrasound.

Wind turbines should stand far away from homes. The AfD wants a distance of at least 2,000 meters. It says wind turbines make very low sounds. The AfD believes these sounds make people sick.

The AfD wants to initiate the nationwide abolition of the Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetz (EEG, Renewable Energy Sources Act). It considers the law the main driver of electricity prices and the reason for the rapid build-out of wind and solar plants.

The EEG is a law. It supports electricity from wind and sun. The AfD wants to get rid of this law. It says the law makes electricity expensive.

The AfD wants thermal power plants to carry Saarland's electricity supply as long as there is not enough storage. It criticizes the phase-out of nuclear power and coal and calls the CO2 debate dishonest.

The AfD wants to keep getting electricity from thermal power plants. These include coal plants. It says only these plants always deliver power reliably. The AfD thinks leaving coal and nuclear power is wrong.

The AfD wants to support insulation and energy saving in buildings only where it makes economic sense. Renovations of existing buildings should not be ordered but achieved through state incentives and in agreement with owners.

The AfD does not want to force owners to renovate old buildings. Renovating here means changing a house so it needs less energy. The state should offer owners financial help instead. Costs for citizens and companies should not be too high.

The AfD wants to keep using Saarland's forests for forestry and adapt them to changing climate conditions. Wood infested by bark beetles should be removed quickly and damaged areas replanted with mixed stands.

The AfD wants to keep using the forest for wood. The forest should not become a wilderness. Damaged wood should be taken out quickly. New trees should grow on bare areas. Different kinds of trees should be mixed.

The AfD wants to keep existing hunting law largely unchanged and remove no further species from it. The wolf should be added to hunting law so that its population can be regulated.

The AfD wants to keep hunting law as it is. The wolf should be added to hunting law. Hunters could then limit the number of wolves. Wolf packs should get certain areas. In part of the forest, game should be able to feed in peace.

The AfD wants to strengthen biodiversity, including through regular monitoring of species in Saarland and EU-wide protection for migratory birds. Herbicides should largely be avoided on state-owned land to protect insects.

The AfD wants to protect animals and plants better. Experts should regularly count the species in Saarland. Migratory birds should be protected across the EU. The state should use almost no weed killer on its land. This is meant to help insects.

The AfD wants a scientific review of the limits for nitrogen compounds and revised rules for how they are measured. It argues that air quality has improved considerably over recent decades, so policy should proceed with moderation. It rejects any ban on fireworks justified by pollution control.

The AfD wants experts to check the limits for nitrogen oxides. Nitrogen oxides are exhaust gases, for example from cars. The rules for measuring should also change. The AfD says the air has already become much cleaner. The AfD does not want to ban fireworks.

The AfD wants to put waste management more firmly in municipal hands because, in its view, growing monopolies in the sector have driven up costs. In the medium to long term it aims for a circular economy in which raw materials are used as long as possible. It rejects the planned amendment to the Circular Economy Act in its current form.

The AfD wants towns and cities to handle more of the trash themselves. It says a few big companies make waste disposal expensive. Raw materials should be used for as long as possible. The AfD is open to a deposit on batteries and electrical devices.

The AfD wants to reduce the production and consumption of plastics wherever that is economically and technically feasible. It rejects the planned ban on certain plastic bags and demands a long transition period for artificial turf fields filled with plastic granules. It wants to ban exports of plastic waste to countries without adequate disposal systems.

The AfD wants less plastic where that is easily possible. It is against a ban on plastic bags. It says paper bags are worse for the environment. Sports fields with artificial turf should stay in use for a long time. Plastic waste should no longer go to countries without good disposal.

The AfD rejects privatizing municipal water supply and wastewater disposal and wants to strengthen municipal water management as an essential public service. It considers a stricter nitrate limit unnecessary. Municipalities are to get help developing plans against heavy rain and drought.

The AfD wants water and wastewater to stay a job for towns and cities. Private companies should not take it over. The limit for nitrate in water should not get stricter. Nitrate is a substance that comes from fertilizer, for example. Towns should get help against heavy rain and drought.

The AfD wants to stop requirements under the fertilizer ordinance and mandatory buffer strips along waterways, which it calls a creeping expropriation of farmers. EU direct payments should stay, and farms should be compensated for government-ordered climate and environmental measures. Regional products should be easier to market.

The AfD wants to help family farms. It wants to stop some environmental rules for farmers. One example is rules on fertilizer. Farmers should keep getting money from the EU. They should get paid back for costs from environmental rules.

The AfD wants to make slaughtering within the region easier and support small slaughterhouses. This is meant to further reduce animal transports and improve compliance with animal welfare rules.

The AfD wants animals to be slaughtered close to the farm. For that, the region should have small slaughterhouses. Then animals do not have to travel far. This should help animal welfare.

The AfD wants the state government to raise the share of organic farming in Saarland to at least half. Large agricultural operations that, according to the platform, depend on synthetic fertilizer and pesticides should be pushed back in favor of organic farming.

The AfD wants more organic farming in Saarland. At least half of farming should be organic. The state government should make this happen. Big factory farms should become fewer.

The AfD wants Saarland to remain a car-making region and rejects driving bans for vehicles with combustion engines. All drive technologies are to be supported equally, including gasoline and diesel engines. The party says rules it sees as ideological and excessive put jobs at risk.

The AfD wants to keep the car industry in Saarland. It is against driving bans for cars with gasoline or diesel engines. The state should support all kinds of engines. The party says strict rules put many jobs at risk.

The AfD wants to spend more on state roads and close gaps and bottlenecks in the highway network. It cites heavy congestion, what it sees as the poor condition of roads, and the resulting costs for trades and logistics firms.

The AfD wants better roads and bridges in Saarland. The state should spend more money on them. Bottlenecks on highways should go away. Road works should take less time. This should mean fewer traffic jams.

The AfD wants to make local public transit a mandatory task for municipalities and give them more funding for it. Buses and trains should run more often, especially in rural areas, and remain affordable. The platform rejects a transport shift imposed from above; citizens should choose their mode of travel freely.

The AfD wants better local buses and trains. Towns and cities should have to offer them. They should get more money from the state for this. Buses in rural areas should run more often. Tickets should be affordable but not free. Only school students should ride for free.

The AfD wants to move freight from roads to rail and ships wherever possible. To that end, more rail lines would be electrified and a closed line reopened. People living along rail lines should be better protected from noise.

The AfD wants fewer trucks on the roads. Goods should travel more often by train or ship. More rail lines should get electric power lines. People living near rail lines should have less noise. The state should pay part of this.

The AfD wants driving to stay affordable and rejects a CO2 tax and driving bans for diesel vehicles. It argues that many commuters in rural Saarland depend on their cars. All drive technologies, including the combustion engine, should receive equal support.

The AfD says many people in Saarland need a car. Driving should stay affordable. The AfD does not want a CO2 tax. It does not want driving bans for diesel cars. The state should not support only electric cars. Gasoline and diesel engines should also be developed further.

The AfD wants to repeal the Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG) and abolish upload filters because, in its view, both restrict freedom of expression. Courts, not platform operators, should decide whether content is permissible.

The AfD wants to get rid of the NetzDG. This is a law against illegal content on social networks. Upload filters should go too. The AfD says both limit free speech. Only courts should decide about content on the internet.

The AfD wants to expand digital public administration and make processes leaner and more uniform. Citizens should still be able to choose whether to handle official business online or in person, and to pay fees in cash.

The AfD wants more government services online. The steps should become simpler. But people should still be able to go to the office in person. Everyone should choose for themselves. People should always be able to pay fees in cash.

The AfD wants a state-run funding program to close gaps in the mobile network, along with fast internet for the whole population. It cites disadvantages for the business location, people being unreachable in emergencies, and falling property values.

Saarland has many dead zones. In these places, cell phones have no signal. The AfD wants a state funding program to fix this. Everyone should get fast internet. This includes rural areas and areas near the border.

The AfD calls for occasional, incident-based checks and random stop-and-search operations at Saarland's borders with neighboring countries. The state would also set up its own border police. The platform justifies this with public safety and cites the import of illegal drugs as an example.

The AfD wants checks at Saarland's borders. Police should be able to check people there without a specific suspicion. Saarland should get its own border police. One reason is drug smuggling.

The AfD wants to hire more police officers in Saarland and improve their pay and health coverage. It points to rising violence against officers and to the state's duty of care as their employer. Police work should also receive more public recognition.

The AfD wants more police officers in Saarland. Officers should be paid better. The state should cover their medical costs if they choose this. The AfD says there is more violence against the police.

The AfD wants to give professional firefighters better pay and health coverage and allow faster promotions. Volunteer service in the Freiwillige Feuerwehr (volunteer fire department) should become more attractive, including through pension credits. The platform calls fire departments an important part of public services.

The AfD wants to pay firefighters better. They should be promoted faster. Volunteers in the fire department should get a higher pension for it. Students should learn about the volunteer fire department in class.

The AfD wants to create a uniform job profile for municipal public order services and statewide standard training lasting at least two years. Equipment and allowances would be standardized and brought closer to those of the police. The platform describes the situation of these services as precarious and calls for more funding for municipalities.

Public order services work for cities and towns. The AfD wants their training to be the same everywhere. Training should last at least two years. Equipment should also be the same everywhere. Towns should get more money for this.

The AfD wants the state's domestic intelligence agency (Verfassungsschutz) to focus more on "Antifa" and wants all state funding for left-wing extremist groups stopped. The agency should be moved out of the interior ministry and become an independent authority.

The AfD wants to do more against left-wing extremism. The state intelligence agency should watch "Antifa" more closely. This agency watches for threats to democracy. It should no longer be part of the interior ministry. Left-wing extremist groups should get no state money.

The AfD wants to expand the police crime statistics. They should show knives as a weapon, the nationality of offenders, dual citizenship, and attacks on police officers, because the party believes the statistics otherwise give an incomplete picture.

The police keep statistics on crime. The AfD wants to expand them. They should show the nationality of offenders. They should also count crimes with knives. Attacks on police officers should be listed too.

The AfD wants businesses that release employees for disaster relief operations and training to be compensated for the full amount of their lost revenue. This is meant to reduce disadvantages volunteers face in hiring and at work.

Many people volunteer for fire and disaster services. Their employers must let them go for missions. The employers lose money because of this. The AfD wants the state to cover this loss fully. Volunteers should then have no problems at work.

The AfD wants to make direct democracy in Saarland much easier: fewer signatures, longer deadlines and no approval quorum for referendums. Popular initiatives should also be allowed on financial matters. The party sees this as a corrective to what it regards as rule by parties.

The AfD wants citizens to vote on laws themselves more often. Fewer signatures should be needed for this. Citizens should get more time to collect them. They should also be allowed to vote on money matters.

The AfD wants to abolish the 30 percent approval quorum for local referendums. Limits on topics should largely be dropped, and land-use planning should also be open to a local vote.

The AfD wants to make votes in towns and cities easier. Today a large share of all eligible voters must say yes. This hurdle should go. Citizens should also be able to vote on building plans.

The AfD wants to replace the fixed party lists in state elections with lists on which voters can influence the order of candidates. This is meant to give citizens more say in relation to the parties.

In state elections, parties set the order of their candidates. The AfD wants to change that. Voters should be able to give votes to single candidates on the list. That way they help decide who enters parliament.

The AfD wants the federal and state governments to fund municipalities well and to strictly observe the Konnexitätsprinzip. Under that principle, the level of government that assigns a task must also pay for it. Access to social assistance is also to become simpler and less bureaucratic.

The AfD wants more money for cities and towns. The federal and state governments should pay when they give towns new tasks. This rule is called the Konnexitätsprinzip. People in need should get help more easily. Offices should ask for less paperwork.

The AfD wants the European Central Bank to end its policy of zero and negative interest rates. It opposes EU rules for regional banks that it regards as overregulation, as well as shared European liability for banks. It cites losses for savers and harm to regional banks as reasons.

The AfD is against zero and negative interest rates from the European Central Bank. The party says savers lose money because of them. The EU should regulate small regional banks less strictly. Banks in Europe should not be liable for each other.

The AfD wants to preserve inherited traditions and the country's culture and rejects a multicultural society. Politics should be guided by the well-being of the country's own people and citizens.

The AfD wants to keep traditions and culture. It rejects a multicultural society. That is a society where many cultures live side by side. Politics should serve the country's own citizens first.

The AfD wants to protect the German language as the core of national culture and opposes its displacement by English in public agencies, universities, and companies. It rejects gender-inclusive language and politically correct language rules. Reading and conversation are to be promoted, especially among young people.

The AfD wants to protect the German language. Public offices and universities should not switch to English. The AfD is against gender-inclusive language. Young people should read more. Fixed prices for books should stay.

The AfD considers German remembrance culture too narrowly focused on the 20th century and wants to extend it across many centuries, including positive sides of national and regional history. All school buildings in the state are to fly the black-red-gold flag regularly. It rejects renaming streets based on present-day standards.

The AfD wants to remember history in a different way. It should not only be about the 20th century. Good sides of German history should also be included. The German flag should fly regularly at all schools. Streets should keep their old names.

The AfD wants to limit film funding mainly to domestic productions. It also wants to change the funding rules for theaters in order to push back what it sees as director-driven theater that ignores its audience.

The AfD wants to fund films from the home region. Other films should get little money. It also wants new money rules for theaters. The party thinks some theater plays ignore what the audience wants.

The AfD wants to strengthen Saarland's rural regions by maintaining and improving infrastructure and digital networks. Services close to where people live are also to be preserved. The platform justifies this with population decline and the loss of services in villages.

The AfD wants to make life in the countryside better. Roads and internet should be good. Doctors, schools and shops should stay nearby. The AfD says villages are missing many things today.