AfD: program for the 2024 Saxony state election

The AfD wants to strengthen trades, service firms and manufacturers by cutting rules, lowering energy and fuel prices and improving infrastructure. Starting a business is to become easier, backed by loan guarantees and longer founder grants. It rejects tax-subsidized flagship projects.

The AfD wants to help small and mid-sized companies. It wants to remove rules. Energy and fuel should cost less. People who start a company should get more help. The AfD does not want big projects paid for with tax money.

The AfD wants to bring back the Meisterpflicht (the requirement to hold a master craftsman certificate to run a business) in all trades. It says this would ensure fair competition and higher quality. More vocational training centers are also to be set up in rural districts.

The AfD wants the master craftsman rule back in all trades. This means only a master may run a trade business. The AfD says this makes work better. There should be more training centers in the countryside.

The AfD wants regional considerations to take priority in public tenders in order to secure local jobs. To support Saxony's breweries, the beer tax is to be scrapped.

The state gives contracts to companies. The AfD wants companies from the region to count more. This should keep jobs in Saxony. The tax on beer should end. This should help breweries.

The AfD wants to create special economic zones in border regions with little industry, such as Lusatia, the Ore Mountains and the Vogtland. Better infrastructure, simpler rules and well-trained staff are meant to boost these areas economically.

Some regions in Saxony have little industry. These include Lusatia, the Ore Mountains and the Vogtland. The AfD wants special zones for business there. Simpler rules should apply there. Roads and networks should get better too.

The AfD wants to meet the need for skilled workers primarily from the domestic workforce rather than through immigration alone. Taxes and contributions are to fall, unemployed people are to be trained, and the trades promoted more. Public-sector jobs are to be cut, except for police and teachers.

Saxony needs skilled workers. The AfD wants to find them at home first. Work should pay more because taxes go down. People without jobs should learn a trade. The state should have fewer jobs. This does not apply to police and teachers.

The AfD wants to make public offices and their procedures accessible and raise compensation payments for blind, deaf and severely disabled people. Companies are to be encouraged to hire severely disabled people through tax relief rather than payments for missing the quota. It also plans a funding program for sign language.

The AfD wants public offices to be open to everyone. Blind and deaf people should get more money to make up for disadvantages. Companies should hire more people with disabilities. In return they should pay less tax. Companies should not pay a penalty if they hire too few. More people should learn sign language.

The AfD wants to pay Bürgergeld (citizen's income) only to Germans and people of equal status who have lived legally in Germany for at least five years. Benefit rates are to follow actual price trends, and recipients who do not cooperate are to face tougher sanctions. In the party's view, work otherwise does not pay and the benefit attracts immigration.

The AfD wants to change Bürgergeld, a basic welfare payment. Only Germans and people with equal status should get it. They must have lived legally in Germany for five years. People who do not cooperate should face harder penalties. The AfD says work must pay more than welfare.

The AfD wants the duration of Arbeitslosengeld I (insurance-based unemployment benefit) to depend on how long someone worked before. Those who paid in for many years are to be entitled for longer. The party sees today's rule as a slight to long-term contributors.

People who lose their job first get unemployment benefit. The AfD wants people who worked a long time to get it longer. Today it usually lasts only one year. The AfD thinks this is unfair.

The AfD wants no further increase in the retirement age and tax relief for retirees through a higher basic allowance. Time spent raising children and caring for relatives is to count more toward pensions, and eastern and western pensions are to be aligned. Politicians are to pay into a pension insurance themselves.

The AfD does not want to raise the retirement age further. Retirees should pay less tax. People who raise children or care for relatives should get more pension. Pensions in East and West should be equal. Politicians should also pay in for their pension.

The AfD wants to permanently secure the unrestricted use of cash and write it into the Grundgesetz (Germany's constitution). It rejects a digital euro issued by the ECB. It justifies this as protection against surveillance and expropriation.

The AfD wants to keep cash. The right to use cash should be in the constitution. The AfD is against a digital euro. It says: Without cash, the state can watch every payment.

The AfD wants tax relief for citizens and businesses. Among other things, it calls for ending the solidarity surcharge, offsetting bracket creep, lowering energy and corporate taxes, and scrapping the CO2 levy and emissions trading. The beer tax on German beers would also be dropped.

The AfD wants lower taxes. The solidarity surcharge should end. There should be no more charge on CO2. Taxes on electricity and energy should go down. Companies should pay less tax. The tax on German beer should also end.

The AfD wants to avoid new debt and focus the budget on core tasks. Staff in government agencies would be reduced, except in the police and schools. The party wants to save mainly on asylum and immigration, on funding for associations and NGOs, and on climate subsidies.

The AfD does not want new debt. The state should spend less money. Government offices should have fewer jobs. This does not apply to police and schools. The AfD wants to save on asylum, on associations and on climate.

The AfD wants to give states and municipalities more money and improve the position of rural communities when state funds are distributed. Fiscal equalization should also take a municipality's land area into account. Municipalities should gain enough leeway that the Grundsteuer (property tax) can be dropped.

The AfD wants to give towns more money. Rural towns above all should get more. Big cities should be favored less. The property tax should later end completely. That is a tax on land and houses.

The AfD wants to push at the federal level for an end to the Grunderwerbsteuer (real estate transfer tax) on owner-occupied housing. For a first owner-occupied property, the tax would be capped at 1 percent. Road construction charges are to be dropped throughout Saxony.

People who buy a house pay a tax. The AfD wants to end this tax when people live in the house themselves. For a first home it should be only 1 percent. Charges for road building should also end in Saxony.

The AfD wants to uncover and punish the waste of tax money more consistently. The Saxon Court of Audit would be allowed to impose sanctions. Decision-makers are to be personally liable.

The AfD wants this: People who waste tax money should be punished. The Court of Audit checks how Saxony spends its money. In the future it should be able to impose penalties itself. Those responsible should also pay with their own money.

The AfD wants to do more to support buying affordable homes, mainly through a Saxon Baukindergeld (home-buying grant for families). Building rules are to be loosened, and at the federal level it wants to exempt homes inherited within the family from inheritance tax. In its view, more deportations would ease pressure on the housing market.

The AfD wants more people to be able to buy their own home. Families should get money from the state for this. There should be fewer building rules. Homes inherited in the family should be tax-free. The AfD also wants to deport more people who have no right to stay.

The AfD wants the family of father, mother and children to be the guiding model again and wants to remove disadvantages for it. A positive image of family life is to be taught in daycare centers and schools. The platform justifies this with demographic change, whose causes the party wants to address.

The AfD wants to strengthen the family of father, mother and children. This model should be the example. Daycare centers and schools should show a good picture of family. Families should pay less in taxes and fees. The party hopes more children will be born.

The AfD wants to expand help for pregnant women in distress so that more of them decide to have the child. Counseling before an abortion that takes place only by phone or online is to be ended. The party rejects a fundamental right to abortion and wants current federal law to stay unchanged.

The AfD wants to give more help to pregnant women in need. More women should have their child. Counseling before an abortion should only happen in person. Counseling by phone or online would no longer be enough. The abortion laws should stay as they are.

The AfD wants to introduce a Saxon welcome payment of 5,000 euros per child to raise the birth rate. It would go only to parents who hold German citizenship alone and have lived in Saxony for at least ten years. Further conditions are completed training, a degree or employment.

The AfD wants to pay parents 5,000 euros for each new baby. Only parents with just a German passport would get the money. They must have lived in Saxony for ten years. They must have job training or be working. The money comes in three parts.

The AfD wants to raise the Landeserziehungsgeld (state child-raising allowance) from at most 300 euros today to between 750 and 1,500 euros a month and pay it until the child turns three. Parents would then be free to choose between caring for a toddler at home and using a nursery. Only parents with German citizenship alone and ten years of residence in Saxony would qualify.

Parents in Saxony get money if they care for their small child at home. Today that is 300 euros at most. The AfD wants to pay 750 to 1,500 euros a month. The money would be paid until the child turns three. Only parents with just a German passport would get it.

The AfD wants to raise the state subsidy for daycare centers and home-based childcare substantially and cap the municipalities' share of nursery costs at 50 percent. Staff-to-child ratios are to improve to 1 to 3 in nurseries, 1 to 7.5 in kindergartens and 1 to 12 in after-school care. Small village daycare centers are to be kept open through more flexible rules.

The AfD wants the state to give more money to daycare centers. Towns and villages should pay less. Each caregiver should look after fewer children. In nurseries that would be three children. Small daycare centers in villages should stay open.

The AfD wants to cap parents' daycare fees at 15 percent at first and abolish them in the long run, once the reformed state child-raising allowance has created a real choice of care. Training for daycare educators is to be paid and shortened. A bonus is meant to attract young educators to rural areas.

Parents should pay less for daycare. At first their share should be 15 percent at most. Later daycare should cost nothing. People training to be educators should be paid. Educators in rural areas should get a bonus.

The AfD wants to use the Bundesrat (federal chamber of the states) to reduce disadvantages for families in social insurance and to count child-raising and caregiving periods more toward pensions. Family support services are to be adequately funded to advise families in crisis. Trainees are to be spared the second-home tax.

The AfD wants to improve things for parents. Time spent raising children and caring for relatives should count more for pensions. Families in crisis should get good advice. Parents should find it easier to go to a health retreat with their child. Young people in training should not pay the second-home tax.

The AfD wants to offer all children in Saxon daycare centers and schools a free, healthy lunch. The platform justifies this with higher energy and food prices and with reducing social inequality. The "Obst und Milch" (fruit and milk) program is to be extended to all daycare centers and home-based childcare without complicated applications.

All children should get a free lunch at daycare and school. The meal should be healthy and warm. It should not depend on how much money the parents have. All daycare centers should also get fruit and milk. There should be less paperwork for this.

The AfD wants early childhood education to follow what it considers proven principles and rejects open concepts in daycare centers. Daycare centers are to be free of ideology and politics and prepare children for school with firm rules. Early offerings in science, skilled trades, fire safety and language are also to be expanded.

The AfD wants fixed routines and fixed caregivers in daycare centers. It rejects open concepts. Children should learn clear rules and limits. They should be well prepared for school. There should be more activities on technology, trades and language.

The AfD wants a school system that is tiered by ability but still allows movement between tracks. Students would learn together through grade 8, and Oberschulen (non-academic secondary schools) would become Technical Oberschulen. Fixed grade requirements would govern the move to Gymnasium.

The AfD wants to keep different types of schools. All children should learn together until grade 8. The Oberschule should become a Technical Oberschule. Only students with very good grades may move to Gymnasium.

The AfD wants to strengthen dual vocational training and vocational schools. In its view, the push for more university-track graduates and weak performance by school leavers endanger the supply of trainees. Schools would teach more economics and career orientation.

The AfD wants to strengthen job training. It says many companies cannot find good trainees. Schools should teach more about business and jobs. Trainees should get more dormitory places.

The AfD wants to keep Förderschulen (special-needs schools). In its view, children with special needs receive support there that regular schools cannot provide. Inclusion should proceed only with a sense of proportion.

The AfD wants to keep special-needs schools. It says children with disabilities get the best help there. Teaching everyone together should happen only in moderation. It should not burden teachers or other children.

The AfD wants to end the "sex education of diversity" in schools, which it calls early sexualization. It wants age-appropriate sex education based on biology instead. Parents would get a legal right to have a say or to veto.

The AfD rejects lessons about sexual diversity. It wants sex education based only on biology. The state should stop paying for such projects. Parents should have a say in sex education.

The AfD considers the Bologna reform a failure and wants to bring back Diplom and Magister degree programs. It says the reform made university studies school-like, created bureaucracy and curtailed academic freedom.

The AfD wants the old Diplom and Magister degrees back. It says the Bologna reform has failed. That is the Europe-wide switch to bachelor's and master's degrees. German should remain the language at universities.

The AfD wants to give universities more base funding so they depend less on third-party grants. Universities would be allowed to select their own students. Certain students from outside the European Economic Area would pay tuition.

Universities should get more fixed money from the state. This way they depend less on outside funders. Universities should be allowed to pick applicants with tests. Some students from abroad should pay fees.

The AfD wants to train teachers at a dedicated Pädagogische Hochschule (teacher training college) again, without the Referendariat. The degree would combine theory and practice from the start. The aim is teacher training planned according to need.

The AfD wants to found a separate college for teachers again. The Referendariat should be dropped. That is the practical phase after university. Students should practice in schools from the start.

The AfD wants to secure outpatient care, especially in structurally weak regions. It would lift the budget caps on doctors' practices and, where needed, set up municipal health centers with salaried doctors. The party still regards self-employed doctors, dentists and pharmacists as the backbone of care.

The AfD wants more doctors in rural areas. Doctors' offices should no longer have a budget cap. A budget cap means the office only gets a limited amount of money. Where doctors are missing, towns should run their own health centers. The AfD also wants to support mobile doctors' offices.

The AfD wants to train significantly more doctors at Saxon universities to counter the shortage of physicians. The Numerus Clausus (grade-based admission cutoff) would be dropped as the selection criterion, and the rural doctor quota would be expanded.

The AfD wants more places to study medicine in Saxony. School grades should no longer decide who gets a place. More places should go to future rural doctors. This is how the AfD wants to reduce the shortage of doctors.

The AfD wants to make sure emergency services meet the response times set by law. Rescue stations would be spread out more widely and given more staff and equipment.

Ambulances should reach patients fast enough. The law sets fixed times for this. The AfD wants more rescue stations in more places. They should get more staff and better equipment.

The AfD wants to advance telemedicine statewide and use financial incentives to promote the IT equipment it requires. Telemedicine is not meant to replace doctor visits in general, but to improve care in nursing homes and on-call services, for example.

The AfD wants more telemedicine. Telemedicine means doctor and patient talk by video. Doctors' offices and hospitals need good computer systems for this. The AfD wants to support that with money. Phone and paper should still stay available.

The AfD wants to completely abolish hospital billing by flat rates per case (the DRG system), which in its view puts economics ahead of people. At the same time, basic and emergency care would be preserved throughout Saxony, and the investment backlog would be cleared with a statutory minimum investment rate of 6 percent.

Hospitals today get fixed amounts for each case they treat. The AfD wants to end this system completely. Basic care and emergency care should exist everywhere in Saxony. Hospitals should get much more money for investments. A law should set a minimum share of 6 percent for this.

The AfD wants Saxony to cover the investment costs of nursing care facilities and calls for a tax-funded subsidy to long-term care insurance. According to the platform, this would allow the share paid by people in need of care to be capped at 400 euros.

Care in a nursing home costs people more and more of their own money. The AfD wants to change that. Saxony should pay the investment costs of the homes. Care insurance should get money from taxes. Then people in care would only pay 400 euros themselves.

The AfD wants to strengthen care at home and, following Bavaria's example, introduce a Landespflegegeld (state care allowance) of up to 400 euros a month from care level 2. It points out that most people in need of care want to stay in their own homes as long as possible.

Many people get care at home, often from relatives. The AfD wants to support this more. Saxony should pay its own care allowance. It should be up to 400 euros a month. People get it from care level 2.

The AfD wants to ease the burden on nursing staff with binding staffing rules, shorter working hours and pay brought into line nationwide. It also backs bringing back a mandatory service to society.

Nursing staff have a very heavy workload. The AfD wants fixed rules on how many staff there must be. Working hours should go down. Pay should be similar across Germany. The AfD also wants a mandatory service to society again.

The AfD wants a state parliament inquiry committee to examine the state government's COVID measures. People who suffered health damage after a COVID vaccination would receive support or compensation, and Saxony would build a structure for future pandemics.

The AfD wants the COVID period to be investigated. A committee in the state parliament should do this. It should examine the government's rules. People who got sick from the vaccine should get help or money. Saxony should also prepare better for new pandemics.

The AfD wants to make German the mandatory language in Saxon daycare centers and limit children who do not speak German to at most 10 percent per group. Children from families without long-term prospects of staying are to be cared for separately by native speakers where needed. The party justifies this with the language development of all children.

German should be required in daycare centers in Saxony. In a group, at most one child in ten should not speak German. Some families may not stay for good. Their children should go to separate centers. There they are cared for in their own language.

The AfD calls for a headscarf ban in schools and daycare centers and wants to keep political Islam from gaining influence there. Children with no prospect of staying would be prepared in school for returning to their country of origin. According to the platform, migration comes at the expense of native students.

The AfD wants to ban headscarves in schools and daycare centers. Muslim children should take part in swimming and sports. Some children are not allowed to stay in Germany. School should prepare them for going back.

The AfD wants to move available riot police units to Saxony's border area and use every lawful police measure to stop unauthorized entry. Claims for protection would be screened before entry is allowed. People arriving from a safe third country would be refused entry.

The AfD wants to send more police to the border. Nobody should enter without permission. Officials should check before entry whether a person needs protection. Only then may the person come in.

The AfD wants Saxony to stop taking in further asylum seekers, arguing that municipalities are overwhelmed by the numbers assigned to them. Local governments would get a say in housing decisions. Voluntary admission programs would end, and asylum applications would be decided in centers abroad.

The AfD wants Saxony to take in no new asylum seekers. It says towns can no longer cope. Towns should have a say in housing them. Asylum requests should be checked in other countries.

The AfD wants deportations enforced more consistently at state and federal level, especially for people deemed security threats, criminal offenders and those who refuse to integrate. Criminal courts would be able to revoke residence permits and order deportation directly. Dublin cases would be returned to the responsible countries.

The AfD wants to deport more people. That means they must leave Germany. Criminal courts should be allowed to order a deportation themselves. This should apply above all to offenders.

The AfD wants asylum seekers and people with tolerated status to receive benefits in kind rather than cash, without exception, and to be tied to an assigned place of residence. It argues that cash benefits attract poverty migration and are misused. Those without a regular job would have to do community work.

Asylum seekers should no longer get cash. They should get things like food and clothes directly. They should not be free to leave their assigned area. People without a job should do work for the community.

The AfD wants to house asylum applicants and people with tolerated status centrally in transfer centers, separated by religion and supervised by the state interior ministry. The number of places for deportation detention and departure custody there would rise to at least 350. Children required to leave would be taught inside the centers.

Asylum seekers should live in large central shelters. The AfD calls them transfer centers. People there should live separated by religion. There should be at least 350 places for deportation detention.

The AfD wants to fund only protection and basic provision for people with subsidiary protection, those required to leave and those with tolerated status, because in the party's view they must soon leave the country. State-funded integration measures for them would largely end. The age of unaccompanied minors would be carefully determined.

Some people may stay in Germany only for a short time. The AfD wants to pay only for their basic needs. They should not get integration courses. Young refugees without parents should have their age checked.

The AfD calls for a fundamental reform of federal asylum and immigration law. The right to asylum in the Basic Law would be replaced by an ordinary statute, and immigration would be based solely on need. The party rejects switching from the asylum track to regular immigration.

Today the right to asylum is in Germany's constitution. The AfD wants to remove it from there. It should only be in a normal law. Only people Germany needs should be allowed to immigrate.

The AfD opposes the continued lowering of requirements for German citizenship. In its view, citizenship must not be used to cover up a lack of willingness to integrate. Naturalized dual nationals who support terrorism would lose their German citizenship again.

The AfD does not want to make the German passport easier to get. It is against lower requirements. Some people have two passports and support terrorism. They should lose the German passport.

The AfD wants ways of life that differ from the traditional model to receive no more public space than they have in everyday life. It opposes redefining descent, family and marriage and rejects what it calls early sexualization. Judging ways of life and sexuality is to remain a matter for parents.

The AfD wants to tolerate other ways of life but not promote them. The words marriage, family and descent should keep their meaning. Parents should talk to their children about sexuality, not the daycare center. Children should learn about sex in a way that fits their age.

The AfD wants children to no longer take part in parades such as Christopher Street Day. The state of Saxony is to ensure this on grounds of youth protection. Public schools and daycare centers are to be barred from promoting such events.

The AfD wants to keep children away from rainbow parades. One example is Christopher Street Day. The state of Saxony should make sure of this. Schools and daycare centers should not advertise such events.

The AfD wants to abolish equal opportunity officers and end funding for what it calls gender ideology. Only professional qualifications should count in hiring. It rejects rules on "politically correct" language.

The AfD wants no more equal opportunity officers. It wants to stop paying for gender topics. It rejects rules for gender-inclusive language. For jobs, only skills should count.

The AfD wants to stop the use of puberty blockers and similar drugs in children who cannot consent themselves, with only rare exceptions. Gender-affirming surgery on minors would also be prohibited as a rule.

Puberty blockers are drugs. They pause the physical development of young people. The AfD wants to ban these drugs for children in almost all cases. Surgery to change sex should also be banned for minors. It should stay allowed only in exceptional cases.

The AfD rejects the building of mosques in Saxony, especially with minarets. Mosque associations would have to sign a declaration of commitment to democracy and disclose their finances; funding from abroad would be banned.

The AfD wants no new mosques in Saxony. Mosque groups should sign a statement. In it they commit to the state and reject violence. They should show where their money comes from. Money from abroad should be banned.

The AfD wants to abolish the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) and the grid priority it gives wind and solar power. It disputes that humans influence the climate through CO2 and wants to end the transformation set out in the Climate Action Plan 2050. The stated goal is a stable, affordable and secure energy supply.

The AfD wants to scrap the law on renewable energy. Wind and solar power should no longer come first in the grid. The AfD does not believe humans change the climate. It wants cheap and secure electricity.

The AfD wants to tie new wind turbines and large solar installations to strict conditions and withdraw Saxony's land-area target for wind power. Turbines would have to keep a distance of ten times their height from homes. The party cites environmental and health protection as its reasons.

The AfD wants fewer new wind turbines in Saxony. Turbines should stand far away from homes. Saxony should no longer set aside 2 percent of its land for wind power. There should be no turbines in forests.

The AfD wants to undo the decision to phase out coal power by 2038. Saxony's lignite power plants and the open-pit mines near Leipzig and in Lusatia would keep operating as long as, in the party's view, there is no competitive alternative.

Germany plans to stop using coal by 2038. The AfD wants to cancel this plan. The coal power plants in Saxony should keep running. The coal mines should stay open too.

The AfD wants to examine whether new gas-fired and new nuclear power plants can be built in Saxony. Germany's shut-down nuclear plants should be restarted where technically possible. The stated goal is an energy mix with affordable electricity prices.

The AfD wants to look into new gas power plants in Saxony. It also wants to look into new nuclear power plants. Old nuclear plants in Germany should run again if that is possible. The party says this will make power cheaper.

The AfD wants to preserve Saxony's ability to supply itself with electricity. It plans grid disconnectors on the extra-high-voltage network at the state's borders and wants to keep and expand pumped-storage power plants.

Saxony should be able to make all its own power. The AfD wants to be able to cut off the power grid at the state border. Then Saxony still has power if the grid fails elsewhere. Pumped-storage plants should stay and grow. These plants store power using water.

The AfD wants to push at the federal level to scrap taxes and levies that make energy more expensive, including carbon pricing. No replacement is planned. The party regards these charges as ideologically motivated.

There are taxes and fees on energy. One of them is the CO2 tax. The AfD wants to get rid of these charges. Nothing should replace them. The party says energy will then cost less.

The AfD rejects state rules on heating technology and insulation and does not want to implement the Gebäudeenergiegesetz (Building Energy Act) passed in 2023 in Saxony. Builders should weigh for themselves how much to invest in saving energy.

The Building Energy Act sets rules for heating and insulation. The AfD rejects this law. It does not want to apply it in Saxony. People should decide for themselves which heating system they install.

The AfD wants an independent national research and funding policy that does not depend on the topics funded by the EU. It would mainly support basic research on new energy and reactor technologies, including at Saxony's universities.

The AfD wants Germany to decide on its own research. Research should not depend on the EU. There should be more research on new energy technology. This includes new kinds of nuclear reactors. Universities in Saxony should get money for this.

The AfD wants to build gas storage facilities in Saxony that cover at least 72 hours of consumption. It argues that Saxony can currently draw only on two storage sites in Saxony-Anhalt.

The AfD wants to build gas storage in Saxony. The gas should last for at least 72 hours. So far the storage sites are in Saxony-Anhalt. This is meant to make supply safer.

The AfD wants to cap transports of animals for slaughter within Germany at five hours of travel plus two hours of loading time. Animals should always be taken to the nearest slaughterhouse. Inspections and penalties are to be tightened.

The AfD wants shorter trips for animals going to slaughter. A trip should take five hours at most. Two more hours are allowed for loading. Animals should go to the nearest slaughterhouse. There should be more checks.

The AfD wants to keep the ban on slaughter without stunning and to grant no exemptions in Saxony, including for religious reasons. At the same time, regional meat production and mobile slaughter are to be made easier.

Some animals are killed without being stunned first. The AfD wants to never allow this in Saxony. This should also apply to religious reasons. The AfD also wants to make local slaughter easier.

The AfD wants to give Saxony's animal shelters more money. It plans a wage subsidy as well as more funds for feed and veterinary care.

The AfD wants to give animal shelters in Saxony more money. The state should pay part of the wages. There should be more money for food and vets.

The AfD wants to achieve nature conservation through near-natural use of cultivated landscapes and by leaving some sites unused. Farms and forestry businesses are to be paid long term for conservation services, with funding that is simple and results-based.

The AfD wants to protect nature together with farmers and foresters. Businesses should get money for protecting nature. Getting the money should be easy. More animals should graze on pastures again.

The AfD considers the wolf no longer threatened with extinction in Saxony and wants to end its strict protection under EU law. The population is to be regulated through culling plans to protect grazing animals, pets and people in rural areas.

The AfD says there are enough wolves in Saxony. The wolf should no longer be strictly protected. Hunters should be allowed to shoot wolves under a plan. Animal owners should get money when a wolf kills their animals.

The AfD wants to draw up a flood protection plan for large and small waterways, focusing on building or renovating retention basins and dikes. More rainwater is to seep into the ground on site to secure groundwater and prevent floods.

The AfD wants to protect Saxony better against floods. It wants to repair dikes and build retention basins. More rainwater should seep into the ground. Towns should get more money for their streams and rivers.

The AfD wants the nation state rather than the EU to be responsible for agriculture again. Compensation payments to farmers would stay for now but no longer run through the EU. Funding programs would be simplified.

Today the EU decides a lot about farming. The AfD wants Germany to decide this itself again. Farmers should still get money from the state. Applying for it should be easier.

The state of Saxony would stop selling its farmland and forests and instead lease them long-term to local farms. The AfD wants to curb land speculation and protect local farmers from outside investors.

Saxony owns fields and forests. The AfD wants Saxony to stop selling this land. Local farmers should be able to lease it for a long time. Leasing means using it for a fee. This should stop outside investors from buying up land.

The AfD wants Saxony to supply itself with food as far as possible and to keep farming from moving abroad. It would support better conditions for farm animals, regional marketing, and allotment gardeners and small-scale animal keepers.

Saxony should produce much of its own food. For milk and eggs, things should stay as they are. For meat, Saxony should produce more. Farm animals should be kept in better conditions. The AfD also wants to help people with small gardens.

The AfD wants to keep using and developing the combustion engine until a competitive technology is available. It opposes bans on combustion vehicles, driving bans, subsidies and current emission limits. It does not consider electric mobility a suitable replacement for the foreseeable future.

The AfD wants to keep cars with gasoline and diesel engines. It is against banning these cars. It is also against driving bans and strict exhaust rules. The AfD does not think electric cars can replace these cars soon.

The AfD sees transport networks as a basic public service and wants above all to stop the decay of state roads and expand rural infrastructure. All modes of transport are to be treated equally; it rejects a general 30 km/h limit in cities and a general speed limit on autobahns.

The AfD wants to repair roads, especially state roads. Rural areas should get better connections. The AfD is against a 30 km/h limit across whole cities. It is also against a speed limit on autobahns. Bike paths should become safer.

The AfD wants schools to have modern digital equipment but to use digital technology in class only from fourth grade. It argues that using it too early harms children's motor and cognitive skills.

Schools should get modern digital devices. But children should use them only from grade 4. The AfD says using them too early harms development. Technicians should look after the devices, not teachers.

The AfD wants citizens to be able to deal with government offices and everyday life without digital services, especially older people. Digital surveillance would be tightly limited and cash would be kept.

Nobody should have to do everything by computer or phone. The AfD says this matters most for old people. The state should watch citizens very little. People should still be able to pay with cash.

The AfD wants to enlarge Saxony's police force to at least 15,000 staff and equip it better. Police are to be more visible around the clock, especially in rural areas and near the border, so that they arrive faster in emergencies.

The AfD wants more police officers in Saxony. There should be at least 15,000. Police should be seen more often on the streets. This matters most in villages and near the border. That way help should arrive faster.

The AfD wants to strengthen the units fighting organized crime with staff and technology and to consistently confiscate criminal profits. Foreign offenders are to be expelled more easily by making membership in such groups a separate ground for expulsion.

The AfD wants to do more against criminal gangs. Police should get better technology for this. The state should take away money made from crime. Foreigners who belong to such gangs should have to leave the country.

The AfD calls for checks on people and goods at Saxony's border crossings again and for complete surveillance of the border away from the crossings. It cites uncontrolled immigration, people smuggling, and cross-border crime as reasons.

The AfD wants checks at Saxony's borders again. This covers people and goods. The border in forests and fields should be watched too. The AfD says this will keep out smugglers and criminals.

The AfD wants to lower the age of criminal responsibility from 14 to twelve. Adult criminal law would apply without exception to 18- to 21-year-olds; the option of applying juvenile law to them would be dropped.

Today courts can punish children only from age 14. The AfD wants this from age 12. Anyone who is 18 should always be punished as an adult. Today milder rules sometimes apply to young people up to 21.

The AfD wants a general ban on religious face and full-body veils in public spaces. At public events and marches, the existing ban on covering one's face is to be enforced.

The AfD wants to ban face veils worn for religious reasons. This should apply everywhere in public. At protests, too, nobody should cover their face. The AfD says: here, people show their faces.

The AfD wants to abolish the Verfassungsschutz (domestic intelligence agency) in its current form and rebuild it under a completely revised law. The new agency is to operate independently of the government; at the same time the party announces a zero-tolerance policy toward extremists and hate preachers.

The Verfassungsschutz is a secret service inside Germany. The AfD wants to abolish it in its current form. A new service should replace it. It should not depend on the government. The AfD wants to be tough on extremists.

The AfD wants to strengthen emergency medical services, fire departments, and disaster response, especially in rural areas. Volunteers are to receive more recognition, including a tiered supplementary pension and subsidized truck driver's licenses.

The AfD wants stronger fire and rescue services. They should get modern equipment. Volunteers should later get a small extra pension. The state should also help pay for truck licenses for firefighters.

The AfD wants judicial selection committees, rather than the justice ministry alone, to decide on hiring and promoting judges. It also backs federal initiatives to free public prosecutors from ministerial instructions.

Today the justice ministry decides who becomes a judge. The AfD wants to change that. A committee should choose the judges. Prosecutors should also no longer get orders from the ministry.

The AfD wants to expand direct democracy in Saxony and sharply reduce the number of signatures required. In addition, citizens would be able to repeal laws passed by the state parliament through a vote.

The AfD wants citizens to vote on laws more easily. Fewer signatures should be needed for this. Citizens should also be able to cancel laws made by the state parliament. This is called a repeal referendum.

The AfD wants to slow migration away from rural areas and give counties and rural municipalities more money and more room to decide for themselves. In the program's view, the state has handed them too many tasks without compensation.

The AfD wants to strengthen villages and small towns. Rural towns should get more money. They should be able to decide more on their own. Applying for funding should become easier.

The AfD wants the EU to stop taking on debt of its own and rejects any pooling of debt. The European Central Bank should limit itself to monetary policy. According to the platform, borrowing and taxation should take place only at the national level.

The AfD wants the EU to stop taking on debt. Germany should not be liable for other countries' debts. The European Central Bank should deal only with money policy. Debt and taxes should be a matter for each country.

The AfD rejects a European deposit insurance scheme and the banking union. German banks and savers should not be liable for banks in other EU countries. The party wants to strengthen savings banks, cooperative banks and regional development banks.

The AfD does not want shared EU protection for bank deposits. German savers should not pay for foreign banks. Local savings banks and cooperative banks should become stronger. They give loans to local companies.

The AfD wants regional development funds to stop flowing through the EU and instead be managed regionally or at least nationally. It cites the high administrative costs of EU funding pools and the principle of subsidiarity. Award procedures are to be simplified.

Today the EU hands out a lot of funding for regions. The AfD wants to change that. Saxony or Germany should manage the money themselves. The AfD says: Going through the EU costs too much. Awarding the money should be simpler.

The AfD wants to change EU procurement law so that public contracts can go preferentially to regional or national bidders. It also wants to deepen cooperation with Poland and the Czech Republic, support German minorities in neighboring countries and open more Saxon liaison offices in Europe.

The AfD wants to change the EU rules for public contracts. Local companies should get contracts more easily. Saxony should work more with Poland and the Czech Republic. German minorities in nearby countries should get support. Saxony should open more offices in other European countries.

The AfD wants to end the sanctions against Russia and rebuild trade across Europe and Asia. It argues that Saxony, as an export region, suffers badly from the EU's sanctions policy. It also wants to shield Saxony from the EU's climate and energy policy.

The AfD wants to end the sanctions against Russia. Sanctions are penalties in trade. The AfD says: They hurt the economy in Saxony. Saxony should trade more with countries to the east again. The AfD also rejects the EU's climate policy.

The AfD wants more money for preserving monuments, especially for private owners, and wants to support local heritage and customs. It opposes what it sees as an ideological slant in the cultural sector. Protection of the German language would be written into the state constitution.

The AfD wants to spend more on old buildings and monuments. It wants to support customs and local culture. Museums should not rename artworks. The German language should be in Saxony's constitution.

The AfD wants to terminate the interstate treaties on media and broadcast funding and fundamentally overhaul the MDR (the regional public broadcaster). No one should have to pay for a broadcasting service they do not use. The party considers public broadcasting insufficiently balanced and independent of the state.

The AfD wants to cancel the treaties on public broadcasting. No one should have to pay the broadcasting fee anymore. It wants to change the broadcaster MDR a lot. Parties should disclose their shares in media companies.