AfD on families

The AfD wants its family policy to lead to more children being born in the state. Marriage between a man and a woman with children is to be the guiding model and receive special support. The party sees children, not immigration, as the state's future.

The AfD wants more children to be born in Saxony-Anhalt. Marriage between a man and a woman with children should be the model. The state should give this kind of marriage extra support. The AfD says children are the future, not immigrants.

The platform highlights more births as the goal of family policy and sets this against immigration. Policymakers are to recognize marriage between a man and a woman that produces children as the norm and support it in a targeted way. In the party's view, society needs clear norms and role models. Commitment to one's own country and culture should be seen as a matter of course.

The AfD wants to introduce a one-time payment at birth and a monthly state-level child allowance. Both are meant to ease the burden on parents and especially strengthen families with several children. One condition is that at least one parent holds German citizenship.

The AfD wants to give parents money when a child is born. The first and second child bring 2,000 euros each. From the third child on, it is 4,000 euros. There is also a monthly family allowance from the state. One parent must be German.

The welcome payment is 2,000 euros for the first and second child and 4,000 euros from the third child on. Half is paid after birth and half at the child's third birthday, provided the child attended the U1 to U7a checkups; vaccination status plays no role. The conditions are German citizenship of one parent and both parents having had their main residence in the state for at least a year. The monthly Familiengeld (family allowance) would be 50 euros for the first child, 150 euros for the second and 250 euros for each additional child. The same conditions apply to the family allowance.

The AfD wants abortion to remain regulated in the criminal code and would oppose federal initiatives to change that in the Bundesrat. Mandatory pregnancy counseling would in future include an ultrasound and a written list of available support. The program justifies this with the protection of unborn life.

The AfD wants abortion to stay in criminal law. Women must go to counseling before an abortion. In future, this should include an ultrasound exam. Women should also get a list of available help.

According to the program, Saxony-Anhalt has seen more than 3,000 abortions a year since 2020, only four percent of them for medical or criminological reasons. The AfD wants its family policy measures to ensure that children are not a financial risk, and wants to build support structures for women with unwanted pregnancies. In counseling, women would receive a written list of the support available to them, with contact points. Where there is no medical or criminological reason, counseling would include an ultrasound of the child. The party rejects regulating abortion outside the criminal code and would oppose this in the Bundesrat, for example.

The AfD wants health insurers to fully cover treatments such as artificial insemination as a standard benefit. Until then, the state would step in with its own support. Childless couples would also find it easier to adopt.

Some couples cannot have children. Treatment for this costs a lot of money. The AfD wants health insurers to pay for all of it. Until then, the state should help. Couples without children should also be able to adopt more easily.

The program criticizes that couples pay half the cost of reproductive medicine themselves, while insurers cover abortions for women with low incomes. The AfD wants to push at the federal level for a standard insurance benefit and close the gap with state funds in the meantime. Childless couples would get priority when adoptive children are placed. The party wants to promote adoption to women with unwanted pregnancies as an alternative to abortion.

The AfD wants to declare the family of father, mother and children a social policy goal and put it at the center of campaigns and education. The state would neither promote nor fund other ways of life. The program argues that children come only from the union of a man and a woman.

The AfD sees the family of father, mother and children as the model. The state should promote this kind of family. This should also happen in schools. The state should not promote other ways of living. It should not fund them either.

State government campaigns would put children and family front and center, as would school and further education. Projects and organizations that raise the standing of families or support them would get preference in public funding. The program attributes the low birth rate partly to the AfD's view that ways of life not geared toward reproduction are promoted more than the family of man and woman. The party acknowledges the work of single parents and wants to support them, but rejects presenting single-parent families as desirable.

The AfD wants to require social workers, childcare staff and those who train them to be strictly politically neutral. Associations that the platform says take part in agitation would lose public funding and tax benefits.

The AfD wants new rules for childcare staff and social workers. They must be politically neutral at work. This means they should not pass on political opinions. Some associations would no longer get money from the state.

The platform plans to strip associations and organizations it accuses of agitation of all public funding and tax advantages, and to change the grant rules accordingly. State institutions are to act neutrally on matters of worldview and to affirm what the platform calls the normative normality of society. Work with children and young people is meant to build character, with no room for political influence. The AfD also wants public broadcasters to give families more prominence in their programming.

The AfD wants to make nurseries and kindergartens free of charge starting with the first child, permanently paid for by the state. Lunch in nurseries, daycare and schools would also be free. The platform argues that children, as future contributors, keep the social insurance systems going.

The AfD wants nurseries and kindergartens to cost nothing. This would apply from the first child. The state of Saxony-Anhalt would pay for it. Lunch at daycare and school would also be free.

Fees would be dropped from the first child onward, with permanent funding from the state budget. Lunch would be free and of high quality for all children from nursery through school, meaning healthy, balanced and tasty. The AfD argues that pensions and health care have no future without children. For that reason, it says, society must offset the financial burden carried by families with children.

The AfD wants to give families free admission to castles, palaces and museums through a so-called Stolz-Pass ("pride pass"). In addition, a state program would let every child up to age 18 take part in a sports club at no cost.

The AfD wants to create a pass for families. It is called the Stolz-Pass, which means pride pass. With it, families can visit museums and castles for free. Children would also be able to join a sports club for free.

The Stolz-Pass would be part of an image campaign called #deutschdenken ("think German") and open to every family in the state with at least one child. The AfD argues that culture can only be preserved if the next generation gets to know it, and that high ticket prices put many parents off. For sports, a state program would give every child up to their 18th birthday free membership in a club of their choice. The party says this would counter childhood obesity, ease the burden on families and bring new members to clubs.

The AfD wants to work toward establishing a chair of population studies at the University of Halle. It would research the causes of the declining birth rate so that, in the party's view, the state can counteract it effectively.

The AfD wants a new chair at the University of Halle. A chair is a permanent post for research and teaching. Experts there should study why fewer children are born. The AfD wants to find ways to raise the number of births.

The program accuses other parties of playing down the falling birth rate as demographic change and of wanting at most to offset it through immigration. The AfD speaks of the dying out of the people and considers the process barely researched. The chair would look into why Germans have fewer children, why birth rates fall as prosperity rises, and what characterizes people with large families. It would also study how the state can help and steer.