AfD on public safety

The AfD wants the police to concentrate on fighting crime and spend less time on speech offenses. The Verfassungsschutz (domestic intelligence agency) should no longer monitor the opposition. The party ties this to a call for more democracy and freedom in the state.

The police should deal with serious crimes. They should spend less time on crimes that are about opinions. The Verfassungsschutz is a domestic intelligence agency. It should stop watching the opposition.

The platform calls the prosecution of speech offenses a waste of time and describes these offenses as questionable. The AfD describes the Verfassungsschutz as an agency that takes instructions from the government and is used against the opposition. The party also opposes calls to ban the AfD and complains that it has been denied a vice president in the state parliament for five years. It sees this as a disruption of the democratic process.

The AfD commits to a strong state and wants to rebalance police tasks: serious crimes are to be pursued more intensively, while citizens' expressions of opinion are not to be prosecuted. The party says this would make the police be seen as a friend and helper again.

The AfD wants a strong state that keeps order. The police should mainly deal with serious crimes. They should not go after citizens for their opinions. The AfD wants people to trust the police again.

The program calls internal security the main purpose of the state, ahead of social tasks. The AfD criticizes that security is increasingly becoming a good only some can afford. With limited capacity, serious offenses are to take priority. According to the party, many people see the police as a tool of a repressive state, partly because of how Covid protests were handled. More respect for officers and different priorities are meant to counter this alienation.

The AfD wants to expand the state police to at least 7,500 officers and shorten the time it takes to reach the scene. It justifies the need with rising crime, which it attributes mainly to immigration policy.

The AfD wants more police officers in the state. There should be at least 7,500. The police should also reach the scene faster. The AfD wants to test a digital system in patrol cars for this. Officers should also have less office work.

By the AfD's reckoning, the economic damage from burglaries, shoplifting and organized crime far exceeds the extra staffing costs. The program says police in Saxony-Anhalt take 15 minutes on average to arrive, even in cases of considerable danger. A digital radio and information system for automatic emergency handling in patrol cars, which the AfD knows from North Rhine-Westphalia, is therefore to be trialed. Officers are also to be relieved of administrative tasks.

The AfD wants internal investigations after police use of firearms to be opened only when there is concrete suspicion of misconduct. Pending disciplinary proceedings should no longer block promotions and training, and the office of the state police commissioner should be eliminated.

Today the police check every shot from a service gun internally. The AfD wants this only when a mistake is suspected. A disciplinary case should no longer hold up an officer's career. A disciplinary case checks whether an officer broke the rules of the job. The AfD also wants to abolish the police commissioner.

The platform regards the automatic disciplinary investigation after every use of a firearm as blanket suspicion and demands that the presumption of innocence apply. Career measures such as training courses and regular promotions should be suspended only once prosecutors are investigating, not on the basis of a disciplinary proceeding alone. The reason given is that career setbacks cannot be made up if the officer is later found innocent. The AfD considers the police commissioner, an office in place since July 1, 2025, unnecessary because in its view the interior ministry's Central Complaints Office is sufficient.

The AfD wants to make police service more attractive through faster promotions, allowances and state-paid disability insurance, in order to reach 7,500 police officers. Police would also be equipped with Tasers and relieved of administrative work.

The AfD wants more people to join the police. The goal is 7,500 officers. Officers should be promoted faster. The state should pay for an insurance for them. The police should also get Tasers. A Taser is a device that uses electricity to stop a person for a short time.

For the first promotion ranks (pay grades A8 and A10), the platform calls for a standard promotion four years after hiring. Officers doing higher-level work should receive an allowance after 18 months at the latest, modeled on the former Section 46 of the Federal Civil Service Pay Act. The state would cover the cost of occupational disability insurance for officers and trainees. Administrative staff would take over tasks such as data entry, and teams pairing an officer with a subject expert would help in areas like white-collar crime. Tasers would be purchased as an option between pepper spray and the service pistol, and officers trained to use them.

The AfD wants young offenders to consistently receive a so-called Warnschussarrest ("warning-shot" detention) of up to four weeks. The aim is a sharp warning without a prison sentence burdening their future.

Young people who commit a crime should be put in detention. The detention lasts up to four weeks. The AfD calls it warning-shot detention. It is meant to warn the young person. It does not show up in the criminal record certificate.

The platform describes the detention as a disciplinary measure with an educational purpose, meant to make clear to the young person that the act was wrong. It is to be applied to all kinds of youth crime. The AfD justifies this with what it sees as rising youth crime in Saxony-Anhalt.

The AfD wants to push at the federal level to allow the addresses of released pedophile offenders to be published. Saxony-Anhalt would also get an alert system for missing children modeled on the US AMBER Alert.

The AfD wants to make the addresses of convicted pedophile offenders public. This would apply after release from prison. Federal law would have to change for this. The AfD also wants an alert system for missing children. Police, media and companies would then search for the child together.

The platform justifies publication with a reoffending rate it puts at 40 to 50 percent and calls it a minimum level of protection for the public when no preventive detention is ordered. For the alert system, police, social media, broadcasters, transport companies and telecom providers would cooperate to build search pressure quickly. According to the platform, 118 children in Saxony-Anhalt are considered permanently missing.

The AfD wants to sharply increase pressure from police and domestic intelligence on the far-left scene in Saxony-Anhalt. At the federal level, it wants all groups that identify as "Antifa" to be classified as terrorist organizations.

The AfD sees Antifa as a big danger to public safety. Police and the intelligence service should pursue these groups much harder. The AfD wants Antifa declared a terrorist organization across Germany. It wants to push for this at the federal level.

The platform calls far-left political crime one of the greatest threats to internal security and points to the so-called "Hammerbande" from Leipzig. Fighting "Antifa" would be given top priority in the state. The AfD cites the US designation of "Antifa Ost" as a terrorist organization and describes the movement's methods as terrorist.

The AfD wants to create a volunteer citizens' watch in municipalities that supports the public order office and police with auxiliary tasks. It is meant to improve safety, cleanliness and order, since the platform sees the authorities as overstretched.

The AfD wants to start a volunteer citizens' watch. Citizens would help the public order office and the police in their free time. They would get training first. They would get a little money for it. The citizens' watch is not meant to replace police officers.

The citizens' watch would report to the public order office and serve as a third pillar of local security alongside police and that office. Members would be trained in courses and modules. They would receive a small tax-free allowance modeled on the flat-rate allowance for volunteer instructors. The platform stresses that the watch is meant neither to relieve the budget nor to replace regular positions.

The AfD wants to regulate fire protection, emergency medical services and disaster response in a single state law. Volunteers would get more recognition through a volunteer card, higher compensation and uniform rules on time off work.

The AfD wants one law for the fire service, rescue service and disaster response. Volunteers should get a volunteer card. Firefighters should get more compensation. Their employers should get a benefit too.

The new law would also legally define a major incident as a level below a disaster. Membership in the fire service should be better rewarded, especially in rural areas. Employers who do without staff during call-outs would receive an incentive. Time off and reimbursement of costs would be regulated the same way for all fire and disaster response volunteers.

The AfD wants all revenue from the fire protection tax to be passed on to municipalities and earmarked for fire protection. The guaranteed minimum annual payout would be doubled to 9 million euros. The platform also calls for a special budget for fire departments covering highway sections and for subsidized licenses for emergency vehicles.

The AfD wants to give fire departments more money. Towns should get at least 9 million euros each year. That is twice as much as now. Fire departments near highways should get extra money. The state should also help pay for licenses to drive big fire trucks.

All revenue from the fire protection tax would go to fire protection and be available to municipalities locally. The platform justifies doubling the minimum payout to 9 million euros with planning certainty for municipalities. Fire departments whose response area includes highways or multi-lane expressways would get higher subsidy rates for vehicle purchases or a larger special lump sum. Fire departments would have a say in the state's centralized vehicle procurement. The AfD supports the "Feuerwehrführerschein" (a state permit letting responders with a regular car license drive vehicles up to 7.5 tons) and wants state funds to subsidize licenses for heavier vehicles.

The AfD wants criminal cases to be handled more often through the fast-track procedure under Section 417 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Juvenile offenders and clear-cut cases in particular would be judged quickly, following the "Neukölln model." In the platform's view, this is the only way some offenders come to respect the law.

The AfD wants faster criminal trials. The law already allows a quick procedure. Courts should use it more often. This should apply mainly to young offenders and clear cases. The punishment should come soon after the crime.

The fast-track procedure is an existing option in the Code of Criminal Procedure for simple cases. The platform wants it used more so that offenders experience punishment as a result of their act. It cites the "Neukölln model," under which juvenile offenses are tried quickly, as a template. Clear-cut cases would also end swiftly with a sentence. The AfD sees prompt punishment as part of the rule of law.

The AfD wants courts to use the full sentencing range for violent crimes and intends to encourage judges to do so. Investigations should not be curtailed out of concern about appearing discriminatory. So-called opinion offenses, by contrast, would be punished more leniently.

The AfD wants tough sentences for violent offenders. Judges should give the highest possible sentence. Police should investigate without regard to origin or religion. Statements made online should be punished less harshly.

The platform names murder, manslaughter, rape, burglary, and aggravated assault. Origin, religion, or political views should not influence the outcome of an investigation. Investigations and prevention should not be stopped for fear of creating an impression of group-based discrimination; here the platform cites clan crime, religious extremism, and violence by migrants, which it calls disproportionate. In the AfD's view, left-wing extremism is prosecuted less strictly than right-wing extremism, and online statements are punished too harshly. The platform questions whether opinion offenses should be punishable in a democracy at all.

The AfD wants foreign prisoners to be transferred routinely to their home countries to serve their sentences there. This is meant to relieve the state's prisons, which the platform says are heavily occupied and understaffed. A dedicated team in the ministry would push the procedures forward.

The AfD wants to send prisoners from other countries back home. They should serve their sentence there. The prisons in the state are very full. This should free up space. A new team in the ministry should handle this.

According to the platform, foreigners make up 21.4 percent of adult prison inmates and 27.5 percent of those in juvenile detention. A directive would require prosecutors to check regularly, under strict rules, whether enforcing a sentence in the home country is legally possible and appropriate. Incentives would also be created so that prisoners choose this option voluntarily. A "team for the expulsion and transfer of criminal foreigners (TAÜkA)" would be set up at ministry level. The AfD accuses previous state governments of failing to use the existing legal options.

The AfD wants to resolve bottlenecks in the justice system through investment and additional staff. Because a wave of retirements is expected, there would be a temporary increase in positions in the justice administration. For the prison service, it plans a hiring drive and financial incentives.

The AfD wants more staff for courts and prisons. Many employees will retire soon. So there should be more jobs for a while. Older staff can then pass on their knowledge to new staff. Work in prisons should pay better.

The platform describes the justice system as overburdened: prison places are becoming scarce and proceedings take too long, which it attributes to a lack of investment in earlier years. Judges, prison officers, and other groups face many retirements because of their age structure. The temporary increase in positions is meant to let departing staff hand over their expertise and experience to new colleagues. Recruiting is described as especially difficult in the prison service, so financial incentives would make that job more attractive.

The AfD wants to keep the Volkstedt prison running despite the 2012 decision to close it, and to build a new prison quickly as well. It also wants to shut down the black market inside prisons through more checks and tougher sanctions. The platform justifies this with rising numbers of suspects and with safety inside the facilities.

The AfD wants to keep the prison in Volkstedt. It should not close. A new prison should be built too. The AfD wants to stop the trade in phones and drugs inside prisons. It plans more checks and tougher penalties.

The platform points to an 11.5 percent rise in suspects in 2024 and expects overcrowded prisons unless action is taken. Volkstedt has more than 200 places and would therefore stay in use, while a new prison would still be built soon. To stop the trade in phones and drugs, the AfD plans modern technology to screen people and objects, along with targeted searches. Smugglers and staff who take part would face tougher sanctions. Prison staff would get better training and a say in improving protective measures.

The AfD wants to press at the federal level for children to be criminally liable from age 12 instead of 14. In addition, 18- to 20-year-olds should no longer be eligible for sentencing under juvenile law. The platform justifies this with rising youth violence and the feelings of victims.

Today, people can be punished from age 14. The AfD wants this from age 12. People aged 18 to 20 should always be punished like adults. Today, milder youth law sometimes applies to them. The AfD says young people commit more violent crimes.

The platform cites 2024 crime statistics showing violent crime up 3.8 percent among juveniles and 11.3 percent among children. A lower age limit is meant to help fight violence in schools and to stop gangs from using children below the age limit for thefts. The AfD considers the legal category of the Heranwachsender (young adult aged 18 to 20) in juvenile court law outdated, saying it dates from when the age of majority was 21. For serious violent and sexual offenses in particular, adult criminal law would apply.

The AfD wants to press at the federal level for a criminal provision covering public disparagement of the German state, German citizens and national symbols. It argues that minority rights are overemphasized and that the majority population can therefore be denigrated without penalty.

The AfD wants a new criminal rule. People who publicly insult Germany or the Germans should be punished. This could mean a fine or up to three years in prison. The AfD says the law now mainly protects minorities.

The provision would protect the present German state, Germany as a historical and cultural entity, German citizens and national symbols. The penalty would be a fine or up to three years in prison. It should be no lighter than the penalty for Volksverhetzung (incitement to hatred) against minorities. The platform presents the demand under the heading of protecting "Deutschtum" (Germanness) in criminal law.

The AfD wants to limit the state's Verfassungsschutz (domestic intelligence agency) to classic intelligence work and abolish its public reports. In the program's view, the agency is currently being used to weaken the opposition.

The AfD wants to change the Verfassungsschutz. This is the intelligence agency inside Germany. It should only deal with terror, spying and threats to the state. It should stop publishing public reports. The AfD says the agency is used against the opposition today.

The agency is to focus on investigating activities that endanger the state, on counterterrorism and on counterespionage, and it is to work in secret. Whether a movement counts as hostile to the constitution should be judged only by objectively verifiable criteria, such as a willingness to use violence or to break the law. The annual public reports are to be scrapped because, according to the program, they offer little information and mainly serve to pillory parties the government dislikes. The program justifies the reform by saying that criticism of immigration or of multicultural society is arbitrarily labeled extremist.

The AfD wants to change assembly law so that only the first demonstration registered may take place at a given location or along a given route. Counter-protests would have to keep a minimum distance. The program also promises more tolerance toward demonstrations, while demanding that the ban on face coverings be enforced and that German be the language used at rallies.

The AfD wants new rules for protests. Only one protest should be allowed in one place. Whoever registers first gets the place. Counter-protests must keep their distance. Nobody should be allowed to cover their face. People should only use German at protests.

Under a first-to-register rule, only one open-air assembly per location and one march per route could be registered; further rallies would be possible only at a minimum distance, which the program calls a "Bannmeile" (exclusion zone). Violent breaches are to be stopped by direct physical force. The program argues that counter-protests, mainly from the left, aim to block patriotic demonstrations by force and that authorities tolerate this. The existing ban on face coverings is to be enforced at all public marches. Statements at marches are to be made in German as a rule so the public can understand the message. The AfD also promises a more tolerant practice toward demonstrations and nonconformist opinions.

The AfD wants to block any further tightening of gun law. In its view, stricter rules mainly hit legal gun owners, while illegal weapons remain unaffected.

The AfD wants no stricter rules for guns. It says the rules in Germany are already very strict. Stricter rules hit hunters, sport shooters and collectors. Criminals use illegal guns. The rules change nothing for them.

The program describes German gun law as already highly restrictive by international standards. It says tightening affects sport shooters, hunters, collectors and other legal owners. Weapons used in crimes and attacks, by contrast, are illegal and not covered by the rules. The AfD sees the tightening as a loss of civil liberty.

The AfD wants to simplify German weapons law and focus it on live firearms. Blank-firing guns would be freely available again and the Kleiner Waffenschein (minor firearms permit) would be abolished. Reliability checks would no longer look at political views but at actual risk, such as drug addiction or mental illness.

The AfD wants simpler rules for weapons. Blank-firing guns should be free to buy again. Officials should no longer check a person's political views. But they should look more closely at drug addiction and mental illness. Sport shooters should be able to own guns more easily.

Municipal weapons authorities would be instructed to stop examining political attitudes when assessing reliability. Signs of drug addiction, mental illness or contacts with terrorist or criminal organizations would be checked more strictly and lead to loss of reliability; competence tests and storage rules stay in place. For blank-firing guns, the legal situation from before 2003 would be restored, and citizens at particular risk should be able to get a carry permit for self-protection. For sport shooters, club membership would count as proof of need, with a basic allowance of up to three long guns and two handguns. Gun ownership would generally be tied to German citizenship, with possible exceptions for EU citizens. Air guns and single-shot black powder weapons would be taken out of weapons law.

The AfD wants authorities in Saxony-Anhalt to act consistently against climate activists who commit crimes. The platform speaks of "climate extremism" and cites road blockades and slashed car tires as examples.

The AfD wants to be strict with certain climate activists. It means people who break the law for climate protection. As examples, the AfD names road blockades and slashed tires. Police and courts should act firmly here.

The platform refers to an incident in Magdeburg in 2023 in which the tires of dozens of cars were slashed; the AfD sees this as a danger to life and limb. In its view, parties in the Bundestag and the state parliament stoke climate fear and drive young people into radical groups. An AfD-led state government would press the authorities to act firmly using the means of the rule of law.