AfD on the environment and animal welfare

The AfD rejects extracting natural gas by fracking in the state for the time being. It cites environmental, safety and health reasons. It also says Saxony-Anhalt has no deposits that would be worth exploiting.

The AfD wants no fracking in Saxony-Anhalt. Fracking means pumping fluid into the ground to get gas. The AfD says this harms nature and health. It also says the state has too little gas for it.

The platform notes that domestic fracked gas has been debated since 2022 as a substitute for Russian gas. In the AfD's view, German fracked gas does not solve the energy problems. According to current knowledge, Saxony-Anhalt has no deposits that could be exploited profitably. The platform says the rejection applies until further notice.

The AfD wants to reduce the wolf population in a targeted way and dissolve the state's wolf competence center. It commits to hunting and wants to allow hunters more technical aids. The platform points to rising costs caused by wolves and sees a danger to people.

The AfD says there are too many wolves. It wants to lower the number of wolves. The state's wolf center should close. Hunters should be allowed to use more equipment. Examples are night-vision devices and silencers.

According to the platform, compensation for killed livestock, subsidized protection measures and the competence center are a burden on animal farming. In hunting, the kill quotas for individual game species are to stay. Mounted night-vision devices and silencers are to be permitted. Farmers would be paid for keeping hunting lanes and buffer strips at field edges clear. The AfD wants to reform and simplify the system of hunting cooperatives and hunting leases.

The AfD wants to replant bare forest areas, primarily with native tree species, and give private forest owners financial support. The Landesdarre Annaburg, a state facility that produces forest seed, is to be expanded. Asylum seekers would be required to help with reforestation and forest maintenance.

Many forest areas are bare. The AfD wants to plant new trees there. Private forest owners should get help for this. The Landesdarre in Annaburg should grow. It produces seeds for trees. Asylum seekers should have to help in the forest.

According to the platform, non-native species are an option if they are proven to grow faster and help preserve the forest. Forestry associations and private forest owners are to receive support so they can afford reforestation. The Landesdarre would get more staff and larger production and storage capacity, supplemented by a statewide network of model plantations and possibly a state-owned tree nursery. Counties are to organize the mandatory deployment of asylum seekers in forest work, within legally permitted work opportunities, until their stay ends.

The AfD wants to strengthen regional slaughter and meat-processing facilities and restrict animal transports to short distances. Slaughter without stunning would be banned by deleting the exemption in the Animal Welfare Act. The platform justifies both with animal welfare.

The AfD wants more slaughterhouses in the region. Animals should only travel short distances. The AfD is against animal transports to countries outside the EU. Slaughter without stunning should be banned. This also applies to religious slaughter.

Animals for slaughter would be transported only over short distances within Germany and the EU, with monitored rest periods and care duties. The party rejects exports to countries outside the EU until animal welfare there is ensured throughout. Requirements for home slaughter are not to be raised further. On ritual slaughter, the AfD wants to push for the deletion of Section 4a (2) no. 2 of the Animal Welfare Act; ritual slaughter would then be allowed only with sufficient stunning.

The AfD wants to give the state's animal shelters permanent, simple funding for upkeep, modernization and new buildings. It also calls for a statewide requirement to neuter free-roaming cats. According to the platform, many shelters are overcrowded and carry out tasks that are municipalities' legal duties.

Many animal shelters are too full. The AfD wants to give them lasting funding. They can use it to build and repair. Cats that go outside should have to be neutered. That way there should be fewer stray cats.

The neutering requirement would apply across the state and be organized by animal welfare associations. In the party's view, this is the only way to curb the uncontrolled spread of cats. Special agreements on carrying out and paying for the procedures are to be reached with the state's veterinarians.

The AfD wants to abolish the right of associations to bring lawsuits. According to the party, environmental groups in particular use this right to block road construction and other infrastructure projects. Only those whose own rights are affected should be able to sue.

Today, groups can go to court against building projects. The AfD wants to end this right. Only people who are affected themselves should be able to sue. The AfD says environmental groups use this right to stop roads.

The platform states that German administrative law in principle allows lawsuits only when a person's own rights are violated. It says the right of associations to sue has been extended to more and more areas in recent years, partly through court rulings. In the AfD's view, associations use it to make policy in court. Where no citizens are directly affected, the platform says there should be no right to sue.

The AfD wants to introduce mandatory insurance against natural hazard damage where there is a flood risk, along with a share in the gains from inner-city redevelopment after natural disasters. It also wants more floodplains and a swift completion of ongoing protection projects.

The AfD wants required insurance against flood damage. It applies where floods are a risk. Rivers should get more room. There should be more land that water is allowed to flood. Protection projects already started should be finished quickly.

The mandatory natural hazard insurance is to apply where flooding is a risk. The platform also names a share in redevelopment gains in inner cities after natural disasters. To cope better with floods, sealed surfaces and constrictions along rivers in Saxony-Anhalt are to be removed and additional floodplains created. The AfD wants to continue and complete planned and already started protection measures quickly.