AfD on families

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 platform names what the party sees as an ideology-driven shift in values and structural disadvantages for families as causes of low birth rates. Economic and legal disadvantages for the model of a man, a woman and children are to be removed; the platform counts separated families as part of this model. The party wants to counter any downgrading of this model in public life and education. In the long run, taxes and contributions for families are to fall, while in the short run the AfD relies on state-level support programs. All early childhood and school institutions are to present family life in a positive light.

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 platform plans to expand the support network for pregnant women and to simplify information channels for parents willing to adopt. For mandatory pregnancy conflict counseling, it wants disclosure of the guidelines used and whether they follow Federal Constitutional Court rulings. The party wants to scrap the option, available since 2020, of counseling solely by phone or online, arguing that balanced counseling is only possible face to face. The AfD wants to curb abortions for women who live abroad, for example in Poland. Providers that demonstrably counsel in favor of continuing the pregnancy are to receive more support.

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 platform justifies the benefit by saying too few children are born in Saxony to maintain the population and the supply of skilled workers. Payment would come in three installments: at birth and after the child's third and sixth birthdays. It would not be offset against social assistance under SGB XII (the social assistance code). Parents must also attend the recommended medical checkups and must not seriously neglect their parental duties.

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 party cites Article 22 of the state constitution and wants to bring the benefit up to the level of what a nursery place costs. The amount would be modeled on the federal Elterngeld (parental allowance) and equal 67 percent of the caregiving parent's last annual net income. A sibling bonus and extra amounts for multiple births are planned, and the current income limits would be dropped. Single parents would be treated equally, and the AfD wants to examine extra benefits for women who become single parents during pregnancy or the child's first three years. The platform justifies the restriction to German citizens by pointing to the funding from Saxon tax revenue.

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.

According to the platform, municipalities currently bear just under 67 percent of nursery costs, and this is to fall to no more than half. Home-based childcare providers are to be paid fairly by municipalities and receive ongoing training. Village kindergartens outside the larger regional centers would no longer face fixed minimum numbers of children. The party wants to provide more money and a higher state funding rate for maintaining and modernizing facilities. The 100,000-euro minimum for eligible investments is to be dropped so that smaller projects can also be funded.

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 platform ties the abolition of fees to the prior reform of the state child-raising allowance. Training at state vocational schools is to be supported and paid at an appropriate rate, and part-time training alongside a job is to be strengthened. The party wants to examine cutting the training period from five to four years and to limit the preceding social assistant training from two years to one. A voluntary social year or a vocational preparation year in a daycare center is to count toward it if the evaluation is positive. Quality standards are to be kept.

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 platform relies on Article 22(2) of the state constitution, which calls for support for people who give up paid work to care for children or relatives in need of care. In the pension reform the party plans, these periods are to count more, including for women who had children during their training. The state government, counties and municipalities are to publicly honor child-raising on a regular basis. Parents who care for their children themselves are to get easier access to parent-child health retreats and to continuing education, also to help them return to work. Municipalities are to receive state subsidies so they can waive the second-home tax for young people in training.

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.

According to the platform, high prices lead many parents to wonder whether they can still afford their children's lunch. The free meal is meant to guarantee that every child gets at least one warm, healthy meal a day. The party wants to cut red tape for daycare centers. The "Obst und Milch" program would in the future cover every daycare center and home-based childcare provider in the state.