AfD on the economy

The AfD wants to review and scrap regulations, put expiration dates on new laws and consolidate the state's funding programs. Digital government services and fast internet statewide are meant to help reduce bureaucracy. The goal is relief above all for small and mid-sized businesses.

The AfD wants fewer rules for businesses. New laws should get an end date. There should be fewer funding programs. Government offices should offer services online. For that, fast internet is needed everywhere.

Criteria unrelated to the contract itself would be removed from Thuringia's public procurement law. New laws would get an expiration date so their usefulness is checked regularly. The AfD wants to cut down the more than 100 funding guidelines run by over 20 approving agencies and pool business funding at the Thüringer Aufbaubank (the state development bank). Central online portals for government services are planned for citizens and businesses. At the federal and EU level it would push for simpler state-aid and procurement rules and simpler certification; it considers the General Data Protection Regulation misguided.

The AfD wants to make it easier to start or take over a business with a bonus of up to €20,000. It also wants to expand startup centers and support startups.

People who start a business should get money from the state. That also applies to taking over a business. The bonus should be up to €20,000. The AfD also wants more startup centers.

The platform wants to improve conditions for founders and business successors to make the state's economy fit for the future. It names young master craftspeople as an example of who could receive the bonus. The AfD also plans more startup centers, more room for young entrepreneurs and support for a lively startup scene.

The AfD wants to end the Energiewende (energy transition) and the sanctions against Russia, and calls for a different monetary policy from the European Central Bank. It sees these as the causes of price increases since 2021. It also wants to bring strategically vital industries back home.

The AfD wants to end the energy transition. The sanctions against Russia should end too. Sanctions are penalties in trade. The AfD says both make energy expensive. Important industries should come back to Germany.

The platform attributes inflation to political decisions: the euro rescue, the ECB's loose monetary policy, the energy transition, the sanctions and the COVID measures. As a deeper cause it names a foreign trade policy focused one-sidedly on globalization that overlooks dependencies, for instance in energy and medicines. By bringing key industries back, the AfD wants to become less exposed to global price swings. Domestic companies are meant to benefit from short transport routes and clusters.

The AfD wants to relieve self-employed people and smaller tourism businesses of red tape and high costs. At the same time, homeland-focused marketing should make Thuringia better known as a travel destination.

The AfD wants to help hotels, restaurants and other tourism businesses. They should have less paperwork and lower costs. The AfD also wants more advertising for vacations in Thuringia. The ads should show the whole state, not just famous places.

In the platform's view, the industry suffered under the Covid measures and is held back by bureaucracy, high energy prices and too little state support. The AfD wants to take advantage of the trend toward domestic vacations and significantly raise Thuringia's profile. Marketing should stress the state's distinctive character and involve Thuringians themselves as ambassadors. It should present the whole state, not only well-known destinations such as Weimar, the Wartburg castle or Erfurt.

The AfD wants to combine Thuringia's state marketing and its tourism marketing in one administration. It argues that business trips are increasingly combined with leisure and cultural activities. Smaller destinations should also be promoted more strongly and through digital channels.

Thuringia advertises itself as a state. It also advertises vacations there. Two separate offices do this today. The AfD wants to merge them. Small sights should get more advertising too.

The two areas are currently run separately. The program wants to join them administratively to benefit from the overlap between business travel and vacation travel. In addition, the many smaller attractions should be promoted more under themes such as castles, forests, artists or winter sports. Online and social media information should be expanded, for example with apps for planning city trips and hiking routes and with 360-degree videos.

The AfD wants to relieve restaurants and hotels of red tape, taxes and levies. The value-added tax on restaurant meals should drop to seven percent. The party aims to reverse what it sees as a politically caused wave of pub and restaurant closures.

The AfD wants to help restaurants and hotels. The tax on restaurant meals should go down. Businesses should have less paperwork. They should also get money for upgrades. That way, fewer restaurants should close.

Businesses should face fewer documentation duties and lighter rules on data protection, fire safety and accessibility. The value-added tax on meals should be seven percent. The party also calls for lower prices for electricity, gas and fuel, which it blames on political decisions, and for fewer obligations when collecting spa fees and bed taxes. In addition, it wants subsidies for investment in restaurants and lodging and a training campaign against the labor shortage, with the state-owned tourism company TTG playing an important role.