BSW: program for the 2024 Brandenburg state election

The BSW rejects privatization of essential public services and aims for long-term return to municipal ownership. Health care, housing, energy, water, and waste services should not serve profit-making.

The BSW wants key services to belong to the towns. These include water, energy, trash, housing, and health care. Private firms should not profit from them. The party wants to stop sales to private owners.

The BSW wants to break up market-dominating corporations and hand unavoidable monopolies to nonprofit providers. A future fund should support domestic companies and start-ups, and foreign trade policy should rely on trade with many partners rather than sanctions.

The BSW wants to limit the power of big corporations. Very large corporations should be split up. A fund should support new companies at home. Germany should trade with many countries and impose fewer sanctions.

The BSW wants to simplify procedures for businesses, reduce reporting and documentation duties, and digitize public administration faster. Founders should be exempt from regulations for a limited time so that Brandenburg becomes a location for start-ups.

The BSW wants less red tape for companies. Companies should have to write fewer reports. Public offices should work faster and more digitally. New companies should have fewer rules to follow for a while. This should bring more young companies to Brandenburg.

The BSW wants subsidies to go more to small and mid-sized businesses rather than mainly to large corporations. Funding programs should be merged and simplified. The money should help these businesses become more competitive and pay higher wages.

The BSW wants more support for small and mid-sized companies. Not only big companies like Tesla should get state money. There should be fewer separate funding programs. The companies should also use the money to pay higher wages.

The BSW wants to implement the Bundesteilhabegesetz (Federal Participation Act) and gear benefits for people with disabilities more closely to the individual. The federal government is to bear the extra costs to relieve municipalities. Daycare, schools, youth services and the labor market are to become inclusive.

People with disabilities should be able to take part everywhere. The BSW wants to put a law on this into practice. The federal government should pay the extra costs. Daycare, schools and jobs should be open to all. Doctors' offices should be reachable without steps.

The BSW wants a law for Brandenburg under which public contracts and subsidies go only to companies that pay collectively agreed wages. Through the Bundesrat, the statutory minimum wage should rise to at least 14 euros. The party points out that wages and collective bargaining coverage in Brandenburg are well below western German levels.

The BSW wants higher wages in Brandenburg. The state should give contracts only to companies that pay union-agreed wages. These are wages that unions and employers negotiate. The minimum wage should rise to at least 14 euros. Jobs in social care should be paid better.

The BSW calls for a pension insurance that all working people pay into, including civil servants and members of parliament. The model is Austria, where, according to the platform, pensions are 800 euros higher on average. Statutory pensions below 2,000 euros a month should not be taxed.

The BSW wants one pension fund for everyone. Civil servants and lawmakers should pay in too. The model is Austria. The BSW says pensions are higher there. People with a pension under 2,000 euros should pay no tax on it.

The BSW calls for a long-term state investment program for infrastructure that involves the municipalities. It is meant to reduce what the party sees as a large backlog in maintenance and investment.

Many roads and bridges in Brandenburg are in bad shape. So the BSW wants a big investment program. The money should go to roads, schools, housing and rail. The towns should take part.

The BSW wants the state to be allowed to borrow again for public investment. In the party's view, the Schuldenbremse (debt brake) should no longer hold back progress in the state.

The debt brake limits new government debt. The BSW wants to loosen this rule. The state should be able to borrow for investment again. This should help the state move forward.

The BSW wants to reform the Finanzausgleichsgesetz (fiscal equalization law) so that all municipalities can draw up balanced budgets. A fund is to help towns and cities buy back public service facilities they sold in the past.

Many towns in Brandenburg have too little money. The BSW wants to change the law that shares out the money. Every town should be able to get by. A fund should help towns buy back things they sold. These are hospitals or housing, for example.

The BSW wants Brandenburg to launch an initiative in the Bundesrat for a wealth tax on very large fortunes. The revenue is to benefit the states for education, hospitals and school buildings. The new property tax, by contrast, should not burden citizens more.

The BSW wants a tax on very large fortunes. It should apply to multimillionaires and billionaires. Brandenburg should propose this in the Bundesrat. The money should go to schools and hospitals. The property tax should not rise for citizens.

The BSW wants heavy investment in social housing, starting in municipalities with tight markets. It plans a Bundesrat initiative to introduce nonprofit housing status, and publicly owned apartments and land are no longer to be privatized.

Many cities lack cheap apartments. The BSW wants to build more social housing. Nonprofit housing companies should get support. The state should stop selling apartments.

The BSW wants to limit rent increases through a rent cap for all of Germany. In addition, the property tax reform is not to raise state revenue and thereby push up rents through utility charges.

Rents are rising fast in many cities. The BSW wants a rent cap for all of Germany. That is a limit that rents may not go above. The property tax should not make housing more expensive either.

The BSW wants to expand student dormitories and lower their rents. In the platform's view, studying should not depend on parents' income.

The BSW wants to build more student dorms. Rents there should go down. Studying should not depend on parents' money. Child care for students should also get better.

The BSW wants to rewrite the state daycare law and give daycare centers and after-school care more funding and staff. Falling numbers of children should not lead to closures but be used to improve the staff-to-child ratio.

The BSW wants a new daycare law. Daycare centers and after-school care should get more money and staff. Each staff member should look after fewer children. Daycare centers should not close when there are fewer children.

The BSW wants early childhood education, including nursery care for the youngest, to be free. Lunch in daycare centers, after-school care, and elementary schools should also become free in order to ease the burden on families.

The BSW wants nursery and daycare to be free. Lunch should also cost nothing. This applies to daycare, after-school care, and elementary schools. Families should have to spend less money.

The BSW wants schools to refocus on reading, writing, and arithmetic. Gender-inclusive language would be banned in schools and public offices, and phones and tablets would be removed from elementary classrooms.

The BSW wants children to learn reading, writing, and math first. Gender-inclusive language should be banned in schools and public offices. Elementary classes up to grade 4 should have no phones or tablets.

The BSW wants to ban smartphones and tablets in class at least through fourth grade. Elementary schools should focus first on reading, writing, and arithmetic, because the platform argues that digital devices hinder learning and language development.

The BSW wants to ban smartphones and tablets in class. This should apply at least until 4th grade. Children should mainly learn to read, write, and do math. They should work more with printed books again.

The BSW wants to tackle the teacher shortage by training more teachers in the state, adopting a long-term staffing plan, and improving working conditions. Classes should have no more than 25 students, and teacher training should be practice-oriented from the start.

Brandenburg is short of many teachers. The BSW wants to train more teachers in the state. A class should have 25 children at most. Teachers should have less office work. Teacher training should include more practice.

The BSW wants to give Oberschulen (non-academic secondary schools) and comprehensive schools more funding and staff and make them more practice-oriented. Clearer admission criteria should apply to the Gymnasium (academic-track school) to prevent overcrowding, and grades should remain the standard everywhere.

The BSW wants to strengthen Oberschulen and comprehensive schools. They should get more money and more staff. The Gymnasium should have clearer rules for admission. Switching between school types should be easier. All schools should keep giving grades.

The BSW wants to set up teams from various professions in schools to relieve teachers. Every school should have at least one school social worker, with a ratio of one per 300 students.

The BSW wants more helpers in schools. These include social workers, psychologists, and IT staff. Every school should have at least one social worker. Teachers should then have more time for teaching.

The BSW wants to keep existing schools in the state, including in sparsely populated regions. In addition, a dedicated funding program should fix deficits in school buildings and equipment.

The BSW does not want to close schools. This also applies to villages with few children. Children should not have very long trips to school. A program should repair run-down school buildings.

The BSW wants to keep special schools and support centers for children with particular needs. At the same time, mainstream schools should get more staff and materials for inclusion; the platform considers inclusion sensible but sees limits.

The BSW wants to keep special schools. Some children need extra help with learning. These schools should stay open for them. Other schools should get more staff for learning together.

The BSW wants to give higher education institutions more money and staff and raise their core funding. Budgets should depend less on third-party grants and no longer on enrollment and graduate numbers.

The BSW wants to give universities more stable money. The money should depend less on outside funders. The number of students should no longer count for it. Universities should get modern equipment.

The BSW calls for full-time contracts under collective agreements with terms of at least one year for young researchers. Student employees should get a collective agreement, and universities of applied sciences should gain the right to award doctorates.

Young researchers should get secure work contracts. The contracts should run for at least one year. Students who work at universities should get a union pay agreement. Universities of applied sciences should be allowed to award doctorates.

The BSW wants to meet the demand for skilled workers mainly through better-paid and more attractive vocational training at home. The party rejects labor immigration as the answer because, in its view, it lowers wages and harms the countries of origin.

The BSW wants to train more young people in the state. Trainees should get more money. The party does not want to bring skilled workers from abroad. It says this pushes wages down here. And those workers are then missing in their home countries.

The BSW wants a comprehensive review of the COVID period, including through a commission of inquiry in the state parliament. People who paid fines over the vaccine mandate are to be compensated, and Brandenburg should approve a WHO pandemic treaty only under conditions.

The BSW wants to look closely at the COVID years. A commission in the state parliament should do this. It should also check vaccine side effects. People fined over the vaccine mandate should get money back. This should keep mistakes from happening again.

The BSW wants to stop the privatization of health care, nursing care and other essential services. Hospitals, medical care centers and nursing homes should be run by municipalities or nonprofit welfare organizations, and profits from health care should be banned.

The BSW does not want companies to make money from illness. Hospitals and nursing homes should belong to towns or nonprofit groups. Profits from health care should be banned. Any surplus should go back into care.

The BSW wants to secure care in rural regions with community nurses, municipal medical care centers and polyclinics. It also calls for a stronger emergency medical service, a rural-doctor quota at the new Medical University of Lusatia, and better working conditions for staff.

Rural areas lack doctors and nurses. The BSW wants community nurses. These are nurses who care for people in villages. Towns should run their own medical centers. The ambulance service should get better.

The BSW wants to ensure that private insurance companies never gain access to patient data through the health system's digital infrastructure. The electronic patient record must not cause anyone disadvantages with insurance or at work.

Doctors store patient data digitally. The BSW wants to protect this data. Private insurers should never be allowed to see it. Nobody should be worse off because of their data.

The BSW wants to expand community-based social-psychiatric care across the state and set up a statewide crisis emergency service. Counseling for those affected and their relatives is to be secured with state subsidies.

More and more people have mental illnesses. The BSW wants more local help for them. There should be an emergency service for mental crises everywhere. The state should give money to counseling centers.

The BSW wants to cap what nursing home residents pay out of pocket so that it does not exceed the average pension in Brandenburg. In the long run, the party calls for a solidarity-based full long-term care insurance that everyone pays into, and more support for care at home.

A place in a nursing home costs a lot. The BSW wants to limit the cost for residents. They should not pay more than a normal pension. Later, one insurance should cover all care costs. All citizens should pay into this insurance.

The BSW wants no hospital in Brandenburg to close and rejects the consequences of the federal hospital reform. Loss-making hospitals are to be protected from insolvency by a rescue package, and the state is to invest sufficiently on a permanent basis.

Brandenburg has 66 hospitals. The BSW wants to keep all of them. Hospitals with money problems should get help. The state should give hospitals enough money.

The BSW wants to greatly expand the rural doctor program and increase scholarships for medical students who commit to working as general practitioners in Brandenburg. The new medical university in Cottbus should link physician and nursing training more closely.

Brandenburg is short of family doctors. The BSW wants to give more money to medical students. In return, they must later work as doctors in Brandenburg. The new medical university in Cottbus should bring doctors and nursing closer together.

The BSW commits to the constitutional right to asylum but wants to limit immigration that it calls uncontrolled. Asylum applications are to be filed and decided at the EU's external borders and in third countries.

The BSW wants to keep the right to asylum. But it wants less immigration. People should apply for asylum at the EU's outer borders. Or in countries outside the EU. The decision should be made there too.

The BSW wants foreign offenders, Islamist threats and people who are required to leave to exit the country. Deportations are to be enforced consistently and combined with re-entry bans.

The BSW wants more deportations. Violent offenders and Islamist threats should leave the country. People who must leave should really go. Deported people should not be allowed back in.

The BSW wants to introduce a payment card for asylum seekers across the state. People required to leave are to receive only the minimum subsistence level required by the constitution, and as benefits in kind.

Asylum seekers should get a payment card instead of cash. This should stop them from sending money abroad. People who must leave should get fewer benefits. They should get only the bare minimum. They should get it as goods, not as money.

The BSW wants more German courses and mandatory German tests for all children from age three, with compulsory daycare where deficits are found. Foreign qualifications are to be recognized faster, and asylum seekers should take on simple support work while their case is pending.

The BSW wants more German courses. All children from age three should take a German test. Children with weak German must go to daycare. Degrees from abroad should be accepted faster. Asylum seekers should do simple jobs.

The BSW wants municipalities and residents to share more in the profits of solar and wind farms and criticizes Brandenburg's high grid fees. Climate protection should pay off for citizens; instead of more bureaucracy, the platform relies on technical innovation and adapting to climate impacts.

Towns and residents should get money from wind and solar farms. Power should not cost more in Brandenburg than elsewhere. Climate protection should not make life more expensive. The state should protect itself better against heat, drought, and floods.

The BSW wants energy policy to follow the needs of businesses and residents and considers natural gas and coal still necessary. The party rules out a coal phase-out before 2038. At the same time it wants to expand renewable power generation and have the profits benefit citizens.

The BSW wants to keep using coal and gas. There should be no coal exit before 2038. The party also wants more power from wind and sun. Citizens should share in the profits from it.

The BSW demands that Brandenburg immediately develop a strategy for water supply across the state. The reason is the conflict between the high water demand of large industrial sites and supply for the population.

The BSW wants a plan for water in all of Brandenburg. Big factories like Tesla need a lot of water. At the same time, water is getting scarce for people. The state should make the plan quickly.

The BSW rejects additional burdens on farmers and wants to keep the tax breaks on agricultural diesel. Bureaucracy and documentation duties should shrink, and farm subsidies should become simpler. At the federal level the party advocates ending Grundsteuer A (the property tax on farm and forest land).

The BSW wants to ease the load on farmers. Diesel for farmers should stay cheaper. Farmers should have fewer forms to fill out. Subsidies should be easier to get. The property tax on farm land should go.

The BSW wants to reduce farmers' dependence on large dairies, large slaughterhouses and food corporations. To that end, regional structures for production, processing and marketing should be built up, backed by long-term funding programs.

The BSW wants farmers to depend less on big corporations. Food should be made and sold in the region. The path from farm to customer should be short. There should be long-term funding for this.

The BSW wants to reform the land market and pass a farm structure law so that farmland goes first to local farmers. State-held BVVG land should be transferred to Brandenburg and leased only to local family farms and cooperatives. The party rejects any further paving-over of farmland.

The BSW wants to secure farmland for farmers from the region. Investors should not make money by trading farmland. There should be a new law for this. Federal land should go to the state of Brandenburg. Farmland should no longer be built on.

The BSW wants to give livestock farms much stronger support through a master plan and reduce their burdens. For wolves, beavers and cormorants, the party calls for active wildlife management with financial compensation for damage and the option to intervene when there is danger.

The BSW wants to help farmers with animals more. There should be a big plan for this. Wolves, beavers and cormorants sometimes cause damage. Farmers should get money for that. When there is danger, action against these animals should be allowed.

The BSW rejects the phase-out of combustion engines and demands lower fuel prices. The CO2 price should be abolished. The party also opposes a general 30 km/h limit in towns and a 120 km/h limit on highways, arguing that driving must stay affordable, especially in rural areas.

The BSW does not want to ban gasoline and diesel cars. Fuel should get cheaper. The CO2 price should go. That is an extra charge on gasoline, diesel and heating fuels for climate protection. The party is against a 30 km/h limit in all towns. It is also against a 120 km/h limit on highways.

The BSW wants to expand public transit, above all rail with more and faster connections and reopened lines. Schoolchildren and trainees should ride for free, and the Deutschlandticket (nationwide transit pass) should stay. Bike paths and bike parking should also be expanded.

The BSW wants more buses and trains, also in the countryside. Old rail lines should run again. Schoolchildren and trainees should ride for free. The Deutschlandticket transit pass should stay. There should be more safe bike paths.

The BSW opposes cash gradually disappearing from everyday life. The party wants to preserve a right to an analog life, so that everyday matters remain possible without apps.

The BSW wants to keep cash. People should still be able to pay with bills and coins. Nobody should need an app for daily life.

The BSW wants fast internet available throughout Brandenburg and mobile dead zones eliminated. The party regards this as a task of the state that, in its view, has not yet been fulfilled.

The BSW wants fast internet in all of Brandenburg. There should be no more dead zones. A dead zone is a place with no cell signal. The party says the state has not managed this so far.

The BSW wants more officers on the street, all existing police stations kept open, and an end to job cuts. At the same time it rejects an overreaching state and prefers personnel to video surveillance.

The BSW wants more police officers on the street. No police station should close. The party thinks officers are better than cameras. People should be able to move freely without being watched.

The BSW wants to expand the police academy in Oranienburg so the state gets enough qualified recruits. Better promotion prospects, regular promotions and higher allowances are meant to make the job more attractive.

The BSW wants to train more police officers. The police academy in Oranienburg should grow. Officers should move up more easily. They should also get more pay for night shifts.

The BSW wants to restrict the powers of the Verfassungsschutz (domestic intelligence service) in order, in its view, to protect citizens from spying and manipulation. The constitutional loyalty check is to be abolished and parliamentary oversight strengthened.

The BSW wants to give the Verfassungsschutz fewer powers. The Verfassungsschutz is a domestic intelligence service. It should only watch extremists. The BSW wants to end the loyalty check. The state parliament should control the service more closely.

The BSW wants the state to give municipalities more and faster support for equipping and running fire services and disaster control. Volunteer responders are to get more benefits and protection from disadvantages at work.

The BSW wants more state money for fire services. Towns should use it to buy vehicles and equipment. The money should arrive faster. Volunteers should get more benefits. They should not face problems at work.

The BSW calls for tougher penalties for violent attacks on emergency and rescue workers and for obstructing them. The platform also counts road blockades, for example by climate activists, among such obstruction.

Some people attack rescue workers. Others get in the way of their work. The BSW wants tougher penalties for this. This should also apply to road blockades.

The BSW wants more staff and resources for the courts so that sentences are enforced faster and no cases fail because deadlines expire. At the same time, new recruits are to be won for the justice system and digitalization advanced with a sense of proportion.

The BSW wants more staff for the courts. Punishment should come soon after the crime. Cases should not fail because of deadlines. The state should win young people for the justice system. Private companies should not run prisons.

The BSW wants to lower the hurdles for local citizens' initiatives and referendums and make their results binding. Participatory budgets would be expanded.

The BSW wants people to have more say locally. Votes by citizens should need fewer signatures. The result should be binding. People should help decide more often how their town spends money.

The BSW wants to permanently fund and expand publicly financed legal advice centers and to broaden legal aid for advice and court costs. In the party's view, legal advice should not depend on a person's wallet.

A lawyer costs a lot of money. The BSW wants more advice centers for legal questions. The state should pay for them. They should exist mainly in rural areas. People with little money should get more help with court costs.

The BSW wants to make the judiciary more independent of politics. Public prosecutors should no longer be subject to instructions from the government, and court locations should not be closed.

Today the government can give orders to prosecutors. The BSW wants to end this. The courts should be independent of politics. Courts should stay where they are.

The BSW wants a minimum quota for East German applicants when public-sector jobs are filled, especially in the state administration. It argues that East Germans are underrepresented in leading positions in Brandenburg.

The BSW says East Germans rarely get top jobs. So it wants a minimum number. That many state jobs should go to East Germans. The rule should only apply for a limited time.

The BSW rejects further job cuts in public administration and wants more staff in schools, hospitals, nursing homes and government offices. It also wants more digital administrative services, since in its view Brandenburg lags far behind.

The BSW does not want to cut jobs in public offices. It wants more staff, for example in schools and offices. Offices should handle requests faster. More things should work online.

The BSW condemns Russia's attack as a violation of international law and demands an immediate ceasefire with negotiations. It rejects further arms deliveries, such as Taurus missiles, and wants the federal government to take diplomatic action itself.

The BSW wants the war in Ukraine to stop right away. Both sides should negotiate. Germany should not send more weapons. The federal government should push for talks.

The BSW opposes enlarging and building up the Bundeswehr and calls for de-escalation and new disarmament treaties. The armed forces should be adequately equipped to fulfill their constitutional mission.

The BSW does not want a bigger army. Soldiers should have good equipment, but not more weapons. The party wants new disarmament treaties. Disarmament means countries reduce their weapons.

The BSW wants to lift the economic sanctions against Russia, especially on energy imports. The platform argues they raise the cost of living and endanger industry in Brandenburg.

The BSW wants to end the trade bans against Russia. Germany should be able to buy energy from Russia again. The party says the bans make life more expensive. They also hurt factories in Brandenburg.

The BSW wants Brandenburg to keep up initiatives for understanding between nations even in wartime. Local peace work should receive support from the state.

The BSW wants to keep contact with other countries. This includes partnerships between towns and youth meetings. The state should help local peace groups.

The BSW rejects Bundeswehr recruitment in schools and speaks of a creeping militarization. It does not want to subsidize arms companies settling in Brandenburg.

The BSW does not want army advertising in schools. Officers should not recruit young people there. The party wants more teachers instead. Arms companies should get no state funding.

The BSW calls for a culture funding law modeled on Saxony's that permanently secures support for cultural institutions. Funding culture is to become a mandatory task for municipalities, and a single ministry of education and cultural affairs is to be created.

The BSW wants a new law for culture. It should pay for theaters, orchestras and small venues for the long term. Towns should have to fund culture. Freelance artists should be able to live from their work. Two ministries should become one.

The BSW wants school students, trainees and university students from Brandenburg to use the state's museums and libraries free of charge. Children and young people are to come into contact with all the arts early, including in rural areas.

School students, trainees and university students should pay no entry fee. This applies to the state's museums and libraries. Children should get to know art and music early. This should also be possible in rural areas. Primary schools should offer more music lessons.

The BSW wants to guarantee long-term funding for the Foundation for the Sorbian People at no less than today's level. It also wants permanent cultural and educational autonomy for the Sorbs and Wends, and teacher training for the Lower Sorbian language in Brandenburg.

The Sorbs and Wends are a minority in Brandenburg. The BSW wants to protect their language and culture. The money for their foundation should not go down. Brandenburg should train teachers for their language.

The BSW rejects the increase in the broadcasting fee proposed by the KEF commission and calls for reforming public broadcasting instead. A structural reform is to be discussed in a format with direct citizen participation.

The BSW does not want the broadcasting fee to go up. Instead, public broadcasting should change. Citizens should have a say in this. Programs should show more about Brandenburg.

The BSW wants to achieve equal living conditions in town and country. To that end, all rural school sites should stay, medical care should be secured close to home, and social facilities should be newly built rather than closed.

The BSW wants life in the countryside to be as good as in the city. All rural schools should stay. Doctors should be nearby. There should be new meeting places, pools and sports centers. There should also be culture in the countryside.