BSW on the economy

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.

Municipal and nonprofit providers would be promoted. According to the platform, returning services to municipal ownership protects residents from excessive prices and from facilities being run down. Limits on the business activities of municipalities would be lifted. For shops, culture, sports, and restaurants in small communities, the BSW wants to support alternative operating models such as cooperatives.

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.

According to the platform, the goal is an innovative economy with fair competition, secure and well-paid jobs, a large industrial share, a fair tax system, and strong mid-sized businesses. The platform sees industry and jobs threatened by more expensive energy, which it attributes to the sanctions on Russia and to climate policy. Foreign trade policy should maintain stable trade relations, avoid forming new blocs, and secure supplies of raw materials and affordable energy.

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.

In the platform's view, bureaucracy causes costs, shuts small firms out of funding and slows innovation. The BSW promises leaner, transparent processes and quick, reliable decisions, and demands for all projects and companies the speed seen when Tesla set up its plant. It says Brandenburg ranks near the bottom among the states in digitizing its administration. Founders should be connected with investors and research institutions, using the proximity to Berlin. The party also wants to support companies in their international activities.

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 platform calls small and mid-sized businesses the backbone of Brandenburg's economy and promises them financial and administrative help with digitization, securing skilled workers and transformation. It demands a fair distribution of funds and points to the ten billion euros in subsidies for Intel's chip factory; new businesses in places such as Guben, Lauchhammer or Schwarzheide should not go empty-handed. The various funding pots should be bundled. The BSW wants to expand and simplify the growth program for small companies (GRW-G).