BSW: program for the 2024 Saxony state election

The BSW wants health care, housing, and energy and water supply to be under municipal control and not serve profit-making. The party rejects privatization and outsourcing. Municipal and nonprofit providers as well as cooperatives are to be supported.

Important services should belong to the town or city. These include hospitals, housing, electricity and water. Companies should not make profits from them. The BSW is against selling them to private firms. Cooperatives should get support, for example for shops in small towns.

The BSW aims for an economy with fair competition, a strong Mittelstand (small and midsize firms) and a large industrial share. To get there, dominant corporations should be broken up and unavoidable monopolies handed to nonprofit providers.

The BSW wants to limit the power of big corporations. Very powerful corporations should be split up. Sometimes there can be only one provider. Then a nonprofit provider should do the job. It does not work for profit.

The BSW wants to relieve businesses of bureaucracy, reduce reporting and documentation duties, and speed up digital government. Small and midsize firms should get financial and administrative support, and funding programs should be merged and made easier to navigate.

The BSW wants less red tape for companies. Companies should have to file fewer reports and proofs. Small firms should get help and money. New companies should face fewer rules for a while. A funding scout should show which aid exists.

The BSW wants to expand tourism as an economic factor while paying more attention to residents' interests. Skilled workers are to be kept and recruited through fair pay, good working conditions, and practical training.

Many guests visit Saxony. The BSW wants to strengthen tourism further. The wishes of residents should count more. Workers in tourism should get fair pay. Training should be close to real work.

The BSW wants to implement the Bundesteilhabegesetz (Federal Participation Act) and tailor benefits more closely to the individual. The federal government should cover the extra costs to relieve municipalities. Daycare, schools, youth services, and the labor market should become inclusive.

People with disabilities should be able to take part everywhere. The BSW wants to carry out the law on this. The federal government should pay the extra costs. Daycare, schools, and jobs should be open to all.

The BSW wants municipalities to stop closing social facilities and to open new ones. It also rejects further job cuts in public administration and calls for more staff. The party says this would strengthen social cohesion, especially in structurally weak areas.

The BSW wants to keep meeting places, pools and sports centers open. New ones should be built too. Public offices, schools and care homes should get more staff. Towns should get long-term money for this.

The BSW wants to make vocational training more financially attractive so that the need for skilled workers is met by young people at home. It rejects worldwide labor immigration as a solution, arguing that it pushes down wages and harms the countries of origin.

The BSW wants trainees to earn more money. This should get more young people into training. The party does not want to bring in workers from all over the world. It says this pushes wages down.

The BSW wants collective agreements to apply to all employers in far more industries in Saxony. Through the Bundesrat, it wants to lower the threshold for this in the federal Posted Workers Act.

A collective agreement sets pay and working hours. The BSW wants it to cover all firms in more industries. A federal law should change for this. Saxony should propose that in the Bundesrat.

The BSW wants to use the Bundesrat to push for a pension system modeled on Austria's, with all working people paying in. Statutory pensions below 2,000 euros would be tax-free, and the minimum wage would rise to at least 14 euros. The party argues that low wages lead to low pensions.

The BSW wants one pension fund for everyone. Civil servants and lawmakers should pay in too. Small pensions under 2,000 euros should stay tax-free. The minimum wage should go up to 14 euros or more.

The BSW wants to reorder the financial relationship between the state and its municipalities. Cities, towns and counties are to be funded adequately and according to need and decide on their own spending. The effort involved in grant funding is to be reduced.

Towns and cities in Saxony should get enough money. The money should match what they need. They should decide for themselves how to spend it. Today they often have to apply for grants with a lot of paperwork. The BSW wants to make that simpler.

The BSW wants to change Saxony's Finanzausgleichsgesetz (fiscal equalization act) so that every municipality can draw up a balanced budget. A fund should help municipalities buy back public service facilities they sold.

Many towns in Saxony do not have enough money. The BSW wants to change the law that shares out the money. Towns should get enough for their tasks. A fund should help them buy back sold hospitals or housing. The new property tax should not cost citizens more.

The BSW wants to change the debt brake in Saxony's constitution so that borrowing for public investment is possible again. The pandemic-era loans should be repaid over a much longer period than eight years.

The debt brake bans almost all new debt for Saxony. The BSW wants to change that. The state should be allowed to borrow for investments. Saxony should pay back its Covid loans more slowly. There should be no new budget cuts.

The BSW wants Saxony to launch a Bundesrat initiative for a wealth tax on very large fortunes. The revenue would go to the states and, according to the program, could be spent on education, hospitals and school buildings.

The BSW wants a tax on very large fortunes again. Multimillionaires and billionaires should pay it. Saxony should propose this in the Bundesrat. The money goes to the states. They can use it for schools and hospitals.

The BSW wants to push at the federal level to abolish Grundsteuer A, the property tax on agricultural and forestry land. It rejects additional burdens on farmers such as the cuts to farm diesel relief.

Farmers pay a tax on their land. It is called Grundsteuer A. The BSW wants to end this tax. Farmers should also keep getting cheaper diesel.

The BSW wants new construction in big cities while putting vacant homes in smaller towns and rural areas to use. A program should secure social and nonprofit housing where it is needed; for owner-occupied homes the party considers a lower real estate transfer tax conceivable.

Leipzig and Dresden do not have enough homes. In rural areas, homes stand empty. The BSW wants to build new homes in the big cities. Empty homes in small towns should be used. Better transport links should connect the two.

The BSW wants better funding and staffing for daycare centers (Kitas) and no increase in parental fees. In the long run daycare would be free, and lunch in daycare centers and elementary schools would cost nothing. Falling child numbers should be used to improve care, not to close centers.

The BSW does not want to raise daycare fees. Later, daycare should cost nothing at all. Lunch in daycare and elementary school should be free. Each staff member should look after fewer children than today.

The BSW wants no Bundeswehr recruiting in Saxony's schools and rejects military or civil defense classes. The state's cooperation agreement with the Bundeswehr is to end. At universities, the party backs the civil clause movement, which wants military research made public.

The German army should not recruit young people in Saxony's schools. There should be no military classes. Saxony has an agreement with the army on this. The BSW wants to end that agreement. Universities should disclose when they do research for the military.

The BSW wants binding language tests for all children from age three. Where deficits are found, attending daycare or preschool would become mandatory. The party argues that German is the language of instruction and that regular teaching is impossible without language skills.

Children should take a language test at age 3. Those who speak poor German must go to daycare or preschool. This should cost parents nothing. German stays the language used in class.

The BSW wants to ban smartphones and tablets from lessons in the lower grades and focus elementary school on reading, writing and arithmetic. In the party's view, digital learning tools hinder learning. In higher grades, a media literacy subject would teach how to handle digital media.

The BSW wants to ban phones and tablets in class. This should apply up to grade 6, and in elementary school in any case. Children there should mainly learn reading, writing and math. Older students should get a subject about digital media.

The BSW wants to set up teams of other professionals in schools to take non-teaching tasks off teachers' hands. This is meant to let teachers focus on teaching and to end canceled lessons. Training for teaching staff would become more practice-oriented.

Teachers should mainly teach again. Other experts should come into schools to help. These include social workers, psychologists and IT staff. Every school should have at least one social worker.

The BSW wants to give Oberschulen (non-academic secondary schools) and comprehensive community schools more money and staff and raise the standing of their diplomas. In the medium and long term, children would learn together for longer. Clearer admission criteria for the Gymnasium (academic-track school) are meant to prevent overcrowding.

The BSW wants to strengthen non-academic secondary schools and community schools. They should get more money and more staff. Later, children should learn together for longer. There should be clearer rules for getting into the academic-track school.

The BSW wants grades to be the standard for assessing performance at all schools in Saxony. Curricula would again be built around clear, binding content rather than competencies alone. In addition, career orientation in schools would be organized centrally.

All schools in Saxony should give grades. Curricula should set out clear content. Students should no longer be able to drop subjects like history. Schools should organize internships at companies.

The BSW wants to permanently secure all existing schools in Saxony and reopen former sites where needed. To that end, the school law would allow smaller classes. A dedicated program would fix deficits in buildings and equipment.

The BSW does not want any more schools in Saxony to close. Old schools should be able to reopen. Classes should be allowed to be smaller. The state should pay to fix run-down school buildings.

The BSW wants to keep special-needs schools and support centers. It considers inclusion in mainstream schools sensible but limited, and wants those schools to get more staff and materials for it.

The BSW wants to keep special-needs schools. Some children need extra help with learning. They should still be able to go there. Regular schools should get more staff for these children.

The BSW wants to give Saxony's universities more money and staff and decouple funding from student numbers. Locations outside Dresden and Leipzig would also be strengthened. More dormitory places with lower rents would be created for students.

Universities in Saxony should get more money and staff. The money should no longer depend on the number of students. There should be more student dorms. Rents there should go down.

The BSW wants early-career researchers in Saxony to be able to plan their careers with more security. It calls for full-time contracts covered by collective agreements with terms of at least one year, plus a collective agreement for student employees.

The BSW wants better jobs at universities. Young researchers should get contracts under a union pay deal. These contracts should run for at least one year. Students who work for the university should get a pay deal too.

The BSW wants to turn the Hochschulrat (university council) into a purely advisory body. Decision-making powers such as taking part in electing university leadership should return to the academic senates.

Universities have a council. Outside experts sit on it too. The BSW wants this council to only give advice. The university senate should make the decisions again.

The BSW wants a fundamental reform of teacher training, making it a dual degree with practical experience from the start. The program points to the ongoing teacher shortage and a course of study it sees as too focused on specialist knowledge.

The BSW wants to change how teachers are trained. Students should get practice in schools from the start. The degree should ask for less expert knowledge. It should produce good teachers, not researchers.

The BSW wants to end 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 providers. In the party's view, medical treatment must not serve profit.

The BSW wants no more sales to private companies. This applies to hospitals, nursing homes, water, and energy. Cities and towns should run these services. Nonprofit groups can also run them. The BSW says health should not be a business.

The BSW wants to secure outpatient care in rural areas through municipal medical centers, polyclinics, and community nurses. It also calls for expanded emergency medical services and a new medical university to counter the doctor shortage.

Rural areas will soon lack doctors. The BSW wants towns to run health centers there. Community nurses should return. Emergency services should improve. Saxony should get a new medical university.

The BSW wants to reduce supply shortages of medicines, vaccines, and medical devices. It proposes an early-warning system, larger stockpiles, domestic production, and stricter quality controls.

Sometimes important medicines are missing. The BSW wants earlier warnings about shortages. Wholesalers should keep more stock. Local companies should make key medicines themselves. Medical products should be checked more carefully.

The BSW wants to expand care for mental illness and start prevention early. It plans resilience training in schools, more community psychiatric services, and a statewide crisis service. The platform points to rising sick leave and early retirement.

More and more people have mental health problems. The BSW wants to help earlier. Students should learn to cope with stress. There should be a crisis service everywhere. Counseling should get money from the state.

The BSW wants to limit what nursing home residents must pay themselves: the amount should not exceed the average pension. The federal and state governments should reorganize the financing. The platform calls nursing homes a poverty trap because of rising costs.

A place in a nursing home costs a lot. The BSW wants to limit costs for residents. Nobody should pay more than an average pension. The federal and state governments should cover the rest.

The BSW wants to bundle all of the state's nursing care rules into one state care law. Municipalities would be required to carry out care planning paid for by the state, and in-person counseling would be available everywhere. The goal is caring for people in their familiar surroundings.

The BSW wants a new law for nursing care in Saxony. It should collect all care rules. Cities and towns must plan for care. The state pays for that. In-person advice should be available everywhere.

The BSW calls for a halt to hospital closures and wants to preserve all 76 hospital sites in Saxony. The state should fully cover hospitals' investment costs. In the party's view, the federal hospital reform could have severe consequences.

The BSW wants no hospital in Saxony to close. All 76 sites should stay. The state should pay for hospital investments. Some hospitals should get new tasks.

The BSW wants to use the Bundesrat (federal council of the states) to advance a citizens' insurance that everyone pays into. Long-term care insurance would come first. The platform calls the current system two-tier medicine that must be overcome.

Today there is public and private health insurance. The BSW wants one insurance for everyone. Every citizen should pay into it. This should start with nursing care. Saxony should back this in the federal council.

To tackle the doctor shortage in rural Saxony, the BSW wants to create a separate medical university in the long run. In the short term, scholarships for medical students who commit to working in Saxony should be greatly expanded.

Rural Saxony does not have enough doctors. So the BSW wants to found a new medical university. It also wants more scholarships for medical students. A scholarship is money for your studies. In return, these doctors later work in Saxony.

The BSW wants to limit immigration so that integration can succeed. Asylum applications should be filed and decided at the EU's external borders and in third countries. The party stands by the basic right to asylum for persecuted people.

The BSW wants less immigration. People should apply for asylum at the EU's borders. Or in other countries outside the EU. The decision should be made there too. Only people who get protection should receive benefits in Germany. The right to asylum should stay.

The BSW wants people required to leave Germany to actually leave, and migrants who commit crimes to be deported. Asylum seekers required to leave should receive at most the constitutionally required minimum, provided in kind. A payment card is to be introduced statewide.

Some people are required to leave Germany. The BSW wants them to really leave. Migrants who commit many crimes should be deported. People who must leave should get only the bare minimum. They should get goods, not cash. Asylum seekers should get a payment card.

The BSW wants to achieve integration through language skills and work. It calls for more German courses, mandatory language tests for children from age three and better recognition of foreign qualifications. Asylum seekers should take on simple support tasks while their case is pending.

The BSW wants more German courses. All children from age 3 should take a German test. Children who know too little German must go to daycare. Foreign qualifications should be recognized more easily. Asylum seekers should do simple jobs.

The BSW wants public funding for renewable energy and citizen participation in it, so that profits from power generation reach residents. In the party's view, climate protection must pay off rather than make life more expensive; it adds measures for adapting to climate change.

The BSW wants to support power from sun and wind. Citizens should own a share of these plants. That way they get part of the profits. Climate protection should not make life more expensive. The state should also protect people better from heat and floods.

The BSW rejects ending the use of Saxon lignite before 2038. It says natural gas and coal remain necessary for a secure energy supply for businesses, and that giving them up depends on how much renewable energy is available.

The BSW wants to keep using brown coal in Saxony until 2038. It rejects an earlier end. The party says businesses still need coal and gas for secure energy. It also wants more power from sun and wind.

The BSW wants to reduce the administrative burden on farms and forestry businesses. Farm subsidies are to become simpler, and data should no longer be collected several times.

The BSW wants less paperwork for farmers and forest businesses. They should report their data only once. Getting farm support money should be easier. Farmers should have more freedom in how they work.

The BSW wants to ease the burden on livestock farms and support them more strongly through a master plan. For species such as wolves, beavers, and cormorants it considers wildlife management necessary, along with financial compensation for affected farms.

The BSW wants to help farmers with animals more. There should be a big plan for this in Saxony. Wolves, beavers, and cormorants cause damage for some farms. These farms should get money for that.

The BSW wants to reform the land market so that farmland goes first to local farmers. No more agricultural land is to be sealed over.

The BSW wants new rules for buying farmland. Local farmers should get the land first. Investors should not speculate with it. Farmland should no longer be built over.

The BSW wants to back farms with funding programs: for selling products locally, for organic farming, for adapting to changed weather conditions, and for young farmers taking over a farm. Farming and forestry should also contribute to the energy supply.

The BSW wants the state to help farmers with money. Farmers should be able to sell their goods nearby more easily. Large kitchens should use more organic food. Young farmers should get more help when they start. There should also be money for dealing with climate change.

The BSW wants schoolchildren and trainees to ride local public transit for free. The offer should be usable without a smartphone or similar device. In addition, admission to state museums would be free.

Schoolchildren and trainees should ride buses and trains for free. They should not need a phone for this. Entry to the state's museums should be free too.

The BSW wants to draw up a long-term investment program for roads, bridges and rail connections. Priorities should be set together with counties and municipalities to work off the maintenance backlog.

Many roads and bridges in Saxony are in bad shape. The BSW wants a plan for many years. The plan covers money for roads, bridges and rail. Counties and towns should help decide what comes first.

The BSW wants every town and village connected to public transit at least once an hour and wants to expand regional rail. In the medium term, a single transit association with uniform fares is to cover all of Saxony.

Every town should have a bus, train, or on-call taxi once an hour. The BSW wants more and faster trains. The same ticket prices should apply across Saxony. The Deutschlandticket should stay. Stations should be safe and free of barriers.

The BSW rejects diesel driving bans, more paid parking zones, and a city toll. It also opposes a general 30 km/h limit in towns and a 120 km/h limit on highways.

The BSW wants no driving bans for diesel cars. There should be no toll for cities. Parking should not cost money in more places. The BSW is against a 30 km/h limit everywhere in towns. It is also against a 120 km/h limit on highways.

The BSW wants to undo the planned end of new combustion-engine cars in 2035. According to the program, driving should stay affordable for most people, especially in rural areas.

From 2035, no new cars with combustion engines are supposed to be sold. The BSW wants to take this rule back. Saxony should keep building cheap, fuel-saving combustion cars. Driving should stay affordable for everyone.

The BSW wants to build out safe bike paths in cities and rural areas, for everyday use as well as tourism. The state is to make better use of federal funding for this.

The BSW wants to build more safe bike paths. This applies to cities and the countryside. There should be more safe places to park bikes. Saxony should use more federal money for this. Children should practice safe cycling at school.

The BSW opposes the gradual disappearance of cash. Everyday matters should remain possible without apps and without being forced to go digital.

The BSW wants to keep cash. People should still be able to live without apps. Nobody should be forced to go digital.

The BSW wants fast internet and complete mobile coverage throughout Saxony, including rural areas. According to the program, poor connections hamper business in regions such as the Erzgebirge and the Vogtland.

The BSW wants fast internet everywhere in Saxony. Cell phone service should work everywhere too. This matters most for villages and mountain areas. The federal government should pay for it.

The BSW wants a community-oriented, preventive police force with enough staff, especially in patrol and investigative units. The party prefers more officers on the street to additional video cameras. Training, promotion prospects and allowances are to be improved.

The BSW wants more police officers on the street. The party thinks this helps more than cameras. People should be able to move around without fear of being watched. Officers should get good training. Their job should become more attractive.

The BSW wants to restrict the powers of Saxony's Landesamt für Verfassungsschutz (state domestic intelligence agency) and strengthen parliamentary oversight of it. Political and religious extremism is still to be monitored and fought. The party rejects monitoring of dissenting opinions.

The Verfassungsschutz is the state's domestic intelligence agency. The BSW wants it to have fewer powers. It should still watch extremists. But it should not pressure people because of their opinions. The state parliament should oversee it more strictly.

The BSW wants criminal cases to be completed faster and sentences to be enforced more quickly. More staff, more resources and better IT are to be provided for this. In prisons, more staff should ease the workload, and the party rejects private operators.

The BSW wants punishment to follow a crime quickly. Cases should not end because there is too little time. For this there should be more staff and better computer systems. More people should work in prisons. Private companies should not run prisons.

The BSW wants to prevent crime early and comprehensively. More school social workers and street workers are to be deployed. The justice system and prisons are to get more room in school curricula.

The BSW wants to prevent crime early. Children and young people should learn responsibility. There should be more social workers in schools and on the streets. Students should learn more about courts and prisons. They should visit court hearings.

The BSW wants to expand participatory budgets, through which residents have a direct say in municipal spending. In the party's view, this strengthens local democracy because people respect outcomes more when they helped decide them.

In some towns, residents can help decide how part of the money is spent. This is called a participatory budget. The BSW wants this in more towns. The party says people respect a result more when they helped decide it.

The BSW wants to secure access to justice for people with little money. Advice centers are to be supported and expanded, and legal aid for advice and court costs is to be better funded. Knowledge of one's rights should be taught in school.

The BSW wants everyone to get help with legal questions. That includes people with little money. There should be more advice centers, especially in rural areas. The state should give more money to help with court costs. Students should learn about their rights in school.

The BSW considers the number of rules too high and sees them as a burden on citizens and businesses. Saxony's Normenkontrollrat (regulatory review council) should therefore get more powers. It should also be examined whether the number of laws can be reduced.

The BSW thinks there are too many rules. This is a burden for people and companies. The regulatory review council checks the costs of new laws. It should get more powers. Government forms should be easier to understand.

With many retirements ahead, the BSW wants to attract more young professionals to courts, prosecutors' offices, prisons, law firms and notary offices. University and training places in law are to be expanded. The party supports digitizing the justice system as long as staff and technology are in place.

Many judges, prosecutors and lawyers will retire soon. So the BSW wants to win more young people for these jobs. There should be more places to study law. The justice system should become more digital. That needs enough staff and technology.

The BSW wants a full review of COVID policy and a committee of inquiry in Saxony's state parliament for that purpose. In the program's view, many measures had no scientific basis and did more harm than good. Official records are to be published and data on vaccine side effects analyzed.

The BSW wants to look closely at the COVID period. The state parliament should set up a committee of inquiry. That is a group of lawmakers that examines what happened. Agencies should publish their records. Data on vaccine side effects should be checked.

The BSW calls for an amnesty and rehabilitation law for people convicted because they helped others avoid the vaccine mandate. Fines for breaking COVID rules are to be refunded. Health care workers who suffered disadvantages because of the vaccine mandate are to be rehired or compensated.

Some people were punished during the COVID period. The BSW wants a law that cancels certain punishments. People who paid fines should get their money back. Some health care workers lost their jobs because of the vaccine mandate. They should get their jobs back or receive money.

The BSW wants a state law requiring that at least half of newly filled public-sector positions go to East German applicants when qualifications are equal. The platform argues that East Germans are underrepresented in leadership roles in Saxony.

The BSW wants a quota for East Germans. A quota is a fixed minimum share. At least half of new government jobs should go to East Germans. This applies only when applicants are equally qualified. The BSW says East Germans rarely hold top jobs.

The BSW wants to make citizens' initiatives and referendums easier in Saxony. In the platform's view, these tools are used too little even though they could counter disillusionment with politics.

The BSW wants to make public votes easier. In such votes, citizens decide an issue themselves. Today the hurdles are high. The BSW wants to lower them.

The BSW condemns Russia's attack on Ukraine as a breach of international law and demands an immediate ceasefire and talks without preconditions. Saxony is to press the federal government to take diplomatic action of its own. The party regards arms deliveries to Ukraine as a failed policy.

The BSW wants the war in Ukraine to end quickly. The fighting should stop right away. Then both sides should talk. Saxony should push the federal government to act. The BSW is against sending more weapons to Ukraine.

The BSW wants a Bundeswehr that is adequately equipped for its constitutional mission but is not enlarged or built up. The platform names de-escalation and new disarmament treaties as the way out of confrontation. The party views the growing military use of Saxony's infrastructure with concern.

The German army should have good equipment. But it should not grow. The BSW wants new treaties on disarmament. Disarmament means that countries reduce their weapons. The BSW is critical of military transports through Saxony.

The BSW does not want to use public money to help arms companies set up in Saxony. The party rejects projects such as a gunpowder plant in Großenhain. The money should go to civilian small and mid-sized businesses instead.

The BSW does not want to give money to arms companies in Saxony. Arms companies make weapons and ammunition. The BSW rejects a gunpowder plant in Großenhain. The money should go to small and mid-sized companies that make civilian goods.

The BSW wants to keep and promote initiatives for understanding between peoples even in wartime. These include partnerships between cities and regions and exchanges among young people, researchers and associations. The state is also to support regional peace efforts.

The BSW wants people from different countries to stay in contact. This should hold even during war. Cities should keep partnerships with cities abroad. Young people and researchers should take part in exchanges. The state of Saxony should help peace initiatives.

The BSW wants to fundamentally rework Saxony's Kulturraumgesetz (cultural regions law) to secure lasting funding for theaters, orchestras and other cultural institutions. The party warns of insolvencies because the cultural regions can no longer carry the funding alone. Sociocultural centers are also to be protected.

In Saxony, the cultural regions law sets how culture is paid for. The BSW wants to change this law a lot. Theaters and orchestras should get secure funding. So should museums, libraries and cultural centers. The party warns that venues could go bankrupt otherwise.

The BSW wants freelance artists to be able to earn a living income. Regular public commissions and simple funding programs are meant to help. Cultural funding should not be tied to political declarations.

The BSW wants to give more support to independent artists. They should be able to live from their work. The state should give them regular commissions. Funding should be easy to apply for. Nobody should have to make a political statement to get funding.

The BSW wants to give children and young people early access to all the arts. State and municipal museums are to be free of charge up to age 18. In rural areas, travel to theaters, concerts and museums is to be paid for.

The BSW wants more culture for children and young people. Museum entry should be free up to age 18. Children in rural areas should get their trip to the theater paid. The same goes for trips to concerts and museums. Theaters and museums should work with schools.

The BSW rejects raising the public broadcasting fee and wants the state parliament to set up a commission of inquiry on public broadcasters. It would examine whether their reporting is objective and independent of the government. The platform points to declining trust in these media.

The BSW does not want a higher broadcasting fee. The state parliament should set up a commission. It should check the reporting of public broadcasters. The BSW thinks some reporting is one-sided.

The BSW wants to give the Sorbian people extensive self-determination in culture and education. It justifies this with the threat to the Sorbian language and culture, which UNESCO has also noted.

The Sorbs are a minority group in Saxony. Their language is at risk. The BSW wants the Sorbs to decide on culture and education themselves. The BSW also wants to support Sorbian associations.

The BSW wants high-quality cultural offerings to take place outside the big urban centers too. The Kulturräume, Saxony's regional associations for funding culture, are to receive additional money for this.

There should be good culture in the countryside too. Fewer visitors come there. So the Kulturräume should get more money. Kulturräume are associations that pay for culture in Saxony.

The BSW aims for equal living conditions in cities and the countryside. Roads, internet, schools, and meeting places in rural areas are to be funded, and jobs spread more fairly between city and country.

The BSW wants life in the countryside to be as good as in cities. Small roads should be repaired. Fast internet should be available everywhere. Rural schools should not close. Companies in rural areas should also get help.