BSW: program for the 2026 Saxony-Anhalt state election

The BSW wants public money to go to education, transport, energy supply and digitalization rather than to armaments. Small and medium-sized businesses are to be strengthened. In the party's view, arms do not create prosperity, and prosperity depends on peace.

The BSW wants to spend money differently. It should go to schools, roads, energy and the internet. Less money should go to weapons. Small and medium-sized companies should get more support.

The BSW wants to give arms companies no public money and to prevent civilian firms from switching to war production. A public fund is to pay for converting arms production to civilian manufacturing. Arms exports are to be controlled more strictly and the industry's windfall profits skimmed off.

Weapons companies should get no money from the state. Ordinary firms should not build weapons. A fund should help weapons firms switch to other products. The BSW wants to collect very high profits from weapons.

A committee of inquiry is to examine the planned Intel plant. In the BSW's view, decisions were opaque and cost risks unclear; large projects should face stronger parliamentary oversight in the future.

The state parliament should look into the Intel project. The BSW says the decisions were not open enough. A great deal of money was involved. Parliament should check big projects more closely.

The BSW wants to make it easier for small and medium-sized businesses to raise capital. Reserves and reinvested profits would get more favorable tax treatment, loans would be simpler to obtain, and investment would be encouraged through depreciation rules and funding programs.

Small and mid-sized companies often struggle to get money. The BSW wants to change that. Companies should pay less tax on profits they put back into the business. Loans should be easier and faster to get.

The BSW wants to give more support to business start-ups and reduce bureaucratic obstacles. Funding conditions for research and innovation should become simpler, more transparent and more reliable.

The BSW wants to help people who start a company. Applications should be simpler. There should be more advice. Companies should get easier access to knowledge and new technology.

The BSW wants to preserve the chemical industry in Saxony-Anhalt and support its transformation. This includes attracting recycling companies to the chemical parks, affordable energy, faster permits and a secure supply of oil and gas.

Saxony-Anhalt has many chemical plants. The BSW wants to keep them. For that, energy should be cheap and permits should come faster. The plants should have a secure supply of oil and gas.

The BSW wants to keep the lithium deposits in the Altmark region under public control as a strategic resource. Profits should flow into the region through a public holding company, and extraction should be gentle on the environment and water.

There is a lot of lithium in the Altmark region. It is a raw material for batteries. The BSW wants the lithium to belong to the state. The profits should stay in the region. Extraction should protect water and soil.

The BSW wants to bring core areas of essential public services back under public or cooperative ownership. The party rejects further privatization of municipal property.

The BSW wants important services back in public hands. These include water, energy, waste, housing, buses and trains. Private companies should not make a profit from them. Towns should stop selling their property.

The BSW wants tax relief for small and mid-sized businesses and an easier start for founders. Doctors and teachers are to receive incentives for settling in rural areas. According to the platform, the goal is to keep young people in the region.

The BSW wants to support small businesses in the state. They should pay less tax when they modernize. Doctors and teachers should get help when they move to rural areas. For example, when buying a house. Young people should stay in the state.

The BSW wants to prevent rising prices from gradually eroding real wages. Wages would be protected by an automatic adjustment for inflation, and the state government is to push for this at the federal level.

When prices rise, wages are worth less. The BSW wants to prevent that. Wages should rise automatically along with prices. The state should push for this at the federal level.

The BSW wants public contracts and subsidies to go only to companies bound by collective wage agreements. Works councils and unions should be involved in major decisions, and the right to strike should remain untouched.

The BSW wants the state to hire only companies with a collective wage agreement. Only such companies should get public funding too. Works councils should have a say in big decisions. The right to strike should stay as it is.

The BSW calls for a statutory minimum wage of 15 euros per hour without exceptions. Companies that receive state subsidies or carry out public contracts are to be required to pay at least collectively agreed wages.

The minimum wage should rise to 15 euros per hour. There should be no exceptions. Companies with government contracts should pay union-scale wages. Women and men should earn the same for the same work.

The BSW wants a single pension, long-term care and health insurance system into which everyone pays contributions. The state government is to push for this at the federal level.

Everyone should pay into the same insurance. This applies to pensions, care and health. It is called a citizens' insurance. The state should push the federal government for it.

The BSW wants to implement the disability participation law consistently in Saxony-Anhalt and to work permanently with associations and self-advocacy groups. Businesses should get practical help to employ people with disabilities in regular jobs.

People with disabilities should be able to take part in life more fully. They should find regular work more easily. Businesses should get advice and help for this. The state should work steadily with associations. A law on this should be fully applied.

The BSW wants to relieve the heavily burdened social courts and shorten proceedings. To that end, it wants to examine whether a mediation office could settle disputes before they go to court.

The social courts have very many cases. The BSW wants to ease their load. A mediation office could settle disputes before court. This should first be examined and tested.

The BSW wants people to receive social benefits faster and with less red tape. Social welfare offices are to get more staff and cooperate under binding rules. The platform points to processing times of many months, especially for long-term care assistance.

Many people need money from the state. They often wait many months for an answer. The BSW wants this to go faster. The offices should get more staff. They should also work together better.

The BSW calls for a pilot project to create a supra-local social assistance agency that would decide cases faster and more consistently. It would be paired with a digital tool for allocating places in residential and nursing homes. Local care offices and independent advice centers are also to be set up.

The BSW wants to test a new office for social assistance. This office would serve several places at once. It should decide requests faster and in the same way everywhere. An online tool should help families find a place in a care home. There should also be advice and care offices nearby.

The BSW wants independent social counseling available throughout the state, with application processing bundled centrally and linked to it. Authorities should only ask for data needed for the benefit in question. The platform says many people are overwhelmed by the applications.

The BSW wants advice on social benefits in every area. The advice should be independent. Offices should ask for fewer forms. They should only ask for data they really need. Many people cannot manage the applications alone today.

The BSW wants to expand the statutory pension so that it secures people's standard of living and protects against old-age poverty. It calls for a minimum pension, tax-free pensions up to 2,000 euros and a much higher pension level; it rejects a later retirement age.

People who paid in for 40 years should get at least 1,500 euros in pension. Pensions up to 2,000 euros should be tax-free. Pensions should be higher overall. The retirement age should not rise further.

The BSW wants to abolish the debt brake and boost demand through public investment. The long-term goal is full employment; in the party's view, austerity weakens the economy and infrastructure.

The debt brake limits new government debt. The BSW wants to get rid of it. The state should put more money into schools, roads and bridges. That should give firms orders and give everyone work.

The federal and state governments are to take over municipal debt in full. Whoever assigns tasks to municipalities should also pay for them permanently.

Many cities and towns have high debts. The federal and state governments should take over these debts. Whoever gives towns new tasks should also pay for them. Then towns can build more again.

The BSW wants to clear Saxony-Anhalt's investment backlog with a large, long-term investment program. In the program's view, the debt brake in its current form blocks spending on infrastructure, education, housing and municipal facilities.

The BSW wants the state to invest a lot of money. The money should go to roads, schools, housing and networks. The party says the debt brake stands in the way. The debt brake is a rule that limits new government debt.

The BSW wants to tax high incomes and large fortunes more heavily and bring back the wealth tax. Incomes below 2,000 euros are to be tax-free, and the inheritance and gift tax is to be reformed.

Very rich people should pay more taxes. The BSW wants a tax on large fortunes. People earning under 2,000 euros should pay no income tax. Large inheritances should also be taxed more.

The BSW wants to reorganize how municipalities are funded: reliable base funding instead of many grant programs, and a larger share of tax revenue. Municipalities should be able to decide for themselves what they spend money on.

Many cities and towns have too little money. The BSW wants to give them more money on a lasting basis. They should decide themselves how to spend it. Whoever gives them new tasks should also pay for them.

The BSW wants public investment to create significantly more social and non-profit housing, plus dormitory places for students and trainees. Publicly owned apartments and land should no longer be privatized unless they are for the buyer's own use.

The BSW wants more affordable homes to be built. The state should pay for this. Public housing should not be sold to companies. Students and trainees should also get more dorm places.

The BSW wants to effectively limit rent increases and considers a nationwide rent cap a suitable tool. Purchases of large housing portfolios by profit-driven investors are to be restricted.

Rents should no longer rise so fast. The BSW supports a rent cap for all of Germany. A rent cap is an upper limit on rents. Big investors should not be allowed to buy so many apartments.

The BSW wants to make building faster, simpler and cheaper without compromising on quality and safety. Owner-occupied housing is to be promoted; for young families, property tax on it is to be eliminated entirely.

Building should become faster and cheaper. Building permits should be available online. There should be fewer new building rules. Young families should pay no property tax on their own home.

The BSW wants uniform statewide minimum requirements for what housing and heating costs count as reasonable for people on social benefits. So far, each county and independent city sets this on its own. According to the platform, this leads to regional differences and legal uncertainty.

People on social benefits also get money for rent and heating. Each county decides how much is reasonable. The BSW wants the same minimum rules across the state. Everyone should be treated the same way. There should also be fewer lawsuits.

The BSW wants to use affordable vacant buildings to keep or attract creative professionals and university graduates. Projects combining living and working space are to be funded. Added to this are trial-residency stipends and "bridge years" at universities.

Many buildings in Saxony-Anhalt stand empty. The BSW wants to use them for artists and young people. They should be able to live and work there. Artists from big cities should live there free for six months as a trial. Graduates may keep using university workshops.

The BSW wants the state to pay for reliable childcare during school holidays and all-day care, and to support municipalities in providing it. Parents should be able to choose between paid work and family work without financial or social pressure. The party also wants to strengthen women's economic independence.

Children have more days off than parents have vacation days. So the BSW wants more childcare during holidays and in the afternoon. The state should pay for it. It should also help towns and cities. Women should be able to earn their own money.

The BSW rejects the commercialization of motherhood and the wish for children. Fairs where surrogacy agencies advertise or prepare contracts are to be prohibited in the state. The party says this protects women from exploitation and children from trafficking.

The BSW is against business with surrogacy. In surrogacy, a woman carries a baby for other people. Fairs that advertise this should be banned in Saxony-Anhalt. This is meant to protect women and children.

The BSW wants to eventually abolish parental fees for daycare centers in Saxony-Anhalt and secure full-day care across the state. In the party's view, early childhood education must not depend on parents' income.

Parents should later pay nothing for daycare. There should be full-day care everywhere. The BSW says early education must not depend on parents' money.

The BSW wants to fundamentally reform the state's Kinderförderungsgesetz (child care act), train more educators and improve staffing ratios. Pay and working conditions in daycare are to be upgraded to counter the staff shortage.

Daycare centers lack trained staff. The BSW wants to train more educators. Each educator should look after fewer children. Daycare work should be paid better.

The BSW wants to establish permanent, independent ombuds offices for child and youth welfare across the state. They are meant to help children, young people and families early on in conflicts with youth welfare offices or service providers.

Some children and families have conflicts with the youth welfare office. The BSW wants independent contact points for them. There they get help and mediation. These offices should exist across the whole state.

The BSW wants no Bundeswehr recruiting at schools and no arms research at the state's universities. Civil clauses are to be defended and peace education expanded. According to the platform, science should serve civilian progress, the common good and peace.

The army should not advertise at schools. Universities should not do research for the military. Schools should teach about peace. Young people should not join the army out of hardship.

The BSW wants to give vocational schools more staff, technology and money and keep schools close to where trainees live. Training content should be updated regularly to reflect new technology, and vocational education should be put permanently on an equal footing with academic education.

The BSW wants to equip vocational schools better. They should get more staff, technology and money. There should be vocational schools close to home. Every training course should teach how to handle computers and data.

The BSW wants to make further training and retraining easier to access and to fund it with little red tape. Master craftsman training is to receive targeted support; at the same time, a review should determine whether the master's certificate requirement can be dropped in some sectors.

The BSW wants to make further training simpler. It should not depend on income. People who want to become a master craftsman should get support. The BSW also wants to check something. Do people in some trades really need a master's certificate to start a business?

The BSW wants all school students to receive the teaching and learning materials they need free of charge. According to the program, parents currently share the cost of textbooks and workbooks through fees and their own purchases. Access should not depend on family income.

Parents today help pay for textbooks and workbooks. The BSW wants to change that. All students should get their learning materials for free. It should not matter how much money the family has.

The BSW wants to make teaching more attractive to counter the teacher shortage. Required teaching hours are to drop, cuts to workload reductions are to be reversed, and all salaried teachers are to get permanent contracts. Teachers' working time is also to be recorded.

Saxony-Anhalt is short of many teachers. The BSW wants to make the job more attractive. Teachers should have to teach one to two hours less. Salaried teachers should get permanent contracts. Working time should be recorded exactly. School offices should take more work off teachers.

The BSW wants a binding smartphone ban in everyday school life and wants to keep digital devices out of elementary schools. Fixed rules for artificial intelligence in secondary schools are meant to keep students' own work assessable.

The BSW wants to ban phones at school. Elementary schools should not use digital devices. There should be clear rules for artificial intelligence. Students should keep thinking for themselves.

The BSW wants children to learn together for longer: at first through grade 6, later through grade 8. In the party's view, sorting children after grade 4 disadvantages those from poorer households, and the tiered school system is outdated.

Children should learn together in one school for longer. First until grade 6, later until grade 8. Today children are split up after grade 4. The BSW says this is unfair to poorer children.

The BSW wants to avoid school closures, especially in rural areas, and to modernize school buildings. Children should be allowed to attend the nearest school even if it lies in a different county.

The BSW wants to keep rural schools open. Children should have short trips to school. They should be allowed to go to a school in the next county. Old school buildings should be repaired.

The BSW wants inclusion implemented across the state, backed by specialist staff and funding. Before children start school, their language level is to be assessed on a mandatory basis so that support needs are spotted early.

Children with and without disabilities should be able to learn together everywhere. There should be enough staff and money for this. Before school starts, every child's language should be checked. That way children get help early.

The BSW wants at least one permanent school social work position at every school. A statewide staffing ratio for school social work and school psychology is to be aligned with the national average.

Every school should have at least one school social worker. The job should be permanent. There should also be more school psychologists. The state should set fixed staffing rules.

The BSW wants teams drawn from different professions to be the norm in schools. Instead of the planned school act, the party calls for an education act that makes staffing and funding binding and relieves schools.

Schools should not only have teachers. Other professionals should help too. The BSW rejects the planned school law. It wants a law that secures more staff and money for schools.

The BSW wants to greatly expand all-day programs at schools and establish them as a state responsibility. An all-day schooling regulation, a dedicated funding program and a quality drive through 2030 are meant to achieve this.

More schools should offer all-day programs. The state should set its own rules and give money. The care should be good, not just supervision. Rural areas especially lack such programs.

The BSW wants all children in daycare centers and schools to get healthy meals free of charge. In the party's view, good nutrition is a precondition for concentration, learning and equal educational opportunity.

Children should get healthy food at daycare and school. The food should cost nothing. Children should also learn about healthy eating. For example in a school garden.

The BSW wants to give universities adequate lump-sum core funding so that research does not depend on third-party grants. The party also backs universities' right to use civil clauses to rule out military use of their research.

Universities should get enough fixed money from the state. They should not depend on outside money. Universities may refuse research for the military. The BSW supports this right.

The BSW wants far more permanent positions at universities and collective agreements for all staff. In the party's view, insecure employment endangers the independence of science and makes life planning harder.

Many researchers only have temporary contracts. The BSW wants more permanent jobs. All staff should be paid under a union contract. Students who work at the university should get one too.

The BSW wants a critical review of the bachelor's-master's system and a serious look at bringing back the Diplom degree. Anyone who completes a bachelor's degree in the state should be assured a place in a master's program.

The BSW wants to review the bachelor's and master's system. The old Diplom degree might come back. Anyone who finishes a bachelor's in the state should get a master's place. Fewer students should drop out.

The BSW wants to keep university study free of tuition and to substantially expand and reform BAföG (federal student aid). Student services organizations and the state's preparatory college are to get more money.

Studying should stay free. Students should get more BAföG. BAföG is state money for students. Student services should get more money for housing, food and advice.

The BSW wants teacher training to be geared more toward classroom practice and wants more study places. Everyone who completes a teaching degree in the state should receive a job offer at a school.

Future teachers should get more practice during their studies. There should be more study places. Anyone who finishes the degree in the state should be offered a job. The BSW wants to win more teachers this way.

The BSW wants more university places in human medicine and dentistry in Halle and Magdeburg because, in its view, the state trains too few doctors for its own needs. Admission should depend less on high school grades, and state scholarships should tie graduates to underserved regions.

The BSW wants more places to study medicine and dentistry. The party says the state trains too few doctors. School grades should matter less for admission. The state should give students money. In return, they later work in areas with few doctors.

The BSW wants universities funded more through stable core budgets rather than third-party and project money. The state should fully cover wage increases from collective agreements. Fixed-term posts in academia, including at non-university institutes, should largely be replaced with permanent ones.

Universities should get more steady money from the state. They should depend less on project money. If wages go up, the state should pay the extra cost. Researchers should get permanent contracts more often. This should also apply at other research institutes.

The BSW wants academics to be able to hold positions outside the majority view without suffering disadvantages. Universities should have an open culture of debate, including on contested views about topics such as gender, biology or politics.

Researchers should be free in their research and teaching. They should be allowed to voice unusual opinions. Nobody should be punished for that. This also applies to disputed topics like gender or politics. Universities should have clear rules and ways to complain.

The BSW wants to end the professors' majority on university governing bodies. Students and academic and non-academic staff should have an equal say. Universities should also offer more practice-oriented training.

Professors hold the majority on university boards today. The BSW wants to change that. All groups should have an equal say. These are students, researchers and other staff. Studies should also be closer to working life.

The BSW wants to respond to migration-related challenges with early language support, language tests and a compulsory preschool year. School districts should become more flexible so that children with a migration background are not concentrated in individual schools.

Children should get German language support already in kindergarten. There should be early language tests. One year of preschool should be required. Children from immigrant families should be spread more evenly across schools. That should give all children good chances.

The BSW wants to create a new education and qualification system for adults who immigrated without basic education, a school diploma or a trade. It is meant to make school diplomas and low-threshold vocational training possible. Germans without qualifications and pupils from special-needs schools are also to have access.

Some immigrants never went to school and never learned a trade. The BSW wants new education programs for them. There they can get a school diploma and learn a job. Germans without a diploma should be able to join too.

The BSW wants specialized outpatient clinics at universities in Saxony-Anhalt. They are meant to improve care for people with post-COVID, post-vaccination syndrome and ME/CFS.

Some people stay sick for a long time after COVID or a vaccine. There should be special clinics for them. These should open at university hospitals in the state. People with ME/CFS should get help there too.

Saxony-Anhalt is to approve new international pandemic agreements only after thorough review. The BSW rejects handing over sovereign powers without oversight by parliaments.

Countries make treaties for future pandemics. Saxony-Anhalt should check such treaties carefully first. Parliaments should keep control. The state should not give up rights without that control.

The BSW wants the state to expand Pflegestützpunkte (care advice centers) and secure municipal short-term and day care. People who care for relatives are to receive targeted support so that caregiving does not lead to poverty.

The BSW wants more care advice centers. People get advice about care there. Day care and short-term care should also stay. People who care for relatives should get help and money. Caring should not make anyone poor.

The BSW wants to merge the state's university hospitals back into the universities alongside the medical faculties. Outsourced hospital subsidiaries should be brought back in-house or fully bound by collective wage agreements. Planned hospital construction should be financed on a sound basis.

University hospitals are legally separate from the universities today. The BSW wants to join them again. Hospital subsidiary companies should return to the hospitals. Or they should pay union-agreed wages. New hospital buildings should have secure funding.

The BSW wants a critical review of the trend toward requiring university degrees for professions such as nursing, physiotherapy or midwifery. The party does not want traditional vocational training routes to be pushed aside.

Some health jobs now more often need a university degree. Examples are nursing and midwifery. The BSW wants to review this. Regular job training should stay. Students often get no pay, but trainees do.

The BSW rejects subordinating civilian health care to military priorities in a crisis. The party criticizes that large sums are made available for rearmament while public social services face cuts.

The BSW does not want hospitals to be part of military plans. Even in a crisis, civilian patients should not come after the military. The party says there is much money for weapons. Health and social services get less. That should change.

The BSW calls for a Bürgerversicherung (citizens' insurance) that everyone pays into, to end differences between publicly and privately insured patients. Benefits should be standardized and health insurers merged. The party rejects using surcharges and co-payments to steer demand.

The BSW wants one health insurance for everyone. Everyone should pay into it. People who earn more should pay more. There should be fewer health insurers. All insurers should cover the same services.

The BSW wants a state law obliging hospitals and health facilities to pay collectively agreed wages, including in outsourced subsidiaries. The aim is for insurance contributions to go into care and working conditions rather than profits of private operators.

The BSW wants a new law for hospitals. All workers there should get union-agreed pay. This also applies to subsidiary companies. That should make these jobs more attractive again. Money from insured people should not leave as profit.

The BSW opposes hospital closures and further privatization in health care. Hospitals that are no longer worthwhile for private operators should promptly be taken back into public ownership.

The BSW does not want hospitals to close. It also wants no more privatization. Privatization means private companies take over public facilities. If a hospital no longer pays off for private owners, the state should take it over.

The BSW wants long-term care insurance that covers care costs in full and is paid for mostly out of tax revenue. Nursing home costs should not push people in need of care into poverty or overburden their relatives.

Care in a nursing home costs people a lot of their own money today. The BSW wants insurance that pays all care costs. The state should put in a lot of tax money. People who need care should not have to use up their savings automatically. Relatives should not pay too much either.

The BSW wants a digital portal showing free places in nursing homes and day care across the state. It also wants more specialized facilities, more independent advice and less red tape for applications.

The BSW wants a website for care. It shows free places in nursing homes and day care. There should be more homes for people with dementia. There should be more advice on applications. Applications should become easier.

The BSW wants to enlarge the public social-psychiatric service and create more therapy places because, in the party's view, demand for mental health support is rising sharply. Social institutions should get long-term funding instead of short project grants.

More and more people have mental health problems. The BSW wants more help for them. There should be more therapists and more therapy places. People should get an appointment faster. Social institutions should get lasting funding.

The BSW wants to make it more attractive for doctors to set up practice in rural areas and, where none can be found, to use municipal health centers and community nurses. Telemedicine and better-connected emergency services are to supplement care.

Rural areas lack doctors. The BSW wants to help doctors open a practice there. Where no doctor comes, towns should run their own health centers. Community nurses should visit old and sick people. Video appointments should also help.

The BSW wants the nationwide midwifery fee agreement revised so that freelance midwives receive the full fee for every woman they care for. The state is to counteract the pressure with its own funding programs and bonuses for setting up a practice. The aim is to preserve maternity care, especially in rural areas.

Midwives help women give birth. The BSW wants midwives to get full pay for every woman. The state should support midwives with its own money. That way, rural areas keep their birth care.

The BSW commits to the right to asylum and to taking in people entitled to protection, but wants unregulated and illegal migration ended immediately. People with no claim to protection, those who abuse the asylum system and those who commit crimes are to be deported consistently. The party justifies this with the limited capacity of municipalities and social systems.

The BSW wants to keep the right to asylum. But people should no longer enter without permission. People with no right to asylum should have to leave. The same goes for people who commit crimes. The party says towns and schools are overloaded otherwise.

The BSW considers targeted recruitment of foreign workers necessary but wants it handled by the state rather than private agencies. Skilled workers needed in their home countries are not to be recruited away. Priority is to go to education, training and qualification at home.

Saxony-Anhalt lacks workers. So the BSW wants to bring in skilled people from abroad. The state should organize this, not private firms. Other countries should not lose skilled people they need. But first, people at home should get good training.

The BSW wants recognition of foreign vocational qualifications to become much faster and simpler. Missing partial qualifications are to be made up while working. The party sees integration into the labor market as the key to public acceptance of immigration.

Many immigrants learned a job abroad. The BSW wants to recognize these qualifications faster. If something is missing, people should learn it while working. That way, immigrants find work sooner.

The BSW wants to reverse the cut in language course funding at the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees and expand language training instead. Job-related courses at B2 level in particular are to increase significantly. The party regards good language skills as a precondition for skilled work and participation.

The federal government spends less on language courses. The BSW thinks that is a mistake. The party wants more language courses, especially for work. People who speak German well find good jobs more easily.

The BSW wants to protect people with tolerated status from deportation if they hold jobs subject to social insurance, pay taxes or are in vocational training. In the party's view, those who contribute should get a reliable prospect of staying.

Some people may stay in Germany only for now. They are called tolerated persons. The BSW wants this: those who work or train may stay. These people should be able to plan safely.

The BSW calls for mandatory language and civics courses for all immigrants who do not speak German. It also wants German tests before school entry, more early support for children from immigrant families and compulsory kindergarten attendance from age four. The party sees integration as a joint undertaking with clear rules.

Immigrants who speak no German should have to take courses. There they learn German and something about politics. Children should take a German test before school. From age four, children should have to go to kindergarten.

The BSW wants immigrants and their children distributed more evenly across city districts, schools and kindergartens in order, as it sees it, to prevent parallel societies. This includes a cap on housing occupancy per district, a quota of at most 30 percent foreign children and the end of fixed elementary school districts. The federal government is to cover accommodation costs.

The BSW wants immigrants to live in all parts of a city. Not too many immigrants should live in one district. In kindergartens, at most 30 percent of children should be foreign. Fixed elementary school districts should end. The federal government should pay for housing.

The BSW wants to examine how the Selbstbestimmungsgesetz (Self-Determination Act) affects minors and sex-specific protected spaces. It bases its women's policy on biological sex and wants protected spaces separated by biological sex.

The BSW wants to review the Self-Determination Act. This law lets people change their legal gender entry. The BSW wants to know what it means for children and teenagers. Protected spaces for women should be separated by biological sex.

The BSW regards fighting violence against women as a state responsibility and wants permanent funding for women's shelters, counseling centers and safe housing. Forensic clinics for victims of violence are to be expanded statewide, femicides systematically recorded, and a state action plan on the Istanbul Convention adopted.

The BSW wants to protect women better from violence. Women's shelters and counseling centers should get enough money for the long term. There should be more clinics for victims of violence. These clinics examine and record injuries. The police should count killings of women carefully.

In the longer term, the BSW wants to repeal Section 218 of the Criminal Code, which governs abortion. At the state level, access to abortion is to improve through care mandates, training and services close to home. The party considers current provision in Saxony-Anhalt insufficient.

The BSW wants to abolish Section 218 later on. This section makes abortion a crime. Women in Saxony-Anhalt should get an abortion more easily. There should be services close to home. Clinics and doctors should get incentives to take part.

The BSW wants to prevent the requirement for municipalities to appoint equal opportunity officers from being dropped. The party sees equality work as a constitutional mandate, not a bureaucratic luxury.

Towns and cities must have equal opportunity officers today. Some people want to end this duty. The BSW is against that. The party says equality is a duty under the constitution. Budget cuts should not hurt equality.

The BSW wants to secure equal rights for everyone regardless of sex, sexual orientation or gender identity and to protect minorities from violence. At the same time it calls for stricter quality checks on publicly funded counseling centers and does not consider debates over pronouns or flags at the state parliament a core political task.

The BSW wants equal rights for all people. The state should protect minorities from violence. Same-sex married couples should also be able to live safely. Counseling centers for minorities should be checked more closely. The BSW does not think fights over pronouns and flags are very important.

The BSW wants to shield daycare centers and schools from what it regards as one-sided ideological influence. Concepts on gender, sexuality or identity should not be introduced there against parents' wishes. The party sees upbringing and teaching values as primarily the parents' job.

The BSW says parents are responsible for upbringing first. Daycare centers and schools should not bring in certain concepts against parents' wishes. This means concepts about gender, sexuality and identity. Protecting children should come first.

The BSW wants targeted support for immigrant women and girls in training and job-seeking and more places in women's shelters. It also wants more social workers in youth work and continued state funding for projects against violence and extremism.

The BSW wants to give immigrant women and girls special help. They should get support with training and finding work. There should be more places in women's shelters. The party also wants more social workers for young people.

The BSW wants to lower taxes on energy and abolish the CO₂ levy. No gas station should be allowed to charge more than €1.50 for fuel. The platform justifies this with rising prices and falling purchasing power.

The BSW wants lower taxes on energy. The CO₂ levy should go. That is an extra charge on gasoline, gas and heating oil. Gasoline and diesel should cost no more than €1.50.

The BSW wants to buy energy from all suppliers and to negotiate with Russia over gas. The Nord Stream pipeline is to be used because, in the party's view, shipping liquefied gas is costly and cumbersome.

The BSW wants to buy gas from Russia again. There should be talks with Russia about this. The gas should come through the Nord Stream pipeline. The party says gas by ship costs too much.

The BSW considers renewable energy indispensable but not sufficient on its own. It calls for a technology-neutral energy mix with guaranteed capacity, which for now includes lignite, and wants to support research into new reactor technologies.

The BSW says wind and solar power alone are not enough. There should be several sources of energy. For a certain time, that includes lignite, a type of coal. The BSW also wants to fund research on new reactors.

The BSW wants to expand renewable energy in a planned manner and steer solar installations onto roofs and sealed surfaces. Wind power should grow in a regionally balanced way, biogas should be strengthened, and citizens, municipalities and cooperatives should share in the revenues.

The BSW wants more power from sun, wind and biogas. Solar panels should go on roofs and parking lots, not on fields or in forests. Wind turbines should be spread fairly across the state. Citizens and towns should share in the profits.

The BSW wants to abolish the Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetz (EEG, the Renewable Energy Sources Act). It would be replaced by targeted investment grants, mainly for installations on roofs and sealed surfaces.

The EEG is a law. It governs support for power from sun and wind. The BSW wants to abolish this law. Instead, there would be money for building certain installations, for example on roofs.

The BSW wants to coordinate the expansion of renewables with the expansion of grids and storage and speed up both. Grid fees should be capped, allocated according to who causes the costs, and kept socially acceptable.

The BSW wants to expand power grids and power storage faster. Grid costs should be shared fairly. Regions with a lot of wind power should not pay more than others. Grid fees should stay affordable.

The BSW wants to adapt the shift in heat supply to the conditions of a large, sparsely populated state. Instead of fixed requirements, technology-neutral rules and longer transitions should apply, and costly requirements in energy and emissions law should be reviewed.

Heating is supposed to become more climate-friendly. The BSW wants less strict rules for this. Rural areas should be able to use other solutions than cities. The BSW wants to review costly regulations.

The BSW calls for suspending or abolishing national carbon pricing because, in its view, it does little for the climate and mainly burdens low and middle incomes. As long as it exists, the revenue should be returned to citizens as a climate bonus.

People who buy gasoline or heating oil pay a price for CO₂. The BSW wants to stop or abolish this price. As long as it applies, citizens should get the money back. This is called a climate bonus.

The BSW rejects wind turbines and photovoltaic installations in forest areas as a matter of principle. The opening of forests to wind power is to be reversed. Photovoltaics are to be steered onto roofs and land that is already sealed.

The BSW wants no wind turbines in forests. Solar arrays should not stand there either. The party says turbines harm animals, plants, and the forest climate. Solar panels should go on roofs. Fields and meadows should stay free.

The BSW rejects underground CO₂ storage (CCS) in Saxony-Anhalt, particularly in the Altmark region. The party sees risks for the environment, health and cost-effectiveness. Instead it wants to fund decentralized energy storage and reforestation.

The BSW does not want CO₂ stored underground. This applies to all of Saxony-Anhalt. The party thinks it is dangerous. It would rather plant new forests. It also wants to fund storage for green power.

The BSW wants to redesign towns and municipalities so they cope better with heat and heavy rain. It also wants to protect the state's especially fertile black-earth soils from development.

Towns should get more green space and less concrete. That helps against heat and heavy rain. The BSW also wants to protect the very fertile soils in the state. New business parks should be built on poorer soils.

The BSW wants to reforest damaged woodland and speed up the conversion to resilient mixed forests. The state forestry administration is to be preserved for the long term. Timber is to be promoted more strongly as a building material.

Many forests in the state are damaged. The BSW wants new trees planted there. Private forest owners should get money and advice. The state forestry service should stay. More wood should be used in building.

The BSW wants to rewrite the state hunting and fishing laws and cut red tape in the process. The inclusion of the wolf in hunting law is to be adopted quickly at state level. The party intends to push back against additional bureaucracy from the EU.

The BSW wants to rewrite the laws on hunting and fishing. They should become simpler and more digital. The wolf should come under hunting law. Then hunting rules apply to it. The state should do this quickly.

The BSW wants to restore peatlands, floodplains, and waters and preserve protected areas such as the Harz National Park. Endangered species and pollinators are to be better protected, and animal cruelty prosecuted more consistently. According to the platform, restored peatlands also reduce flooding and store CO₂.

The BSW wants to protect animals and plants better. Peatlands and river floodplains should become natural again. This helps against floods. Protected areas like the Harz should stay safe. People who are cruel to animals should be punished more strictly.

The BSW calls for a state program with binding measures against nitrate in groundwater. The platform names over-fertilization, intensive farming, and improperly stored organic matter as the main causes. The party sees water protection as a central public task.

In some areas there is too much nitrate in the groundwater. Nitrate comes mainly from fertilizer and manure. The BSW wants a state program against it. There should be firm rules for farming. The state should also check how much fertilizer is used.

The BSW wants a statewide water strategy to address drought and conflicts over water use. Drinking water and agriculture are to take precedence over industry. The platform cites falling groundwater levels and pollution from nitrate and legacy contamination.

The BSW wants a water plan for the whole state. Drinking water and farming should get water first. Industry comes after that. Rainwater should seep into the ground. The party says groundwater is running low.

The BSW wants to give rivers more room to flood by moving dikes back and restoring floodplains. According to the platform, engineered flood defenses alone are not enough. The party rejects new river barrages.

The BSW wants to give rivers more space. Dikes should stand farther from the river. Then floodwater can spread out. The party does not want new barrages. A barrage holds back the water in a river.

The BSW demands that the toxic sludge pit at Brüchau in the Altmark be fully excavated rather than merely capped. The company that caused the contamination, or its legal successor, is to pay. The party cites a state parliament resolution from June 2020.

There is a pit with toxic sludge in Brüchau. The BSW wants to empty the pit completely. Just covering it is not enough for the party. The company that caused the damage should pay. This is meant to keep groundwater clean.

The BSW wants better resources for animal shelters and veterinary offices and wants shelter dogs exempted from the dog tax. The list of dog breeds classed as dangerous is to be dropped and replaced by behavior-based assessment and a dog handler license. Through the Bundesrat, the state is to push for mandatory pet health insurance.

The BSW wants to give animal shelters more money. Dogs from shelters should not cost dog tax. The list of dangerous dog breeds should go. Instead, owners should get a dog handler license. Pets should get health insurance.

The BSW wants animal welfare rules in livestock farming enforced more strictly and checked more often. Slaughterhouses are to face more unannounced inspections, and long animal transports are to be approved less readily. Animal testing is to be cut to the minimum necessary.

The BSW wants to protect animals better. Officials should inspect slaughterhouses more often, also without warning. Long trips with animals should happen less often. Barns should offer more space. There should be fewer tests on animals.

The BSW wants to ban animal performances in circuses through state law. In the party's view, keeping, transporting and using animals for entertainment is incompatible with species-appropriate care.

The BSW wants no more animals in circuses. The state should ban such shows. The party says animals suffer in circuses. They are stressed there and get sick.

The BSW wants to gradually make veterinary care a public responsibility. The state would run animal clinics across the region itself, and veterinarians could be employed in the public sector. The party cites economic pressure and heavy psychological strain in the profession.

The BSW wants to change how vet care works. The state should take over this job step by step. The state should run animal clinics itself. Vets should be able to work for the state. They would then get union-scale pay and fixed hours.

The BSW wants to guarantee farms a buyer for regional products and have public institutions buy regionally first. This is meant to secure fair prices and act as a counterweight to free trade deals such as Mercosur.

Farmers in the state should be sure to sell their products. Public bodies should buy from them first. That keeps money in the region. New advice offices should help farmers with applications.

The BSW wants a state strategy against erosion and loss of humus, along with careful use of water in agriculture. Soil-friendly farming methods, diverse crops, research, and knowledge transfer are to be supported. The party rejects glyphosate.

The BSW wants to protect farmland soil. There should be a plan for the whole state. Hedges and many kinds of crops should keep the soil stable. Water should stay in the land better. The BSW rejects the weed killer glyphosate.

The BSW wants targeted support for small and mid-sized farms. Regional processing and marketing are to be expanded, including through purchases by public institutions in the region. The platform treats agriculture as a public task.

The BSW wants to help small and mid-sized farms. They should get funding and simpler rules. More food should be sold in the region. Public canteens and offices should buy locally too. This gives farms reliable customers.

The BSW wants to reduce farmers' reporting duties to a minimum and roll back official requirements on cultivation. Farms are to decide on crop rotation and catch crop harvests themselves. EU rules are to be adapted through state law for small and mid-sized farms.

Farmers must write many reports for the authorities. The BSW wants to cut these duties sharply. Farmers should decide for themselves what to grow and when. Counties should help farmers with reports. EU rules should become easier for small farms.

The BSW wants to bring key mobility infrastructure back into public ownership and opposes any further breakup of the railway. Roads and rail are to be repaired faster, and the A14 highway completed quickly.

Important transport routes should belong to the state again. The railway should not be split up further. Roads and tracks should be repaired faster. The A14 highway should be finished soon.

The BSW rejects a blanket ban on combustion engines and what it sees as a forced transport transition. It says cars remain indispensable in many parts of the state; at the same time, charging infrastructure for electric cars is to be expanded.

The BSW is against a ban on gasoline and diesel cars. Many people in rural areas need a car. But there should be more charging stations for electric cars. Nobody should be forced to switch.

The BSW wants reliable and affordable public transit with a unified fare system, including in rural areas. Schoolchildren and trainees are to ride free year-round, and the Deutschlandticket (nationwide transit pass) is to stay and become cheaper over time.

Buses and trains should be reliable and cheap. Schoolchildren and trainees should ride for free. The Deutschlandticket should stay and get cheaper. People with little money should get a low-cost social ticket.

In the long term, the BSW aims for publicly organized local transit that everyone can use free of charge. In view of demographic change, the party also wants to keep small rural elementary schools and better staff daycare centers.

In the long run, the BSW wants free buses and trains for everyone. Local transit should be in public hands. Small elementary schools in rural areas should stay. Daycare centers should have more staff per child.

The BSW wants to create a statewide online portal through which companies can handle all important dealings with public authorities. Saxony-Anhalt is meant to become a front-runner in digitalizing public administration, and permits should be issued faster.

The BSW wants a web portal for companies across the state. Companies can file applications there and write to public offices. They can see how far along their application is. People who do not want to work digitally can still use paper.

The BSW wants fiber connections to every home and a mobile network without gaps across the state. Network operators are to be required to close all coverage gaps.

Every home should get fast internet through fiber. The cell phone network should also work everywhere. Network companies should have to close all dead zones. The BSW sees this as a task for the state.

The BSW wants strict compliance with high data protection standards and, at the same time, a revision of the General Data Protection Regulation. The protection of civil rights is to be better reconciled with practicality and legal certainty.

The BSW wants to protect people's data well. People should decide about their own data. The EU rules on data protection should become simpler. But they should still protect people well.

The BSW wants to better protect public institutions against cyberattacks and reduce dependence on closed software. Data that authorities process about citizens is to be stored within the EU.

The BSW wants to protect offices, schools and hospitals better against online attacks. Authorities should use more open software. Anyone can check open software. Citizens' data should be kept on computers in the EU.

The BSW wants to secure a right to an analog life. Important services and dealings with authorities are to remain possible without digital devices so that no one is excluded from taking part in society.

Not everyone wants or is able to use a smartphone. The BSW wants important things to work without the internet too. This includes banks, buses and trains, parcels and public offices. Digital services should be voluntary.

The BSW wants to modernize public administration, simplify procedures and expand digital services. Digitalization projects are to be coordinated statewide so that incompatible stand-alone solutions do not arise.

The BSW wants to make public administration simpler and faster. Public offices should offer more digital services. The state should set uniform software for all. Staff should get training.

The BSW wants all municipalities in Saxony-Anhalt to use the same standardized application forms. Municipalities would no longer design their own. This is meant to avoid duplicate applications and speed up processing.

Today many towns have their own forms. The BSW wants the same forms across the state. People should be able to fill them out on a computer. Then they can send them straight to the office. This should make things faster.

The BSW wants to scrap immediately the monitoring category “delegitimization of the state relevant to the protection of the constitution.” An independent commission is to examine whether a strengthened police state-security branch could fight terrorism better. The party fears that the Verfassungsschutz (domestic intelligence agency) is being used against inconvenient voices.

The Verfassungsschutz is a domestic intelligence agency. It also watches people who strongly reject the state. The BSW wants to remove this group from its list. Experts should check whether the police can fight terrorism better.

Prevention work and victim counseling are to treat right-wing, left-wing and religiously motivated violent extremism alike. The state should focus on preventing violence and protecting those affected.

The state should act against every kind of violent extremism. That means right-wing, left-wing and religious. Other opinions should not be a crime. The state should mainly prevent violence.

The BSW regards security as a public service that belongs solely to the police and must not be privatized. Police and investigators are to be equipped so that they can match criminal networks. The party also wants more visible police presence and well-kept public spaces.

The police should provide security, not private firms. The BSW wants to equip the police better. They should mainly go after large criminal groups. People should see more police on the streets.

The BSW rejects Palantir software and similar systems for comprehensive automated data linking. Powers of the security agencies are to be necessary, proportionate and clearly limited. Instead, the party relies on transparent software from Germany or Europe.

Palantir is a program that links lots of data about people. The BSW does not want the police to use it. The party does not want surveillance of everyone. The police should use programs from Germany or Europe.

The BSW wants to bring the state police to around 7,000 officers by 2028 at the latest. In addition, promotion backlogs are to be cleared through regular promotions, and pay is to be appropriate to the office held. The party attributes staff shortages and the job's low appeal to political decisions.

The BSW wants more police officers in Saxony-Anhalt. By 2028 there should be about 7,000. Officers should be promoted regularly. They should also be paid properly. This should make the job more attractive.

The BSW wants to rewrite Saxony-Anhalt's disaster protection act because, in the party's view, it no longer meets today's threats. The responsibilities, powers and duties of mayors and district administrators are to be clearly defined.

The BSW wants to renew the law on disaster protection. The law should say clearly who decides in an emergency. This mainly concerns mayors and district heads. The party says the state is not well prepared for disasters.

The BSW wants a standing state-level staff for disaster and civil protection and an updated disaster protection law. Protection is to be planned ahead, practiced regularly, and paid for by the state up front in an emergency.

The BSW wants a permanent crisis team for the state. This team plans how to protect people in disasters. There should be regular drills with the public. In an emergency, the state pays the costs first.

The BSW wants to strengthen volunteer fire departments financially and structurally. With state help, cash-strapped municipalities should be able to invest more in fire protection, and volunteering should become more attractive.

The BSW wants to help volunteer fire departments. Poor towns should get state money for fire protection. People who volunteer should get more pay and more recognition. Fire crews should have fewer side tasks.

The BSW rejects surveillance without cause as well as reporting and monitoring platforms, and wants to protect the confidentiality of private communication. State action should be proportionate and respect the presumption of innocence. The party sees free speech threatened by cancel culture, pressure to conform and what it regards as a lecturing style of politics.

The state should not watch people without a reason. Talks on the phone and in chats should stay private. The BSW wants no reporting platforms. Everyone should be able to speak their mind freely.

The BSW wants to expand direct democracy in the state: the hurdles for popular initiatives, petitions for referendums and referendums are to be lowered, and referendum results are to bind the government and the state parliament. It also wants citizens' assemblies, municipal citizens' budgets and a review of laws for their effects on future generations.

People should be able to vote on issues more often. Fewer signatures should be needed for that. The result should bind the government. Citizens' assemblies should make proposals. These are groups of randomly chosen people.

Organizations that receive state money are to disclose their finances. An independent body is to audit the funding so that the money verifiably serves the common good.

Some groups get money from the state. They should show where their money comes from. They should also show what they spend it on. An independent office should check this.

The BSW wants to end public money for organizations it sees as close to parties or politically one-sided. The rules for nonprofit status are to be narrowed.

The BSW wants no state money for groups that are close to parties. The party sees this as hidden support for parties. The rules for nonprofit groups should get stricter. Nonprofit means the group serves the public.

The state parliament is to review COVID policy in a committee of inquiry. In the BSW's view, basic rights were heavily restricted, often without a sound scientific basis.

The state parliament should look closely at the COVID period. A committee of inquiry should do this. The BSW thinks many rules back then were poorly justified. The state should learn from this.

People who paid fines or suffered job consequences because of COVID rules are to be rehabilitated and compensated. The BSW regards many measures as excessive or ineffective in hindsight.

Some people had to pay fines because of COVID rules. Others had trouble at work. The BSW wants to compensate these people. The state should apologize in public.

The BSW wants state, urban and regional development planned across ministries, with binding cooperation between cities, municipalities and regions. Mid-sized regional centers and rural areas are to be strengthened to slow out-migration.

Cities and villages should work together more closely. This should also happen across state borders. Mid-sized towns should get more housing, businesses and buses. In rural areas, converting old buildings should become easier.

The BSW wants to change how state funds are distributed under the central-places principle, arguing that it favors large cities over mid-sized towns and rural municipalities. Municipalities are to get reliable funding programs and more room to act on their own.

Today, big cities get more state money than small places. The BSW wants to change that. Small towns and villages should get more money. Funding programs should be reliable.

The BSW wants to expand legal advice services for people on low incomes, especially in rural areas. Basic legal knowledge is also to become a fixed part of school lessons so that the legal system becomes accessible to more people.

The BSW wants more legal advice for people with little money. This matters most in villages and small towns. Students should learn more about the law at school. They should also visit courts.

The BSW wants to abolish the right of ministries to give public prosecutors instructions in individual investigations. In the party's view, this right allows political influence on the justice system.

Today, ministries can give prosecutors orders in single cases. The BSW wants to end that. The party says politics can influence justice this way. Other orders should be in writing and open.

The BSW wants more staff and better pay in the justice system to speed up proceedings. The courts are to become more digital, while rural court locations and in-person hearings are to be kept.

The BSW wants more staff for courts and prisons. Judges and prosecutors should be paid better. Courts in rural areas should stay. Video hearings should only be an extra option.

The BSW wants to write children's and young people's rights to free expression and political participation into the state constitution. Having a say in schools and municipalities is to become binding.

The BSW wants stronger rights for children and young people. Young people should have a say and help decide. This right should be in the state constitution. Schools and towns should always involve them.

The BSW wants a critical review of how the Treuhandanstalt (the agency that privatized East German state firms) operated and of the upheaval after 1990. In the party's view, many of the East's disadvantages today stem from political mistakes of that period. The review is meant to help shape economic and structural policy differently in the future.

The BSW wants a close look at the years after 1990. Back then, the Treuhand agency sold many companies in the East. Many people lost their jobs. The party says politicians made mistakes then. People should learn from this for today.

The BSW wants to improve forms of participation ranging from referendums to citizen budgets. People active in local politics are to receive an expense allowance and pension credits. The party points to many East Germans' low trust in politics.

The BSW wants citizens to have more say. This includes public votes and a citizen budget. People who do local politics should get money. They should also get credits toward their pension. Young people should have a say early on.

The BSW rejects the loans for armaments made possible by the loosening of the debt brake in March 2025, calling them “war credits.” Saxony-Anhalt should not back a policy that, in the party's view, puts rearmament ahead of diplomacy. It calls for disarmament and a new policy of détente.

Since 2025 the state may take on more debt for weapons. The BSW is against this. The party wants talks instead of more weapons. It also says war does great harm to the climate.

The BSW demands that Germany stop supplying weapons to Israel and recognize Palestine as a state. The EU's association agreement with Israel should also be suspended. The party sees the federal government as sharing responsibility for violations of international law in Gaza because of the deliveries.

Germany should stop sending weapons to Israel. Palestine should count as a state. The fighting in Gaza should stop. A treaty between the EU and Israel should be put on hold.

The BSW insists on the Two Plus Four Treaty, which bans nuclear, biological and chemical weapons in eastern Germany and caps the size of the Bundeswehr. It rejects new US intermediate-range missiles and backs the ICAN appeal for a Germany free of nuclear weapons. The party regards openness about deployment and procurement as a condition of democratic oversight.

There should be no nuclear weapons in eastern Germany. A treaty from 1990 says so. The BSW wants this treaty to be kept. The party rejects new missiles from the US.

The BSW wants to prevent military training areas in the state from growing and Saxony-Anhalt from becoming a hub for NATO operations. It rejects NATO maneuvers and military use of civilian infrastructure. The party considers a peace policy incompatible with tying civilian structures into military planning.

Training grounds for soldiers should not get bigger. This applies above all to the Letzlinger Heide and the Zeitzer Forst. NATO should hold no maneuvers in the state. Roads and rails should not serve the military.

The BSW wants to keep the Bundeswehr as a volunteer army and rejects a return to conscription. The force should serve only national and alliance defense and be used at home only in cases such as natural disasters. In the party's view, security comes from diplomacy and de-escalation.

No one should be forced to serve in the army. The Bundeswehr should only defend the country. It should not go into foreign wars. At home it should only help in disasters.

The BSW calls for a fundamental reform of the structures and oversight of public broadcasting. In the party's view, its coverage is too one-sided and too close to politics.

The BSW wants to change public broadcasting. The party says its reporting is often one-sided. The broadcasting council should be independent of parties. Citizens should have a say there too.

The BSW wants to ease the burden of the broadcasting fee on households and not raise it. Programming should focus on information, culture and education.

The broadcasting fee should not go up. It should depend more on what a household can pay. The stations should mainly offer information, culture and education. Station heads should not earn unlimited pay.

The BSW demands that the state's Cultural Funding Act be passed in 2026. It is meant to secure cultural institutions permanently and stabilize their finances, with a focus on venues in rural areas. The party regards culture as part of public services.

The BSW wants a cultural funding law for Saxony-Anhalt. The state parliament should pass it in 2026. Theaters, museums and other cultural places should get money for the long term. Cultural places in the countryside matter most to the BSW.

The BSW wants to improve the social situation of artists and other cultural workers. It names a reform of the Künstlersozialkasse (artists' social insurance fund), better protection against old-age poverty and loss of earnings, and better working conditions for freelancers.

Many artists earn little and have poor protection. The BSW wants to change that. The artists' social insurance fund should be reformed. Self-employed artists are insured through it. Freelance teachers at music and art schools should get fair fees.

The BSW wants children and teenagers across the state to encounter theater, music, art and literature regularly. Museums and libraries should be free of charge for school students, apprentices and university students. Cultural education should not depend on parents' income.

Children and teenagers should get to know theater, music, art and books. This should work everywhere in the state. School students, apprentices and university students should pay nothing at museums. Libraries should be free for them too. The BSW wants more support programs for young people.

The BSW wants funding programs to be transparent and free of political loyalty requirements. Public money should not be tied to ideological commitments, and the party rejects restrictions on expressing opinions. In civic engagement, it wants to support the full range rather than what it sees as one-sidedly political structures.

Clubs and artists get money from the state. The BSW says nobody should have to declare a political view for that. Awarding the money should be open and fair. Applications should get easier. The party wants to protect freedom of art and freedom of speech.

The BSW wants to maintain and preserve historic town centers, industrial buildings and everyday architecture. It opposes monotonous functional buildings and what it calls faceless investor architecture. Culture, history and landscape are also to form the basis of tourism funding.

Old town centers and old industrial buildings are part of the state's history. The BSW wants to keep and care for them. The party is against dull new buildings. Culture and history should also bring tourists to the state.

The BSW wants to promote grassroots sports and invest heavily in maintaining and building sports facilities in the coming years. Priority goes to facilities for school sports and to swimming pools so that people can swim. Youth and elite sports are also to receive lasting support.

The BSW wants sports to be possible for everyone. The state should keep or build gyms and sports fields. Gyms for school sports and swimming pools matter most. Coaches in elite sports should get proper pay. Children and teenagers should be able to do sports everywhere.

The BSW wants more recognition for volunteers and fewer hurdles for part-time civic engagement. Leave entitlements are to be extended, volunteer allowances raised and volunteer work counted toward pensions.

Many people help in clubs for free. The BSW wants to make that easier. They should get time off for it more easily. Volunteer allowances should go up. Volunteering should also count for pensions. Clubs should have less paperwork.