BSW on democracy and the state

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 platform wants to reset the relationship between citizens and the state. People should be able to move in public without being rated or placed under blanket suspicion, and communication at home, by phone and in chats should stay protected. In the party's view, monitoring speech that is covered by basic rights creates a climate of intimidation. It also opposes ideologies that are prepared to use violence. Public broadcasters should inform rather than educate, the platform says; it states that 44 percent of people voice their political opinions only cautiously.

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.

The rules under Articles 80 and 81 of the state constitution are to be changed; entry requirements and quorums are to be lowered. Representatives of a successful popular initiative must be heard in the state parliament. In municipalities, the party wants to support local referendums and citizens' budgets with grants. Representative citizens' assemblies are to draw up recommendations regularly at state and local level. Online platforms, public hearings on bills, participatory budgets and citizen dialogues in structurally weak regions are to become standard. State laws and budget decisions are to be checked for their responsibility toward coming generations.

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.

Disclosure would cover public grants, donations and third-party funds, the use of public money and, above a threshold yet to be set, the pay of senior staff. The data is to appear on a central public platform run by the state. The audit body could sit at the state audit office and carry out spot checks and checks triggered by specific concerns. Funding decisions are to follow objective criteria, and democracy-promotion programs are to be evaluated regularly.

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.

Funding programs such as "Demokratie leben!" are to be reviewed critically. Groups that act close to a party, run political campaigns or lobby should not automatically count as nonprofit. Projects that call for excluding or boycotting disliked artists, scholars or journalists are to lose public funding. Saxony-Anhalt is to push for a federal reform of nonprofit law.

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.

The party considers a study commission insufficient. The inquiry is to cover state-level decisions, the scientific basis for the restrictions, the role of ministries, agencies and advisers, and those who profited financially. It should also look at effects on children, young people and people in care, and at how critics were treated. The program demands full transparency on vaccines from federal agencies.

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 plan includes amnesty, rehabilitation and compensation. There is to be a public apology for exclusion during the COVID period. Repayments of COVID aid of up to 5,000 euros are to be waived.

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.

Municipalities are to handle tasks such as business development, infrastructure, environment, administration and culture jointly. An independent competence center is to develop scenarios for future development. The BSW wants to strengthen mid-sized centers through housing subsidies, attracting businesses and better public transit links to the larger cities. Legal obstacles to preserving and converting villages and buildings outside built-up areas are to be reduced, including in heritage protection. The state government is to steer development through funding, spatial planning and guidelines.

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 program criticizes that allocations depend heavily on population, which it says triggered mergers and left small municipalities unable to act. State funding is to be sufficient, cover the full project period and account for rising construction prices. Recurring construction projects are to be standardized and built serially or modularly where possible; costly standards are to be reviewed and dropped if necessary. Municipalities are to use their right of first refusal against vacancy and speculation. Municipal heat planning is to be flexible and practical, and staffing and expertise in local administrations are to be secured.

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.

In the program's view, the advice service at local courts is used too rarely or is hard to reach in some regions. People are therefore to be better informed about legal advice aid and legal aid for court costs. At school, visits to court hearings, talks with lawyers and knowledge of rights and duties are to be part of lessons. The BSW argues that legal protection must not depend on income and that legal education strengthens trust in the rule of law.

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.

Any rights to give instructions that remain are to be exercised only transparently, with written reasons and under parliamentary oversight. They are to be limited to clear questions of law and never be politically motivated. Saxony-Anhalt is to push for such a reform in the Bundesrat, the chamber of the federal states.

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.

According to the program, there is a shortage of judges, prosecutors, judicial officers and staff in court offices and prisons, and pay lags behind other states. Recruitment is to start at schools and universities. Electronic files and modern IT are meant to shorten proceedings without reducing accessibility, legal certainty or personal hearings. The BSW rejects privatizing security services in courts and prisons because it regards the prison system as a sovereign task of the state.

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 program refers to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and says that schools, governments or parents have at times obstructed student protests. After protection rights were strengthened in 2016, participation rights are now to follow in the constitution; young people's right to strike and assemble is also to be strengthened. Student councils are to get reliable support, and schools are to create fixed structures for involvement. The BSW wants to expand funding programs for young people and preserve youth clubs and other spaces for participation.

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 platform speaks of the East German population being dispossessed and of a sell-off of companies that deindustrialized the region. It says funds for rebuilding the East often flowed back to West German firms. It also mentions qualifications that went unrecognized and pension contribution years that were not counted. In addition, the BSW sees the East as a bridge to Eastern Europe for economic ties and peace initiatives.

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 platform cites the experience of the round tables as evidence of people's will to shape politics. It names rights to citizen participation, more direct democracy and binding transparency in government action. Young people are to be involved in political decisions early. The BSW also wants to support initiatives that strengthen community and ties to the region.