BSW on the economy

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.

According to the platform, privatization and outsourcing often serve to get around collective wage agreements. Municipal and nonprofit providers are therefore to receive support. The platform says an attractive place to live needs enough shops and restaurants even in small communities, because otherwise the town dies out. To that end, the party wants to promote alternative operating models such as cooperatives.

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 program names well-paid, secure jobs, a fair tax system and innovative companies as goals. A future fund should support innovative domestic firms and start-ups. In foreign trade, the BSW favors stable trade relations with as many partners as possible instead of bloc-building and sanctions. This is meant to secure raw materials and affordable energy. Saxon companies should get support for activities abroad.

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.

Saxony's Normenkontrollrat (regulatory review council) should get more powers to keep bureaucracy down while laws are being drafted. Founders should be temporarily exempt from regulations and connected with investors and research institutions. Major industries such as car and chip makers should get fast, reliable decisions. The BSW wants to merge funding pots as far as the state can and set up a funding scout that gives all firms an overview. The Sächsische Aufbaubank (state development bank) and the state's business development agency would be reviewed for effectiveness, and regional economic cycles expanded.

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 program points to 7.9 million overnight guests and 8.1 billion euros in revenue in 2023. The locations where training takes place are to be reviewed. In the party's view, the state government's existing "Masterplan Tourismus" lacks a coherent concept for balancing tourism and residents.