BSW on equality and diversity

The BSW wants a state law requiring that, with equal qualifications, at least half of newly filled public-sector jobs go to East German applicants. The rule should be temporary and also cover research and culture. The party cites the underrepresentation of East Germans in leading positions.

The BSW wants more East Germans in important jobs. At least every second new public job should go to East Germans. This applies if applicants are equally qualified. The rule should only last for a limited time.

The 50 percent floor should apply especially in municipal and state administration, ministries, and job postings in research and culture, ideally in step with other eastern states. The program notes that wages in the East are 21 percent below those in the West. It says East Germans are not represented in Thuringia's politics, administration, courts, universities and media in line with their population share. Young East Germans, it says, have only about half the chance of an academic career at local universities.

The BSW wants better protection for women and children against violence. Women's shelters should be available everywhere with more state support, and an action plan is to implement the Istanbul Convention.

Women and children should be better protected from violence. There should be women's shelters everywhere. Women find safety there. The state should give more money for them.

The program aims to strengthen violence prevention and better fund support services for victims. Municipalities should ensure that help and shelter for domestic violence are available close to home. An implementation plan is to be drawn up for the Istanbul Convention, an international treaty against gender-based violence. The relevant units in the police and justice system are to be strengthened and reformed.

The BSW wants to create new tools that help people with disabilities enter vocational training or regular employment. Public offices, cultural venues and public transit should also become barrier-free, and the Bundesteilhabegesetz (Federal Participation Act) should be implemented, with the federal government covering the extra costs.

People with disabilities should find work more easily. The BSW wants new kinds of help for this. Offices, buses and museums should have no barriers. Support money for blind and deaf people should rise with prices. Offices should offer more texts in plain language.

In the program's view, the existing tools "Budget für Ausbildung" and "Budget für Arbeit" have not worked well enough. Implementing the Federal Participation Act should advance a person-centered benefits system; the federal government should cover the added costs to relieve municipalities. Recruiting skilled workers for disability integration services should be stepped up as in nursing care, and new assistance professions developed. Barrier-free conversion of administrative offices, subsidized cultural venues and public transit should be funded, with compromises on historic preservation if needed. Benefits for blind and deaf people should be regularly adjusted for inflation, and public administration should offer more documents in plain language.