CDU/CSU on families

The CDU and the CSU want to keep parental leave and Elterngeld (parental allowance) and improve the allowance. In addition, childcare is to be expanded, counseling and early support strengthened, and all family benefits made accessible through one digital portal.

The CDU and the CSU want to make the parental allowance better. There should be more and better childcare. Families should get more advice and help. One website should show all benefits for families.

The partnership bonus for parents who both work substantial part-time hours is to be developed further. For childcare, the program names more places, higher quality and daycare centers as places of education. The Early Support Fund (Fonds Frühe Hilfen) is to be strengthened so families can more easily find family midwives or volunteer mentors. For the portal, authorities should be able to share data more easily. Child and youth services and psychosocial support are to be expanded, and proven integration programs for immigrant families will continue.

The CDU and the CSU want to ease the financial burden on families: the tax allowance for children should move toward the basic allowance for adults, and Kindergeld (child benefit) should rise accordingly. Ehegattensplitting (joint tax filing for married couples) is to stay because, in the parties' view, couples with unequal incomes would otherwise be disadvantaged.

The CDU and the CSU want families to keep more money. Parents should pay less tax for their children. The child benefit should go up. It should come automatically after a birth. The tax advantage for married couples should stay.

In the future, child benefit is to be paid after birth without an application. For children living in other EU countries, it should be possible to adjust it to local living costs. Children are to count more in spousal splitting. Childcare costs are to become more deductible. The tax relief amount for single parents is to rise because, according to the program, they are at particular risk of poverty.

The CDU and the CSU do not want to change the existing rules on abortion. They regard them as a societal compromise between a woman's self-determination and the protection of unborn life.

The CDU and the CSU do not want to change the abortion rules. Section 218 of the criminal code should stay. The parties call the rules a compromise. It should protect women and unborn children.

Section 218 of the German Criminal Code governs abortion. The program wants to keep it in its current form. The parties justify this by saying the rule was hard-won and takes both concerns into account.

The CDU and the CSU want to deny custody and contact rights to parents who are violent toward their partner. Acknowledging paternity only for show in order to obtain a residence right is to become a criminal offense.

The CDU and the CSU want to protect children better. A parent who is violent toward a partner should lose custody. Some men claim to be a father only for show. This gives someone a right to stay. That should become a crime.

The program names the child's well-being as the top priority. The rights of biological fathers should not be circumvented through agreements between the mother and other people. The parties call sham paternities a fraud against the community and the child.