CDU/CSU on public safety

The CDU and the CSU want more video surveillance in dangerous public places and automated facial recognition at train stations, airports, and crime hot spots. The aim is to identify serious offenders. The parties say this will make everyday life safer.

The CDU and the CSU want more cameras in dangerous places. At train stations and airports, computers should recognize faces. This should help police find serious criminals. The parties say everyone should be able to move around without fear.

Camera surveillance would be expanded in public places considered dangerous. Automated facial recognition systems at train stations, airports, and other crime hot spots would identify serious offenders. Security agencies would get broad authority to use electronic facial recognition. The parties also want to counter the neglect of public spaces, which they see as a frequent starting point for crime.

The CDU and the CSU want tougher penalties for stalking, assault, especially with knives, and gang rape. Victims of domestic violence would get more protection, including wider use of electronic ankle monitors for offenders. Attacks on emergency responders would also be punished more severely.

The CDU and the CSU want tougher penalties for violence. This covers knife attacks and stalking, for example. Stalking means someone follows and harasses a person again and again. Women and children should get better protection from violence at home.

The maximum penalty for stalking would rise; assaults, particularly with knives, and gang rapes would be punished much more severely. For victims of domestic violence, the parties plan a safety strategy and stronger women's shelters, and violent offenders would more often have to wear an electronic ankle monitor. A parent who is violent toward their child would be excluded from caring for the child under visitation law, and childcare facilities would need binding protection plans. Attacks on emergency responders and on health care workers would be punished more harshly. For protecting people in prostitution, the platform cites the "three-pillar model" as a guide.

The CDU and the CSU want to undo the legalization of cannabis. In the platform's view, the cannabis law has neither limited consumption nor pushed back the black market.

Since 2024, cannabis has been partly legal for adults. The CDU and the CSU want to ban it again. They say the law has not helped. There is still a black market and violence between gangs.

The platform calls the cannabis law passed by the previous "traffic light" coalition a failure. According to the parties, it does not reduce consumption and illegal trade continues. Instead, they say, there are violent conflicts between gangs. For that reason, legalization would be repealed.

The CDU and the CSU want adult criminal law to apply to everyone aged 18 to 21. In addition, a scientific study would examine whether criminal responsibility starting at age 14 is still appropriate.

Today, many people aged 18 to 21 get milder sentences under juvenile law. The CDU and the CSU want to change that. Adult criminal law should apply to them. The parties also want to check whether children under 14 can be punished.

According to the platform, juvenile law was meant to be the exception for young adults but has become the rule in practice. In the future, general criminal law would apply to this age group without exception. The age limit of 14 for criminal responsibility would be reviewed scientifically and possibly changed. Regardless of that, offenses by children would be dealt with in proceedings before prosecutors and juvenile courts, with the children and their parents present. The platform justifies this with respect for the victims.

The CDU and the CSU want to require internet providers to store IP addresses and port numbers for a minimum period. Federal security agencies would get further digital powers, such as remote searches of devices and AI-based data analysis. According to the platform, protecting the public should take priority over individual data privacy.

Every computer on the internet has a number, the IP address. Internet companies should store these numbers for a while. This should help police solve serious crimes. Police and other agencies should also be allowed to secretly search computers. The parties say safety matters more than data privacy.

The storage requirement is meant to help prosecute serious crimes such as sexual violence against children and to prevent terrorist attacks. All federal security agencies would be allowed to use source telecommunications surveillance, remote searches of devices, and automated AI data analysis, as well as software for analyzing large data sets, police databases, and social networks. Wiretapping and cell tower data analysis would be allowed more often, especially for home burglary and the "grandparent scam." The intelligence services would get the powers the parties consider necessary. A new "Pact for the Rule of Law" would give courts more staff, better pay, digitalization, and faster proceedings.

The CDU and the CSU want to equip police everywhere with tasers and allow body cameras inside homes as well. They want to abolish the Federal Police Commissioner and reject ID badges and stop receipts for federal police. Accusations against security agencies would be handled by prosecutors and courts.

Police officers should get tasers and body cameras. They should be allowed to use the cameras inside homes too. The CDU and the CSU want to abolish the Federal Police Commissioner. Federal police officers should not have to wear an ID number. The parties say police should have less paperwork.

Tasers would become standard equipment nationwide, and body cameras would also be used during operations inside homes. The Federal Police Commissioner created by the previous "traffic light" coalition would be eliminated. Federal police officers would neither have to wear identification nor issue a receipt after a stop. Enemies of the constitutional order would be removed from public service more quickly; however, the parties reject dismissing civil servants or soldiers by administrative order without a court ruling.

The CDU and the CSU want to conclude a "Pact for Civil Protection" with the states and launch a special program for civil defense. This is meant to prepare Germany better for extreme weather, pandemics, terrorism, and hybrid warfare.

Germany should be better prepared for crises. Crises are things like floods, power outages, or attacks. The CDU and the CSU want to spend more on disaster protection. There should be more warning systems. People themselves should also prepare.

The pact would bring lasting investment in equipment for civil protection and disaster response, especially for shelter, vehicles, and IT. Warning systems would be expanded until no gaps remain. Also planned are a concept for a "civilian reserve" and closer involvement of spontaneous volunteers. The public would learn more about how to act in crises and would be expected to prepare. A national strategy with emergency plans would protect cultural assets.

The CDU and the CSU want to quickly present a law to combat extremism. Promoting terrorist organizations would become a crime. Anyone who publicly calls for abolishing the democratic constitutional order or is convicted of an antisemitic offense would face expulsion and, as a dual national, lose German citizenship.

The CDU and the CSU want a new law against extremism. Promoting terror groups should be a crime. Some offenders should have to leave Germany. People with two passports could lose the German one.

The law is to provide for mandatory expulsion as a rule, refusal of a residence permit and, for dual nationals, withdrawal of German citizenship. These consequences would apply when someone publicly demands the end of the free democratic order, for example by calling for an Islamist theocracy. They would also apply after a conviction for an antisemitic crime. The parties want to confront every form of extremism, on the street and online.

The CDU and the CSU want to act equally against Islamism, right-wing extremism and left-wing extremism. Mosques where hatred is preached are to be closed, and associations monitored by the domestic intelligence service are to receive no public money. Extremists are to be disarmed without burdening legal gun owners.

The CDU and the CSU want to act against all extremism. Mosques with hate preaching should close. Monitored groups should get no state money. Extremists should not have weapons. Hunters and sport shooters should face no disadvantages.

The program calls Islamist terrorism and political Islam underestimated dangers; research on them is to grow and the expert panel on "Political Islam" is to resume work. Anyone seeking public money would have to commit to the democratic constitutional order and declare opposition to antisemitism. The program "Demokratie leben" (Live Democracy) is to move to the Interior Ministry. The parties want to act against right-wing extremists and Reichsbürger on the basis of the 2020 package of measures. Calls for violence against the state and attacks on critical infrastructure are to be pursued as firmly as anti-constitutional symbols and statements.

The CDU and the CSU want to make denying Israel's right to exist a crime and classify antisemitic incitement as an especially serious case. Antisemitic offenses are to lead to loss of protection status and deportation. Funded organizations are to declare their opposition to antisemitism.

The CDU and the CSU want tougher penalties for hatred of Jews. Denying Israel's right to exist should be a crime. Refugees who commit such crimes should lose their protection. People who want to become German must accept Israel's existence.

Organizations receiving federal money would have to commit to the democratic constitutional order, to Israel's right to exist and against antisemitism as defined by the IHRA. Residence and asylum law is to be changed so that an antisemitic offense ends humanitarian protection. Recognizing Israel's right to exist is to become a condition for naturalization. All school students are to visit memorial sites, and the German-Israeli Youth Office is to be set up quickly. The parties expect political parties, academia, media and culture to clearly reject antisemitic views.

The CDU and the CSU want to create a customs police force that pools investigations into financial crime. For assets of unclear origin, the owner would in future have to prove they were obtained legally. Europol and the federal-state initiative against clan crime are also to be strengthened.

The CDU and the CSU want a new customs police against money laundering. Money laundering means criminals hide where money comes from. People with suspicious assets should have to prove the origin. Police in Europe should work together more closely.

The parties want to hit criminal gangs and clans with heavy checks and prosecution pressure, focusing above all on their money. The full reversal of the burden of proof in asset confiscation is to be regulated in line with the constitution. Europol is to become a central office with a shared data base for national authorities. This is meant to help against drug and smuggling crime, cybercrime and terrorism.

The CDU and the CSU want to prevent foreign governments from influencing Muslims in Germany through mosque associations and Islamic federations. A duty to disclose funding and donors is to be introduced. At the same time, they want a foundation to support mosque communities loyal to the constitution.

The CDU and the CSU do not want foreign governments to influence mosques. Mosque associations should show where their money comes from. Groups with money from foreign governments get no German state money. Imams should be trained in Germany and in German.

Associations and federations that receive funds from foreign governments or organizations tied to them would generally be barred from German public money and from cooperation with state bodies. The parties state that they tolerate no denigration of Muslims. Their goal is a diverse Muslim community life that feels part of Germany and respects the free democratic order. A foundation is to support such communities and the training of imams in Germany in the German language, which the platform says eases integration.