CDU: program for the 2026 Baden-Württemberg state election

The CDU wants to set up a new fund that supports companies undergoing structural change with equity capital. It would also invest in especially innovative firms and support start-ups. In the CDU's view, viable companies should not fail for lack of capital.

The CDU wants to set up a new fund. A fund is a big pool of money. The money should help companies that must change a lot. Young companies with new ideas should get money too.

The CDU wants to help companies reach new foreign markets and merge existing export promotion efforts. "Baden-Württemberg Business Centers" are to be set up in key markets. The state premier is also to actively court investment.

Companies from Baden-Württemberg sell a lot abroad. The CDU wants to help them find new countries as customers. For this there should be special offices abroad. The state premier should promote the state.

The CDU wants to relieve small and mid-sized companies through less bureaucracy and faster permits. Deemed approvals are to be extended, and contacts with authorities pooled and digitized. An ombudsman's office is to help firms when procedures stall.

The CDU wants to make life easier for companies. Companies should have to write fewer reports. Offices should decide faster. If an office does not decide in time, the request counts as approved. Companies with problems can turn to a new office.

The CDU wants to make it possible to found a company digitally within 48 hours and to spare founders bureaucracy for a time. Foundation law is to be changed so that foundations can make long-term investments in entrepreneurial projects. According to the program, young companies in their growth phase need venture capital.

The CDU wants to make founding companies easier. People should be able to found a company online in 48 hours. New companies should have fewer rules to follow at first. Foundations should be allowed to put money into new companies.

The CDU wants its own high-tech agenda to promote key technologies and create regional high-tech clusters. In these, universities, research, start-ups, industry and mid-sized firms would work in networks. The aim is to turn knowledge into economic value faster.

The CDU wants to strongly support new technology in the state. This includes AI, robots and medical technology. In the regions, companies and universities should work closely together. This way ideas should become products faster.

The CDU wants to largely suspend state-level restrictions in at least ten real-world labs. New technologies are to be tested there under real conditions and reach the market faster. At the federal and EU level it wants to press for exemptions from rules in favor of innovation.

The CDU wants to create special test areas. They are called real-world labs. Far fewer state rules apply there. Companies can try out new technology there. There should be at least ten of them.

The CDU wants to work out a new tourism strategy with the industry and expand the tourism infrastructure program. The aim is to strengthen the state as a quality travel destination and secure jobs. Skilled workers for hospitality are also to be recruited.

Many people vacation in Baden-Württemberg. The CDU wants to make a new plan for tourism. Hotels and restaurants should have good conditions. There should be more skilled people for these jobs.

The CDU wants to write startup activity into law as a core task of universities on par with research and teaching. Startup centers with uniform early-stage funding are to support new companies up to market readiness, and the state higher education act is to make spin-offs easier.

The CDU wants more companies to start at universities. Starting companies should become a fixed task of universities. There should be startup centers with early money. Professors should be able to start companies more easily.

The CDU wants to let fully automated stores without staff open on Sundays. This is meant to improve local supply, especially in rural areas, without giving up Sunday protection as a whole.

Some stores run without any staff. The CDU wants these stores to open on Sundays too. This should help villages most. Sunday should otherwise stay protected. Sales staff do not have to work for this.

The CDU wants to push for maximum working hours to be set per week rather than per day. It justifies this with a changed world of work and the need to balance family and career. It is also open to more part-time models.

Today there is a limit on working hours per day. The CDU wants a limit per week instead. People could then plan their work more freely. This should help parents. The CDU also likes more part-time work.

The CDU wants to lower the real estate transfer tax in stages to 3.5 percent of the purchase price in order to reduce the extra costs of buying property. At the federal level it wants to secure further tax relief for home ownership.

People pay a tax when they buy a house or apartment. The CDU wants to lower this tax step by step. In the end it should be 3.5 percent of the price. This makes buying cheaper.

The CDU wants to stabilize municipal finances and secure room for local investment. It points to falling local business tax revenue alongside growing tasks. Planned are additional state funds, higher grants and a larger equalization fund.

Cities and towns should get more money from the state. They take in less tax and have more tasks. The state should pay more for daycare centers. A support fund for towns should grow to 350 million euros.

The CDU commits to the Schuldenbremse (debt brake) and wants to review all state spending to relieve the budget for the long term. The more than 300 grant programs are to be cut back substantially. The savings are to go to education, security and the economy.

The CDU wants to keep the debt brake. That is a rule against new debt. The state should check all its spending. There should be far fewer grant programs. The money saved should go to education, security and the economy.

The CDU wants to achieve at the federal level that municipalities get a larger share of value-added tax revenue. As an alternative, it is considering letting counties and municipalities set their own multiplier on income tax. It also calls for a reform of the fiscal equalization system among the states.

Towns should get more of the sales tax. The CDU wants to push for that at the federal level. Otherwise, towns could set part of the income tax themselves. Baden-Württemberg should have to give less money to other states.

The CDU wants to allow municipalities a separate multiplier with which they can ease the burden on owners of residential land. The reason, in its view, is excessive burdens from the property tax reform. Municipalities are also to be allowed to waive Grundsteuer A.

Towns should decide more on property tax themselves. They should be able to tax residential land at a lower rate. Then some owners pay less. Towns should also be allowed to drop the property tax on farmland and forest.

The CDU wants to support the purchase of a first owner-occupied home with a grant called "HeimVorteil BW." It would pay €10,000 per working person and €5,000 per child. Young families are the main intended beneficiaries.

The CDU wants to help people buy their first home. Each working person would get 10,000 euros. Each child adds 5,000 euros. This is meant to help young families most.

The CDU wants to make building new homes easier and cheaper, which it sees as the most effective route to affordable housing. It plans a new building category with lower standards, more land for construction, fewer requirements and faster permits.

The CDU wants more homes to be built. Building should become easier and cheaper. There would be a new type of building with less strict rules. Towns should release more land for building.

The CDU wants to raise the state's social housing subsidies substantially and in future match every federal euro with a state euro. It wants to stimulate the construction of rental housing through better tax depreciation rules.

The CDU wants to spend more money on low-cost homes. The state should pay as much as the federal government. People who build rental homes should get tax benefits. People without a home should get one quickly.

The CDU wants to change the rule that allows citizens' initiatives against the very first decision in a land-use planning process, arguing that this delays or halts projects. A new state development plan is to allow more space for housing and business.

Today, citizens can call a vote on their town's building plans early on. The CDU wants to change this rule. It says this delays many building projects. A new plan for the state should allow more land for homes and businesses.

The CDU wants a mandatory final year of daycare with special support for all children so they start elementary school with solid basics. That year is to be free of fees for parents; the party wants to work out funding with the federal government and municipalities.

All children should attend daycare in the last year before school. They get special support there. Parents should pay nothing for this year. The CDU also wants to recruit more skilled staff for daycare.

The CDU wants children to speak enough German before starting school and relies on binding support to get there. Early-detection health checkups are to become mandatory for all children, and state benefits are to depend on taking part.

Children should speak German well before first grade. Those who need help must accept it. All children must go to early health checkups. Otherwise families may get less money from the state.

The CDU wants to push for the child tax allowance to move step by step toward the parents' basic allowance. In this way, joint taxation for spouses would become a family-based splitting model. Families with three or more children are to receive targeted support.

Families should pay less tax. The tax allowance for children should go up. It should move closer to the allowance for parents. Families with many children should get special help.

The CDU wants to set up child-poverty prevention networks in every city and county by 2030. Families are to get local support centers that guide them to services, plus a digital portal for family benefits.

The CDU wants to protect children from poverty. By 2030 there should be help networks everywhere in the state. Families should find advice centers nearby. They should be able to apply for family benefits online easily.

The CDU wants to broaden the state's child protection master plan and create uniform statewide standards for child and youth welfare services. Where a child's welfare is at risk, the state should be able to step in firmly, and IP addresses are to be stored for a limited time to prosecute serious crimes.

The CDU wants to protect children better. Youth welfare services should follow the same rules everywhere in the state. The state should be able to step in when a child is in danger. Internet addresses should be stored for a while. This should help police find offenders.

The CDU wants to expand dual vocational training and promote it more strongly. Vocational schools are to become competence centers. The program sees well-trained skilled workers as the foundation of the economy.

In dual training, people learn at a company and at school. The CDU wants to strengthen this training. Schools should give better information about jobs. Vocational schools should get more tasks.

The CDU wants to abolish the fees for master craftsman training. Until then, the Meisterprämie (master craftsman bonus) is to be doubled to 3,000 euros. The reason given is that vocational and academic education are of equal value.

People who want to become master craftsmen pay fees today. The CDU wants to end these fees. Until then, there should be a bigger bonus. The bonus should be 3,000 euros.

The CDU wants to scrap all civil clauses, meaning universities' self-commitments to do research only for civilian purposes. It argues that academic freedom also applies to security and defense research. It rejects state interference and ideological requirements in research and teaching.

Some universities only do research for peaceful purposes. This rule is called a civil clause. The CDU wants to abolish it. Universities should also be allowed to do defense research. The state should not tell researchers what to do.

The CDU wants more staff at universities, easier top-level hiring and better conditions for students. University buildings are to be renovated and new ones built faster, along with more affordable dorm places. A "Stay in BW" program is meant to keep talent in the state.

The CDU wants to spend more money on universities. There should be more staff. Old buildings should be repaired. Students should get more low-cost dorm places. Talented people should stay in the state after their studies.

The CDU wants to concentrate and expand future technologies such as AI, quantum technology and life sciences at strong research sites. An innovation freedom act is meant to remove obstacles to top-level research. By 2036, the state is to be among the world's leading locations for cancer research.

The CDU wants to support research on new technologies more. These include artificial intelligence and medicine. A new law should remove obstacles for researchers. The state should be among the best in the world for cancer research.

The CDU proposes a new, tenth state university focused on artificial intelligence. The aim is to make Baden-Württemberg the leading AI location in Germany.

The CDU wants to found a new university in the state. It would focus on artificial intelligence, or AI. The state should lead Germany in AI. There should be more AI degree programs and professors.

The CDU wants a binding elementary school recommendation for all school types based on a "2 out of 3" model. The parents' wish, the teacher's recommendation and a test would then jointly decide which secondary school a child attends. This is meant to prevent children from being over- or under-challenged.

After elementary school, children move to another school. Three things should count: the parents' wish, the teacher's advice and a test. Two of them must agree. This should apply to all types of schools.

The CDU wants to keep school grades because, in its view, they provide clarity about performance. Knowledge and content are to get more weight in class again; the party counts values education and good manners as part of the school's mission.

The CDU wants to keep school grades. In its view, grades show clearly what a child can do. School should focus more on knowledge again. Children should also learn good manners and values there.

The CDU wants to keep and strengthen every type of secondary school, each with its own profile. Gymnasien (academic-track schools) should find it easier to keep offering the eight-year track alongside the new nine-year one, and new rules on minimum enrollment are meant to keep small local schools open.

The CDU wants to keep the different kinds of schools. Each kind should build on its strengths. Academic high schools may still offer the shorter eight-year path. Small schools close to home should stay open.

The CDU wants to keep the special-needs education and counseling centers (SBBZ) and secure more teaching there. It regards these centers, satellite classes and inclusive teaching at mainstream schools as equally valid paths, each within available resources.

There are separate schools for children with special needs. The CDU wants to keep these schools. Fewer lessons should be canceled there. Learning together at regular schools should also remain possible.

The CDU wants students of all ages to gain digital skills and every school to get a fiber-optic connection. Private smartphone use in class is to be prohibited under a single statewide rule.

All students should learn to handle digital media well. Every school should get very fast internet. Private phones should be banned in class. The rule should be the same across the state.

The CDU wants a statewide rule requiring schools to work with Bundeswehr youth officers as part of civic education. It argues that the armed forces are part of the state and defend a free society.

Youth officers are soldiers who explain security policy. The CDU wants them to come to schools. All schools in the state would have to work with them. This would be part of civic education.

The CDU wants to tackle the teacher shortage with better working conditions, faster hiring and fewer reporting duties. School principals are to get relief and, at the same time, tools to reward strong performance and respond to breaches of duty.

There are not enough teachers. The CDU wants to make the job better. Principals should get help with office work. Good work should be rewarded. Teachers who neglect their duties should face consequences.

The CDU wants to standardize and connect the technology of the state's dispatch centers under a new concept. The on-call medical service and the dispatch centers are to hand over cases to each other digitally so that patients are directed more effectively.

The CDU wants to modernize emergency medical services. Dispatch centers should use the same technology. A dispatch center takes emergency calls and sends help. The on-call doctor service should be able to send data straight to the dispatch centers.

The CDU wants to secure medical care close to home across the state. To that end, more university places in medicine, dentistry and pharmacy are to be created and the rural doctor quota raised.

The CDU wants doctors to be nearby everywhere in the state. There should be more university places for medicine. More places should go to future rural doctors. Local pharmacies should also be strengthened.

The CDU commits to the dual system of hospital financing and wants to expand the state's investment funding. This is meant to secure basic and standard care with emergency departments across the state.

The CDU wants to give more money to hospitals. The state pays for buildings and equipment. Health insurers pay for day-to-day operations. This should mean good hospitals everywhere in the state.

The CDU supports the federal plan for family doctors to guide patients through the health system. In emergency care, it relies on integrated emergency centers that are to be reachable within a 30-minute drive.

The CDU wants family doctors to guide patients through the health system. Digital services should help with appointments. There should be emergency centers for urgent cases. Everyone should reach such a center in 30 minutes by car.

The CDU wants to make health professions more attractive through better working conditions and to expand training. Qualifications of foreign professionals in medicine and nursing are to be recognized faster and digitally.

The CDU wants more skilled workers in health and care. The work should pay better and be easier to plan. Qualifications from abroad should be recognized faster. Training at schools for health professions should be free of tuition.

The CDU wants to strengthen medical research in the state, especially on cardiovascular disease and cancer. Health data should be easier to share and to use for research, and a statewide biobank is to be set up.

The CDU wants more health research. The focus is on heart disease and cancer. Doctors and hospitals should share data more easily. A biobank should collect samples for research.

The CDU wants to equip the public health service with modern technology, digital networks and qualified staff. At the same time, the health system is to be better prepared for pandemics, disasters and security threats.

The CDU wants better public health offices. They should get modern technology and good staff. Then they can act fast in a crisis. Hospitals and doctors should also be ready for crises.

The CDU wants to press at the federal level for Baden-Württemberg to stop being disadvantaged in the financial equalization among health insurers. According to the platform, the state loses nearly one billion euros a year because of the regional factor.

Health insurers share money among each other. The CDU says Baden-Württemberg gets too little. Almost one billion euros are missing each year. The CDU wants the federal government to change that.

The CDU wants good long-term care to remain available close to home and affordable. To that end it is considering having the state resume funding investments by nursing homes, and it wants to give more relief to relatives who provide care at home.

The CDU wants good care close to home. Care should stay affordable. The state may pay for nursing home buildings again. People who care for relatives at home should get more help.

The CDU wants to make nursing more attractive through fair pay, binding staffing ratios and predictable schedules. Foreign nursing qualifications are to be recognized faster so that skilled workers from abroad can start working quickly.

The CDU wants better jobs for nursing staff. They should get fair pay. Work schedules should be reliable. Nurses from other countries should be able to work here sooner.

The CDU wants to keep rising out-of-pocket costs from overwhelming people who need care and their families. At the federal level it is pushing for long-term care insurance that stays stable over time and combines personal responsibility with solidarity.

Care costs a lot of money. People pay part of it themselves. The CDU wants this part to stay manageable. Care insurance should stay stable for a long time.

The CDU wants to strengthen the state agency for skilled-worker immigration and pool responsibilities. Foreign qualifications are to be recognized faster where they are equivalent. According to the program, the economy benefits from skilled workers from around the world.

Companies need skilled people from other countries. The CDU wants these people to be able to come faster. Offices should check their qualifications faster. But the qualifications must be good enough.

The CDU wants to achieve integration mainly through German language skills and employment, and to shift language support into companies and clubs. According to the program, anyone who makes an effort and commits to the Leitkultur (guiding culture) should have every chance to advance.

The CDU wants immigrants to learn German and to work. Language courses should take place in companies and clubs. Immigrants should find it easier to start a business. They should accept the values and language of the country.

The CDU wants to regulate, manage and limit immigration together with the federal government. It backs turning people back at the borders and stronger checks against smugglers.

The CDU wants fewer people to enter the country without rules. It supports turning people back at the border. More checks should stop smugglers. Cross-border commuters should not suffer from this.

The CDU wants to assign asylum seekers without jobs to community service and pay benefits cashless through the Bezahlkarte (payment card). Organizations that help people get around the card could lose their tax-exempt nonprofit status.

The CDU wants asylum seekers without a job to do community work. They should get their money on a payment card, not in cash. Nobody should get around the card. Groups that help with that should lose tax advantages.

The CDU wants asylum procedures to be completed in the state's initial reception centers and only people with prospects of staying to be distributed to the counties. It rejects new state admission programs.

The CDU wants asylum cases to be finished in the state's first shelters. Only people who may stay should move on to the counties. The others should go straight back to their home country. The state should not start new admission programs.

The CDU wants to grant a Duldung (temporary suspension of deportation) only where the law strictly requires it, and to create more places in pre-deportation detention. The special unit "Gefährliche Ausländer" (dangerous foreigners) is to grow in staff and organization.

The CDU wants to deport more people who must leave. A Duldung should only be given when the law demands it. A Duldung means deportation is put on hold for now. There should be more places in deportation detention.

The CDU wants women to take part in the labor market more fully and on equal terms, especially in STEM jobs and leadership positions. This is meant to strengthen their financial independence and prevent poverty in old age. It wants to improve protection from violence through the Gewalthilfegesetz (violence assistance act).

Women and men should have the same chances. More women should work in technical jobs and as managers. Then they have their own money and are less often poor in old age. Women should be better protected from violence.

The CDU wants to overturn the EU-wide phase-out of new combustion engine vehicles and make CO₂ fleet limits more flexible. The market is to decide which drive technology prevails. Synthetic and biogenic fuels are to count toward the CO₂ balance.

From 2035, the EU plans to stop sales of new gasoline and diesel cars. The CDU wants to scrap this ban. The rules on CO₂ emissions should also become looser. The market should decide which cars win. The CDU wants to secure jobs in the car industry this way.

The CDU wants to push for competitive energy prices and rejects a split into electricity price zones that would disadvantage the state. Grids for electricity, gas, hydrogen and CO₂ are to be planned together. Large battery storage and new power plant capacity are also to be built.

The CDU wants electricity and energy to stay affordable. Electricity should not cost more in the south than in the north. Lines for electricity, gas and hydrogen should be planned together. There should be more big batteries and more power plants.

The CDU wants to use many kinds of renewable energy and continue expanding solar power. It rejects a special priority for wind power over other concerns. Municipalities are to share in the revenue of local wind turbines because, in the CDU's view, acceptance comes from participation.

The CDU wants to use many kinds of clean energy. These include sun, wind, water, biogas and geothermal heat. But wind turbines should not get special priority. Towns should get money from local wind turbines. Nobody should have to build a solar system that does not pay off.

The CDU wants to scrap the state's Erneuerbare-Wärme-Gesetz (Renewable Heat Act) and rely on freedom of choice in heating. The benchmark is to be the actual CO₂ savings, not a prescribed technology. Municipal heat planning is to be improved.

A state law requires using renewable energy for heating. The CDU wants to abolish this law. Everyone should choose how to heat. What should count is how much CO₂ is really saved. Heating should be affordable for all.

The CDU wants water law to give flood protection the status of an overriding public interest and to build protective structures faster. Cities are to be redesigned on the sponge city principle, and municipalities get more funding against damage from heavy rain.

The CDU wants to protect the state better from floods. Dams and retention basins should be built faster. Cities should get more green space and store rainwater. This is called a sponge city. Towns get more money for protection against heavy rain.

The CDU wants to implement federal and EU climate requirements in the state without adding stricter rules of its own, and to amend the state climate law accordingly. Measures are to be ranked by how much CO2 they save per euro spent.

The federal government and the EU make climate rules. The CDU wants to apply these rules exactly as they are. The state should not add stricter rules on top. The state climate law will be changed for this. Money should go where it saves the most CO2.

The CDU wants to permit processes that capture, store or reuse CO2. Building the necessary infrastructure is its top priority, including examining onshore storage sites in Baden-Württemberg.

CO2 can be captured and stored underground. It can also be used as a raw material. The CDU wants to allow this in the state. It wants to check where CO2 can be stored safely. A pipeline for CO2 will also be examined.

The CDU wants to introduce general insurance against natural hazard damage that works on the principle of "all for all." For agriculture, multi-peril insurance is to be expanded into comprehensive coverage.

Floods and storms can destroy houses. The CDU wants insurance for everyone against this. Everyone pays in, and everyone is protected. Farmers should also be able to insure better against weather damage.

In species protection, the CDU wants to focus on preserving the species as a whole rather than the individual animal. Populations of certain species that have grown strongly may be regulated, including by killing, and invasive species are to be fought early.

The CDU wants to protect animal species as a whole. Some animals are now very numerous. These include cormorants, beavers and rooks. It should be allowed to kill some of them. The CDU wants to fight foreign species like raccoons early.

The CDU wants to cut raw material use, avoid waste and keep materials in circulation. It relies on incentives and new technologies rather than additional rules and wants to secure waste disposal in the state for the long term.

The CDU wants to use fewer raw materials. Things should be reused more often. There should be incentives for this, not new strict rules. Waste that cannot be recycled should produce power and heat. Dug-up soil from building sites should be easier to reuse.

The CDU calls for a statewide strategy for drinking and service water supply, with municipalities remaining in charge. Public water supply is to get priority in water law, and water shortages are to be prevented through forward-looking management.

The CDU wants a water plan for the whole state. Cities and towns should stay in charge of drinking water. Every town should have a second water source for emergencies. Public water supply should get priority in the law. The state should act early against water shortages.

The CDU wants to amend state law to keep farmland available for food production. Anyone taking over a farm is to receive a flat-rate bonus, and agricultural investment is to get more support.

Fields and meadows should stay in use for growing food. Young people should get money when they take over a farm. The state should give farmers more money for investments. Modern technology should help in the fields.

The CDU wants to link nature conservation and farming more closely while easing restrictions, for example by reforming the ban on plowing up grassland. Instead of new rigid protected zones, it relies on regional solutions, subsidies and cooperation.

The CDU wants nature protection and farming to work together. Farmers should decide more for themselves. The ban on turning meadows into fields should change. The CDU does not want new strict protected zones. It prefers to pay farmers for protecting nature.

The CDU backs regional food production, whether organic or conventional. The state's food security is to be written into the state constitution as a state objective, and livestock farming in the state is to be supported.

The CDU wants more food from the region. That goes for organic food and other food. Cafeterias and schools should use more of it. Food security should be written into the state constitution. Farmers should have less paperwork.

The CDU wants to turn the entire state into a testing area for autonomous driving. Pilot corridors in urban and rural areas and a dedicated legal framework are to be created for this. Baden-Württemberg is meant to take an international lead.

Autonomous cars drive without a driver. The CDU wants them to be tested across the whole state. There should be special test routes for this. New rules should allow the tests and make them safe.

The CDU wants a "planning offensive" to modernize transport routes faster and to swiftly carry out all planned autobahn projects in the state. Funding for bridge maintenance is to double by 2030. It wants to drop the climate check in funding for municipal transport projects.

The CDU wants to build and repair roads, rail and bridges faster. Bridges should get twice as much money by 2030. All planned autobahns should be built. A climate check for transport projects should be dropped.

The CDU rejects a truck toll on state and municipal roads so as not to add burdens on commercial traffic. Terminals for combined transport are to be expanded and digitized. The "Güterverkehr 2036" (Freight Transport 2036) initiative plans more truck parking, charging points and delivery zones.

Trucks should not pay a toll on state and local roads. A toll is a fee for using roads. The CDU wants more parking and charging stations for trucks. Goods should switch more easily between rail and truck.

The CDU wants to support electric mobility, hydrogen and synthetic fuels on an equal footing. Charging and fueling stations are to be built quickly through faster permits, and synthetic fuels are to get a reliable legal framework.

The CDU wants to support different ways to power cars. These include electricity, hydrogen and man-made fuels. More charging and fueling stations should be built faster. Companies should be able to rely on stable rules.

The CDU wants smoother traffic through smart traffic lights, real-time data and AI-supported guidance systems. It rejects a city toll or similar fixed access restrictions.

The CDU wants fewer traffic jams through modern technology. Traffic lights and parking guidance should work smarter. The CDU does not want a fee for driving into city centers. Nobody should die in traffic.

The CDU wants to expand public transit with more frequent service, new routes and modern vehicles. The service is meant to win over passengers, since in the party's view switching cannot be imposed. Modes of transport are to work together better through unified ticketing and digital platforms.

The CDU wants more buses and trains. They should run more often and be on time. Rural areas should also get good service, such as on-call buses. Tickets and timetables should become simpler. Drivers should not be put at a disadvantage.

The CDU wants to make regional rail more reliable, including through incentives and penalties for rail companies when trains are late or canceled. More security staff and video surveillance are also meant to make passengers feel safer.

Trains in the state should be more on time. Rail companies should face penalties when trains are late or canceled. More security staff should ride along in the evening and at night. There should be cameras everywhere in trains, buses and stations.

The CDU wants to finish the Stuttgart 21 rail project together with the Stuttgart digital rail hub to secure capacity, punctuality and connections. The Gäubahn line is to be linked directly to Stuttgart and the airport through the Pfaffensteig tunnel.

The CDU wants to finish building the new Stuttgart 21 station. Trains there should run on time and connect well. The Gäubahn line should get a new tunnel. Until then, it should still run well to Stuttgart.

The CDU wants to make cycling and walking safer and more practical for everyday use, with continuous bike networks, safe intersections and accessible sidewalks. Bike paths are to be built where they are actually used, not everywhere across the board.

The CDU wants better paths for bikes and people on foot. Intersections and routes to school should become safer. New bike paths should go where many people ride. People should be able to park bikes safely at train stations.

The CDU demands that EU laws rely on technology neutrality instead of bans such as the phase-out of combustion engines. The EU should support the shift to climate-friendly drive systems and autonomous driving through incentives, innovation funding and infrastructure.

The EU wants to ban new cars with combustion engines. The CDU is against such bans. It wants all technologies to stay allowed. The EU should promote clean engines with incentives. It should also build things like charging stations.

The CDU wants to make data easier for businesses to use, putting data security ahead of what it sees as excessive data protection. A uniform state data cloud and central hubs are planned. In addition, mobile dead zones are to disappear and 5G is to be widely available.

The CDU wants companies to be able to use data better. Data should be secure. But the CDU thinks very strict data protection is wrong. The state should get one shared data storage. There should be good cell phone reception everywhere.

The CDU wants to redesign all administrative procedures as digital and automated, with analog options only where needed. Dealings with authorities are to be possible online in one place, and people should have to give the state their data only once. For software, the state is to rely primarily on German and European products.

The CDU wants a digital administration. All dealings with public offices should be possible online in one place. People should have to give their data only once. The fax machine should disappear. The state should mainly use software from Germany and Europe.

The CDU aims for a fiber-optic network across the whole state and gap-free mobile coverage at the 5G standard. Where the rollout does not pay off for private providers, the state is to step in with funding. The platform sees digital infrastructure as a precondition for participation and equal living conditions.

The CDU wants fast fiber internet across the whole state. The cell phone network should work everywhere too. Where companies do not build, the state should pay. In poorly covered areas, providers should share their networks.

The CDU wants to hire more police officers and relieve them of administrative work with 1,000 additional civilian employees. The requirement for officers to wear identification is to be abolished, and the police are to be equipped with Tasers.

The CDU wants to hire more police officers. 1,000 new employees should take over office work from the police. Officers should no longer have to wear an ID marking. The police get Tasers. These are devices that briefly stun a person with electricity.

The CDU wants more police presence, more checks and more effective orders to leave in city centers and crime hot spots. More and higher fines are to be imposed for littering and disturbances in public spaces.

The CDU wants more police in city centers. There should be more checks. Police should find it easier to send people away from a place. People who do not leave can more easily be taken into custody. People who leave trash should pay higher fines.

The CDU wants to give the police additional powers by law. These include much stricter preventive custody, identity checks in a border strip and DNA analyses that determine the outward traits of unknown persons.

The CDU wants to make the police law stricter. Police should find it easier to hold dangerous people as a precaution. Near the border they should be allowed to check IDs. They should be allowed to work out a person's looks from DNA traces.

The CDU wants to expand video surveillance of public places significantly and make AI-supported analysis the standard across the state. The software is meant to detect conspicuous behavior automatically and help with manhunts.

The CDU wants more cameras in public places. Police and towns should get more options for this. A computer program will analyze the images. It spots unusual behavior by itself. This should make people feel safer.

The CDU wants to take on organized crime and clan structures, among other things with covert online searches and a reversed burden of proof for asset confiscation. The responsible agencies are to be pooled on the model of the state security center.

The CDU wants to fight criminal gangs and clans harder. Investigators should be allowed to search computers and phones secretly. Suspects should have to prove their money is legal. Otherwise the state can take it. The agencies should work together more closely.

The CDU wants to strengthen the state's Verfassungsschutz (domestic intelligence agency) and is examining an expansion of its powers. As an example, it cites covert access to computers and other IT systems in order to act against extremism of every kind.

The domestic intelligence agency watches enemies of democracy. The CDU wants to make it stronger. It is checking whether the agency may do more. For example, it should be allowed to access computers secretly. This is aimed at extremists of every kind.

The CDU wants to renew disaster response vehicles and expand warning infrastructure, including a siren network covering the whole state. Volunteer helpers from the various organizations are to be put on an equal footing.

The CDU wants better protection in disasters. Helpers get newer vehicles. There should be sirens everywhere in the state. Volunteer helpers should have equal rights. There should be regular drills.

The CDU wants to keep supporting municipalities with investments in fire trucks and fire stations and to keep the fire protection tax earmarked for that purpose. Volunteer responders are to be relieved through less red tape.

The CDU wants to keep supporting fire departments. Towns should get money for vehicles and buildings. Volunteers should have less paperwork. Applications should become simpler and digital.

The CDU wants to prepare the state better for war and disasters. It plans a new concept for shelters, stockpiles of emergency goods and a new funding priority for civil defense in cities and towns.

The CDU wants to prepare the state better for disasters and war. There should be a new plan for shelters. Each administrative district should have a store of emergency supplies. Students should learn first aid and disaster protection.

The CDU wants to give victims of violence, abuse and other crimes more legal, psychological and social support. Offenders are to bear more responsibility for the consequences of their acts.

The CDU wants to help crime victims more. They should get advice and protection. Offenders should have to make up for the harm. The state should stand on the side of victims.

The CDU wants to give prisons more staff, modern equipment and digital assistance systems. Rehabilitation is to begin during custody, while the party also holds that prison must punish and deter.

The CDU wants more staff for prisons. The technology should be more modern. Prisoners should learn to live without crime later. But prison should also deter people.

The CDU supports a compulsory year of service for all young people, which it calls the Deutschlandjahr. In its view, this would foster community spirit, responsibility and solidarity.

All young people should serve the community for one year. The CDU calls this the Germany Year. The service would be required. Until then, the CDU wants more places in voluntary services.

The CDU wants to shorten court proceedings through specialization and fast-track procedures. The justice system is to work digitally and use artificial intelligence as a tool, while decisions stay with humans.

The CDU wants courts to decide faster. There should be more specialized courts. The justice system should work digitally. Artificial intelligence should help, but people still decide.

The CDU wants to put one member of the state government in charge of coordinating support for volunteering and to relieve clubs of bureaucracy. The volunteer card is to be improved and funding for youth volunteer services increased.

Many people volunteer in clubs. The CDU wants to support them better. One member of the government should take care of this. Clubs should have less paperwork.

The CDU wants to give public agencies more discretion so they can decide faster and more practically. At the same time, all state tasks are to be reviewed so that government limits itself to its essential functions.

The CDU wants public offices to decide more freely. Decisions should be faster. There should be less bureaucracy. The state should only do what is really needed.

The CDU wants a leaner state and aims to cut staff in the core administration by ten percent within five years. Responsibilities are to be clearly assigned and duplicate structures removed. The party cites demographic change and digitalization as reasons.

The CDU wants a smaller administration. In five years, it should have ten percent fewer staff. Nobody should be fired. Jobs go away when people retire. Agencies should not do the same work twice.

The CDU wants to review all state regulations for necessity and generally give laws an expiration date. For every new rule, two old ones are to be dropped, and state law should not go beyond federal and EU requirements. The party wants to abolish the state Freedom of Information Act.

The CDU wants fewer rules in the state. Laws should apply only for a set time. After that they end on their own unless someone extends them. For every new rule, two old ones should go. The law on information from public offices should go too.

The CDU rejects the right of associations to bring lawsuits and wants to push for its removal at all levels. Only those directly affected should be able to sue. In addition, the administrative objection procedure is to be dropped in as many areas as possible to speed things up.

Today, associations can sue against some projects. The CDU wants to end that. Only people who are affected themselves should be able to sue. The formal objection to official decisions should often go away too. This should make procedures faster.

The CDU wants every constituency to keep its directly elected representative, unlike under federal election law. To shrink the state parliament, it is open to strengthening the element of voting for individual candidates. Proven forms of dialogue-based citizen participation are to be kept.

Every district should keep its directly elected member of parliament. The state parliament should get smaller. For that, voting for individual people can become more important. Citizens should still have a say. Public offices and schools should write by the official spelling rules.

The CDU promises public-sector employees good working conditions and appropriate pay and commits to career civil servants for sovereign tasks. Fixed-term contracts without objective grounds are to be reduced further. To attract young talent, the lowest pay grades are to be phased out.

The CDU wants good work and fair pay in the public service. There should be fewer fixed-term contracts without a reason. The lowest pay grades should go away. People who want to should be able to work longer. Civil servants should get medical costs paid back faster.

The CDU wants to give municipalities more responsibility of their own and limit statewide standards to the essentials. Approval procedures are to be replaced by trust-based rules and self-monitoring. At the same time, municipalities are to be relieved of tasks and cooperate more.

Towns should decide more on their own. The state should set fewer detailed rules. Instead of long approvals, there should be more trust. Towns should do office work together. They should get money as an incentive for that.

The CDU wants to use the d’Hondt counting method again in local elections. It aims to counter what it sees as the fragmentation of municipal and county councils. The goal is to keep local government able to function.

In local elections, votes are turned into seats. The CDU wants to use an earlier method for this again. It is called d’Hondt. The CDU thinks there are too many small groups in the councils. That should change.

The CDU wants state grants to civil society organizations to be geared more toward the general public interest. In its view, citizens' engagement rather than state involvement should be at the center. Private donations are to become easier and get better tax treatment.

Clubs and initiatives get money from the state. The CDU wants to hand out this money differently. It should serve the good of everyone more. In return, private donations should become easier. Donors should be able to save more on taxes.

The CDU wants to use Baden-Württemberg's weight so that the EU focuses more on competitiveness. This includes new trade agreements, less EU bureaucracy and a deeper single market. EU research funding should also be well resourced.

The EU should do more for a strong economy. The CDU wants more trade deals with other countries. There should be less red tape from Brussels. The shared market in Europe should grow. The EU should fund research and young companies well.

The CDU wants to deepen cross-border cooperation on the Upper Rhine, the High Rhine and Lake Constance and focus it more on everyday problems of people there. With Switzerland, the “Bilaterals III” treaty package is to be ratified quickly. Partnerships with European regions are to grow as well.

Baden-Württemberg should work more with its neighbors. That means France and Switzerland. People at the border should have fewer everyday problems. The EU and Switzerland should approve their new treaties quickly. The state also wants to work more closely with other regions in Europe.

The CDU wants to strengthen and promote Baden-Württemberg as a location for the security and defense industry. The separation between civilian and military research is to be lifted. The program sees this as a contribution to defense and industrial sovereignty.

The state has many defense companies. The CDU wants to support these companies. Research for military and civilian use should no longer be kept apart. This should also secure jobs.

The CDU wants to introduce a "Bundeswehrgesetz Baden-Württemberg" (state law on the armed forces) that exempts projects of the Bundeswehr and civil defense from certain rules. This is meant to speed up measures that strengthen defense capability.

The CDU wants a state law for the Bundeswehr, the German armed forces. Bundeswehr projects should then move faster. Some rules should not apply to them. The state should also celebrate Bundeswehr Day.

The CDU wants to secure local newspapers, private broadcasters and movie theaters through reliable conditions, including a subsidy for newspaper delivery in rural areas. The film and games industries and training for media professions are also to be strengthened.

The CDU wants to keep local newspapers and private broadcasters. The state should help deliver newspapers in rural areas. The CDU also wants to support films and video games from the state. Young people in media jobs should get help starting out.

The CDU is committed to public broadcasting but wants it to focus more on its core mission. The broadcasting fee is to stay stable, and salaries in leadership positions are to be aligned with the public sector.

The CDU wants to keep public TV and radio. The broadcasters should stick to their main job. They should report more from the region. The broadcasting fee should not go up.

The CDU supports a levy on the online advertising of large platforms, designed to comply with EU law. The revenue is to go exclusively to media infrastructure, diversity and quality journalism.

Big internet companies earn a lot from ads. The CDU wants them to pay a levy on that. The money should go to media and good journalism. This should make competition fairer.

The CDU wants to draw up a statewide cultural strategy that secures arts and culture and provides long-term planning for preserving and building cultural venues. Every child should have the chance to sing in a choir or learn an instrument.

The CDU wants a plan for culture in the state. Theaters, museums and other cultural buildings should be kept. Every child should be able to learn an instrument or sing in a choir. Artists should have less paperwork when they apply for funding.

The CDU wants to set up an office for the concerns of expellees and ethnic German resettlers. In addition, a research and cultural center focusing on "Germans from Russia" is to be established.

Many people came to the state as expellees or ethnic German resettlers. The CDU wants to appoint a commissioner for them. That is a person who looks after their concerns. Germans from Russia should get a cultural center.

The CDU wants to extend the state's funding agreement with organized sports before 2031, securing money for clubs, associations and facilities. Schools are to include a daily exercise or sports session, and the Bundesjugendspiele (national school sports games) are to focus more on competition again.

The state gives money to sports clubs. The CDU wants to keep doing that after 2031. Children should exercise at school every day. School sports games should be more about competing again.

The CDU wants to retain the existing relationship between state and religion, which combines freedom of belief with cooperation with the churches. Protection of Sundays and public holidays is to stay, and other faith communities should also be able to develop freely.

The state works together with the churches. The CDU wants to keep it that way. Sundays and holidays should stay protected. All religions should be able to live freely.