CDU: program for the 2024 Brandenburg state election

The CDU wants Brandenburg to remain an industrial state and to strengthen its industrial core through competitive conditions and fast permitting. Key sites such as the PCK Schwedt refinery, battery production in Schwarzheide and the Eisenhüttenstadt steelworks should be secured and expanded.

Brandenburg should stay a state with lots of industry. Permits for factories should come quickly. Important plants should stay open. These include the refinery in Schwedt and the steel mill in Eisenhüttenstadt. Schwarzheide should build and recycle more batteries.

The CDU wants to reduce reporting and statistics obligations for businesses and introduce deemed approvals wherever possible. Starting a business and handing one over to a successor should become faster and easier.

Companies should fill out fewer forms and reports. If an agency does not answer in time, a request counts as approved. New companies should be easy to start quickly. Older businesses should find successors more easily.

The CDU wants to plan, permit and set aside suitable industrial and commercial land in advance to speed up new investments. In the program's view, the Tesla factory is a model for this approach.

The state should plan land for factories ahead of time. Then companies can build faster. Poor towns should get state money for this. The CDU names Tesla as a good example.

The CDU wants to simplify funding programs and public procurement law. It considers the procurement minimum wage unnecessary since the general minimum wage was introduced, and it rejects non-procurement criteria such as gender-equality rules because, in its view, they disadvantage small firms.

Brandenburg has a special minimum wage for public contracts. The CDU wants to end it. There is already a minimum wage for everyone. Other rules, like on gender equality, should not count for contracts anymore. Funding applications should be digital and simple.

The CDU wants to create a "Brandenburg Economic Council" as an advisory body to the state government. It would pool expertise from business, unions and academia.

The state government should get an economic council. It includes people from companies, unions and universities. The council should advise the government. It may also make proposals.

The CDU wants tourism development to be more closely tailored to demand, focusing on cycling, water-based, cultural and health tourism. For restaurants, it will push at the federal level for a 7 percent VAT rate on food services. It cites high energy and purchasing costs as the reason.

More visitors should come to Brandenburg. Cycling, water, culture and health are the focus. Restaurants should pay less tax on food. This tax should be 7 percent. Waterways and locks should be kept in good shape.

The CDU sees structural change as Lusatia's most important task and wants to be a reliable partner so that funding pledges turn into successful projects. Lusatia is to become Europe's first "Net-Zero Valley."

Coal mining in Lusatia is ending. The region has to change. The CDU wants to help Lusatia with this. Lusatia should become a center for climate-friendly industry.

The CDU wants a new state program, “Strong Villages in Rural Areas,” to support small municipalities with weak finances. It also proposes further steps for village development, such as village shops, better statistics on villages, and broadband coverage everywhere.

The CDU wants to help small villages with little money. There should be a new funding program. It is called “Strong Villages in Rural Areas.” Villages get one-time money for repairs or investments. Village shops and fast internet should also get support.

The CDU wants to develop the capital region more closely with Berlin and focus the joint strategic framework more on investments in the future. Electricity generated in the region should be used there, for example by data centers in areas with surplus power.

Brandenburg and Berlin should work together more closely. Brandenburg often makes more power than it uses. This power should stay in the region. So big data centers should be built there. A fast fiber network with Berlin should be built.

The CDU wants to abolish the Bürgergeld (citizen's income) and replace it with a new basic support system built on the principle of "support and demand." In the party's view, the Bürgergeld creates the wrong incentives, and people who work should clearly end up with more than those who don't.

The CDU wants to end the Bürgergeld. A new basic support system should replace it. The state should help, but also ask for something. People who can work but refuse jobs should get no money. Asylum seekers should do community work.

The CDU supports the highest possible coverage by collective wage agreements. It wants to make it easier to declare such agreements binding for entire sectors, since in the program's view they create prosperity and ensure fair competition.

Collective agreements set wages and working conditions. The CDU wants many companies to use them. These agreements should more easily apply to a whole industry. The CDU says this also helps find skilled workers.

The CDU wants to stop young people from leaving Brandenburg. Training opportunities, affordable housing and leisure options are meant to make the state more attractive to teenagers and young families.

Many young people move away from Brandenburg. The CDU wants to change that. There should be good training jobs. Young people should find cheap places to live.

The CDU wants older people to live independently for as long as possible. It would support age-appropriate home renovations, services in rural areas and social participation, and tackle loneliness.

The CDU wants older people to stay independent for a long time. They should be able to stay in their homes. Homes should be adapted for them. Older people should not be lonely.

The CDU wants to lower the tax and contribution burden, especially for low and average earners. Overtime and work past retirement age should receive tax advantages, and federal tax law should be simplified.

People with low and middle wages should pay less in taxes and fees. Overtime should pay off more. Retirees who keep working should pay less tax. The CDU calls this an "active pension." Tax rules should get simpler.

The CDU wants a tougher fight against tax evasion and money laundering. It points to billions in tax revenue lost every year.

Some people do not pay their taxes. Others launder money from crimes. The CDU wants to fight this harder. There should be more investigators.

The CDU wants sound budgets and rules out new taxes or levies. A "Brandenburg inventory" of tasks and spending is meant to free up room for investment in the future.

The CDU wants to be careful with money. There should be no new taxes. All state spending should be checked. More money should go into the future.

The CDU wants to raise homeownership rates and introduce a "Brandenburg Bonus": tax-free allowances on the real estate transfer tax for people buying their first home to live in. Construction of affordable housing is also to be further subsidized and more building land designated. In the program's view, housing should not become a social problem.

More people should own a house or an apartment. First-time buyers who live in their home should pay less tax. This tax is paid when you buy property. Each adult gets 150,000 euros tax-free, each child 100,000 euros. There should also be more building land and money for affordable homes.

The CDU wants construction to be faster, simpler and cheaper in order to create affordable housing. Permit procedures would be reviewed and building-law requirements reduced.

The CDU wants building to go faster. There should be fewer rules. Some buildings should need no permit. People should apply online.

The CDU wants to pass a new daycare law with more transparent funding early in the legislative term. It supports fully exempting families from daycare fees, provided quality does not suffer. It points to staff shortages, high sick rates and the level of fees as reasons.

The CDU wants a new law for daycare centers. It should come early. Families should pay nothing for daycare. Quality should stay good. There should be more and better trained staff.

The CDU sees marriage and family as the foundation of social cohesion and parents as primarily responsible for their children. It wants to strengthen all family forms through counseling, childcare and better work-life balance, and to push at the federal level for family time accounts.

The CDU wants to help all families. Parents should be able to work less without losing money. Family time accounts should make this possible. Families should get more advice and help.

The CDU wants to make the Meisterbrief (master craftsman certificate) free of charge to boost the skilled trades. After passing the exam, all remaining costs should be fully reimbursed.

People who take the master exam in a trade should pay nothing. After passing, they get all costs back. The CDU wants to make the trades stronger this way.

The CDU wants to expand career guidance in schools: students in grades 9 and 10 should complete three mandatory internships, and every school should hold a "Day of the Trades." Vocational and academic education should be treated as equal, and vocational schools should be strengthened.

Students should get to know jobs early. In grades 9 and 10, they should do three internships. Every school should have a Day of the Trades. Teens aged 15 and up should get money for a trade internship during school breaks. Vocational schools should get more support.

The CDU wants standardized short tests in the last two years of daycare to identify children's support needs. For children with language deficits, the final daycare year should be mandatory. The program sees daycare as key preparation for school.

The CDU wants short tests for children in daycare. This shows where they need help. Children with language problems must attend the last daycare year. Daycare should prepare kids well for school.

The CDU wants to keep all existing school types, including small schools, and to require grades without exception from third grade on. Performance assessment, grading and repeating a year are to remain part of the tiered school system. The program's goal is to secure regular lessons with good teaching quality.

The CDU wants to keep all types of schools. Small schools should stay too. From third grade, there should always be grades. Children can still repeat a year. Five-year-olds should not start school against their parents' wishes.

The CDU wants to address the teacher shortage with quick measures and more training. These include recruitment at home and abroad, bringing back retired teachers, more university places and lowering or abolishing admission grade limits for teacher training. It cites the large number of upcoming retirements.

Brandenburg does not have enough teachers. The CDU wants to find more teachers. Teachers from abroad should be able to start more easily. More young people should study to become teachers. The grade limit for this study should drop or go away.

The CDU wants a guarantee that children can read, write and do math by the end of fourth grade, with extra support lessons if needed. It cites studies that, in the program's view, show a long-term decline among Brandenburg elementary students.

Children should read, write and do math well after fourth grade. The CDU wants to guarantee this. Kids with problems get extra help lessons. German and math should get more time.

The CDU wants to equip all schools, including vocational schools, with IT infrastructure, internet, devices and trained staff. The state should pay for standardized digital learning materials so opportunities do not depend on the finances of parents or school authorities.

All schools should get good internet and devices. Teachers should be trained for this. The state should pay for digital learning tools. Then learning does not depend on parents' money.

The CDU wants to clear what it sees as a large investment backlog at daycare centers and schools with an expanded construction program for municipalities. Funding procedures are to become simpler and digital gaps closed quickly.

Many schools and daycare centers need repairs. The CDU wants to help towns build. Applying for money should be easier. Missing technology at schools should come fast.

The CDU wants to anchor democratic awareness and extremism prevention more firmly in the curricula of all school types. Right-wing extremism, left-wing extremism and Islamism are to be addressed explicitly. The subject LER (life skills, ethics, religious studies) is also to place more emphasis on respect, tolerance and a culture of debate.

Students should learn more about democracy. They should know the dangers of extremism. This means right-wing, left-wing and Islamist extremists. The state civic education office should offer more in rural areas.

The CDU wants to strengthen dual and school-based vocational training, which it sees as an equal alternative to university. Training pay is to be introduced for early-childhood educators, special-needs caregivers and comparable health professions.

The CDU says job training is as good as university. It wants to make job training better known. People training as daycare educators should get paid. This also goes for similar health jobs.

The CDU wants to strengthen university autonomy: the ministry should stop micromanaging and only agree on funding and targets. Base budgets are to rise by 5 million euros each year, and the roughly 50,000 student enrollment is to be at least maintained.

Universities should decide more for themselves. The ministry should give fewer orders. Universities should get 5 million euros more each year. There should be at least as many students as today.

The CDU wants hospitals, family doctors, and specialists to be available throughout Brandenburg, not just in cities and the suburbs around Berlin. Hospitals, practices, and pharmacies in rural areas should coordinate more closely, and prevention, health, and long-term care should be planned together.

There should be doctors and hospitals everywhere in Brandenburg. That includes the countryside. The CDU wants to do this with counties, towns, and health insurers. Hospitals, doctors, and pharmacies should work together better. Community nurses should care for old and sick people in rural areas.

The CDU wants to preserve all hospital sites in Brandenburg and rejects changes to the hospital landscape being forced by federal law. In its view, hospital planning should remain a matter for the state.

No hospital in Brandenburg should close. The federal government should not force changes by law. The state should plan its own hospitals. All hospitals should get enough money.

Because many practices face closure if no successors are found, the CDU proposes a two-part strategy: train more doctors and use incentives to spread them more evenly across the state. Recognition of foreign degrees is to be sped up without lowering quality standards.

Many doctors will retire soon. Then nobody takes over. The CDU wants to train more doctors. Doctors should get money if they move to the countryside. Degrees from abroad should be accepted faster.

The CDU wants good long-term care to remain affordable for everyone and calls for a fundamentally new federal approach to financing residents' out-of-pocket costs in nursing homes. The state's Pakt für Pflege (care pact) is to be continued and written into the state care law.

Care is getting more and more expensive. The CDU says everyone should be able to afford good care. The federal government should change the rules for nursing home costs. That means the part people pay themselves. Care at home should come first.

The CDU wants to strengthen legal immigration of skilled and other workers, including through a federal "Work-and-Stay Agency" and a matching state office. At the same time, the requirements for naturalization should not be lowered.

Brandenburg needs skilled workers from abroad. An agency should match them with companies. Foreign degrees should be recognized faster. Work permits should come faster. But the rules for German citizenship should not get easier.

The CDU wants to significantly reduce economic incentives for asylum seekers. Benefits are to be noticeably lowered and provided more often in kind or via payment cards.

The CDU wants less money for asylum seekers. They should get goods instead of cash more often. There should be a payment card. People who commit crimes should not be allowed to stay.

The CDU wants to continue fixed checks on the border with Poland until the EU's external borders are secured. The federal police should be allowed to turn back asylum seekers entering from other EU states.

Checks at the Polish border should continue. The federal police should get more staff. They should be able to turn back asylum seekers. This applies to people coming from other EU countries.

The CDU no longer wants to assign refugees without prospects of staying to local communities. They are to be able to stay up to 24 months in state initial reception centers.

Some refugees will likely not be allowed to stay. They should not be sent to towns anymore. They should live up to two years in a state center. Sports halls should no longer be used as shelters.

The CDU wants rejected asylum seekers returned consistently, with criminals first. Police are to get more powers, and serious offenders should be deportable even to conflict countries.

Rejected asylum seekers should leave the country. Criminals should be deported first. Police should be allowed to do more. Serious criminals should be sent back even to war zones.

The CDU wants integration based on a "support and demand" principle, with concrete obligations written into state law. It sees language learning as the basic condition for participation and work.

Immigrants should have duties to integrate. This should be in state law. Recognized asylum seekers must learn German. Children take a language test before school.

The CDU commits to an inclusive society in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It wants to expand accessibility and make it easier for people with disabilities to enter the regular job market.

The CDU wants people with disabilities to take part everywhere. There should be fewer barriers. For example, on buses and streets. Certificates from sheltered workshops should count with employers.

The CDU wants to make it binding that public administration, schools, universities, and public broadcasting do not use gender-inclusive special characters. It cites the rules of the Council for German Orthography and what it describes as majority public opinion.

Some people write words with stars to include all genders. This is called gendering. The CDU wants to stop this in government offices. Schools, universities and public broadcasters should also stop it. But grades must not depend on it.

The CDU wants Lusatia to remain an energy region and rejects a politically mandated coal phase-out before 2038. At the same time, the region is to become a location for battery production. The program points to Lusatia's long tradition of energy production.

Lusatia should stay an important energy region. The CDU does not want to quit coal before 2038. Batteries should be made in Lusatia. A big floating solar plant should be built on a lake near Cottbus.

The CDU wants to use a Bundesrat (upper house) initiative to reform grid fees and lower the electricity tax. In the program's view, people in Brandenburg pay too much for power because of high grid fees, even though the state generates a lot of renewable energy. Grid expansion is to be aligned with renewables expansion and kept cost-effective.

Electricity is expensive in Brandenburg. One reason is high fees for power lines. The CDU wants new rules for these fees. The tax on electricity should go down. Power made in the region should be used there if possible.

The CDU wants to help municipalities draw up the heat plans required by federal law by 2027. Planning is to be technology-neutral, and gas networks are not to be dismantled without an affordable alternative. In the program's view, early and solid heat plans ease the burden on property owners.

Towns must plan by 2027 how homes will be heated. The state should help them. Any technology should be allowed. Gas pipes should stay until there is an affordable alternative. Citizens should have a say early on.

The CDU wants wind power expansion to be what it calls compatible with Brandenburg and keeps the minimum distance of 1,000 meters from residential areas. Wind turbines are not to be built in forests worth protecting. The Wind-Euro payment to municipalities is to be developed further to increase acceptance.

More wind turbines can be built. They must be 1,000 meters away from homes. No wind turbines should go in valuable forests. Towns get money from wind turbines. This money is called the Wind-Euro and should be improved.

The CDU wants Brandenburg to become a pioneer in geothermal energy and to tap the potential of solar thermal as well as rooftop and ground-mounted solar power. For geothermal, red tape is to be cut and permits sped up. When it comes to solar sites, food production on high-quality soil is to take priority.

Brandenburg should use more heat from the ground. This is called geothermal energy. Applying for it should be easier. Solar energy should be used more too. But good farmland should grow food first.

The CDU wants to support the hydrogen economy on an industrial scale and explicitly backs "blue" hydrogen as a bridge technology. Brandenburg is also to develop a strategy for capturing, transporting and using CO2. In the program's view, the state would otherwise fall behind as a business location.

Brandenburg should make and use a lot of hydrogen. Hydrogen made from natural gas is fine for a while. Pipelines and storage for hydrogen should be built. CO2 should be captured and reused. A CO2 pipeline should run through Brandenburg.

The CDU commits to international climate targets and to climate neutrality by 2045 at the latest. Its approach is meant to be market-based, socially minded, and technology-neutral while keeping Brandenburg competitive.

The CDU wants to protect the climate. Brandenburg should be climate neutral by 2045 at the latest. That means no extra CO2. Markets should help, not bans. CO2 should be cut first where it is cheapest.

The CDU wants to actively limit the wolf population in Brandenburg as soon as the law allows. In its view, with around 1,000 wolves the population has exceeded a favorable conservation status, and damage to livestock farmers has become excessive.

About 1,000 wolves live in Brandenburg. The CDU thinks that is too many. Wolves attack farm animals. So hunters should be allowed to shoot wolves. This should happen as soon as the law allows it.

The CDU sees hunting and fishing as a contribution to nature conservation and wants to strengthen both. Hunters are to play a bigger role in wildlife management and invasive species are to be hunted more intensively, while fishers are to be allowed to remove protected species more easily.

The CDU thinks hunters and fishers protect nature. It wants to support both. Foreign animal species should be hunted more. Fishers should be allowed to kill some protected animals more easily. Examples are cormorants and beavers.

The CDU wants to manage forests actively and sustainably and improve their condition. Renewable raw materials such as wood, hemp, and reeds are to be used more through a bioeconomy strategy, for example in timber construction.

The CDU wants to keep using the forests. At the same time, they should get healthier. Wood may also be burned for energy. Wood, hemp, and reeds should be used more. For example, to build houses.

The CDU wants to preserve allotment gardens in towns because, in its view, they provide recreation, local food, and habitat for wildlife. More funding is to be made available for them.

Almost 100,000 people in Brandenburg use small community gardens. The CDU wants to keep these gardens. They are good for nature and relaxing. There should be more money for them.

The CDU wants to tackle flood protection, water retention, and groundwater recharge together, since climate change and higher consumption are making water scarcer. In Lusatia, the Spree, Neisse, and Black Elster rivers are to be stabilized technically after damage from mining.

Water in Brandenburg is getting scarcer. The CDU wants to manage water better. Water should stay in the landscape longer. Cleaned wastewater should be used again. In Lusatia, rivers should be stabilized after mining.

The CDU rejects blanket rules and mandated land set-asides in farming and forestry and relies on voluntary measures instead. In the program's view, food and supply security should once again take priority over nature conservation concerns.

Farmers and foresters should decide more freely. The state should not order them to leave fields unused. Local food matters more to the CDU than some nature rules. Farmers should pay less tax.

The CDU wants a competitive farming sector in Brandenburg with investment security and fewer requirements. Livestock farming is to stay at least at today's level, and the party rejects fixed organic food quotas and new nature reserves.

Farmers in Brandenburg should be able to do good business. They should be able to rely on their investments. There should be as many farm animals as today, or more. The CDU does not want a fixed quota for organic food. There should be no new nature reserves.

The CDU wants air traffic at BER to grow substantially, with a focus on more intercontinental routes. To that end, it is open to a strategic investor buying into the airport company FBB. At the same time, noise protection and the work against aircraft noise are to remain secured.

More planes should fly from BER airport. There should be more flights to faraway countries. A private investor may buy into the airport. Roads, buses and trains near the airport should get better. People living nearby should be protected from noise.

The CDU considers cars indispensable, especially in rural areas, and opposes driving bans as well as the EU ban on new combustion-engine cars from 2035. At the same time, it wants to expand charging infrastructure for electric vehicles.

The CDU says people in the countryside need cars. It is against driving bans. It is also against banning new gas and diesel cars from 2035. There should be more charging stations for electric cars.

The CDU wants to invest more in maintaining and expanding state roads. A bridge program would renovate or replace a quarter of the state's bridges. The party cites quality of life and safety.

The CDU wants to fix roads and bridges. A quarter of all bridges should be repaired. Each county can name its worst road. That road gets fixed first.

The CDU wants to implement Brandenburg's mobility law and raise the share of public transit, cycling and walking to 60 percent by 2030. Change should come through incentives and better services, not bans.

The CDU wants more buses, trains and bikes. By 2030, 60 out of 100 trips should use them. Better services should make this happen. The CDU does not want bans.

The CDU wants to link Brandenburg's larger towns in a ring with coordinated bus and rail schedules, similar to Berlin's circular rail line. A statewide mobility app and pilot projects for autonomous driving would complement it.

The CDU wants a Brandenburg Ring. Buses and trains should link bigger towns directly. One app should show all ways to travel. Self-driving vehicles should be tested.

The CDU wants to set up a central artificial intelligence hub modeled on North Rhine-Westphalia and create a parliamentary inquiry commission on AI. Research, academia and business are to work more closely together so that, in the program's view, Brandenburg does not fall behind in the digital transformation.

The CDU wants to set up an office for artificial intelligence. Experts should connect there. The state parliament should study the effects of AI. Research and companies should work together better.

The CDU wants a digital overhaul of public administration. All public services should be available online, and digital processes should make up for staff shortages. The aim is for agencies to be equally accessible and more efficient across the state.

The CDU wants government offices to go digital. All applications should work online. Computers should fill in for missing staff. People should give their data to offices only once.

The CDU wants to fundamentally overhaul Brandenburg's police law and give officers new powers, such as source telecommunications surveillance, online searches and automated license plate recognition. Officers are to be equipped across the board with body cameras and tasers. The requirement to wear name tags is to be scrapped.

The police should be allowed to do more. For example, they could secretly monitor computers and phones. Cameras should read car license plates automatically. All officers should get body cameras and tasers. Officers would no longer have to wear name tags.

The CDU wants to expand the state police by 500 to 9,000 positions by 2029. Hiring standards are not to be lowered, and training capacity is to be fully used. Technology and artificial intelligence are to relieve officers of routine paperwork.

Brandenburg should get more police officers. By 2029 there should be 500 more jobs. Then there would be 9,000 jobs. Applicants must still be well qualified. Computers should take over office work from officers.

The CDU wants to create a "Märkische Grenzpolizei" (Brandenburg border police) as an additional unit of about 100 officers within the riot police. It is to carry out mobile checks and be deployed wherever reinforcement is needed. The program cites rising crime in eastern Brandenburg and illegal migration.

Brandenburg should get its own border police. About 100 officers would be part of it. They should do checks on the road. They should act against illegal entry, theft and smuggling.

The CDU wants to counter all forms of extremism through prosecution and prevention, especially in schools. The Verfassungsschutz (domestic intelligence agency) is to receive more powers, particularly online. The program names right-wing extremism as the biggest current problem, but also sees left-wing extremism, Islamism and foreign disinformation as threats.

The CDU wants to act against all extremists. Every crime should be punished. Schools should teach more about the dangers. The Verfassungsschutz should be allowed to do more. It is a secret service that protects democracy.

The CDU wants Brandenburg's domestic intelligence agency (Verfassungsschutz) to aim for about 200 positions and to modernize its technology. Police and intelligence should stay separate, but share more relevant information.

The Verfassungsschutz watches enemies of democracy. The CDU wants about 200 jobs there. The agency should get modern technology. Police and intelligence stay separate. But they should share more information.

The CDU wants to press for data retention at the federal level. It is meant to help prosecute child sexual abuse and online hate crime.

Data retention means phone and internet records are stored for some time. The CDU wants this at the federal level. It wants to fight child abuse better. It also wants to fight online hate.

The CDU wants crime victims at the center of state support. Victim assistance is to be expanded and better connected.

Crime victims should get more help. Victim support groups should get regular money. Children should get special protection. Dangerous offenders could have to wear an ankle monitor.

The CDU wants to turn the state fire academy in Eisenhüttenstadt into a state office for civil protection. It also wants a Brandenburg security strategy for crises such as pandemics, military aggression or sabotage.

The CDU wants a new office to protect people. It should be in Eisenhüttenstadt. It would combine fire and disaster protection. Brandenburg should get a plan for crises.

The CDU wants to better protect energy, water and data networks against sabotage, terrorism and attacks. This includes more video surveillance, fewer data protection hurdles for security agencies and a new cybersecurity institute.

Power, water and internet should be better protected. There should be more video cameras. Police should get data more easily. A new office should handle internet security.

The CDU wants to keep funding fire protection with at least 40 million euros a year. Volunteer fire departments are to get modern equipment and better training.

Fire departments should keep getting money. It should be at least 40 million euros a year. Their equipment should be modern. Schools should offer firefighting classes.

The CDU wants a dedicated child protection law for Brandenburg centered on children's welfare and health. To fight abuse, it would expand prevention and victim support and give investigators source telecommunications surveillance, data retention and online searches.

The CDU wants a law to protect children. Children should be safer from violence. Police should get more powers. For example, they could monitor phones and computers.

The CDU wants to keep all court locations, add staff and speed up proceedings. In its view, punishment that follows swiftly after a crime deters offenders.

All courts in the state should stay open. The courts should get more staff. Trials should go faster. Punishment should come soon after the crime.

The CDU wants a judicial neutrality law. It would ban symbols, tattoos, clothing or face and head coverings in courts that express a religious, ideological or political view.

The CDU wants a new law for courts. Some signs would be banned there. This means extremist symbols and tattoos. Religious veils would also be banned.

The CDU wants to push for general compulsory service at the federal level. The goal is a larger pool of trained people for crises.

Compulsory service means young people must work for society for a while. The CDU wants this at the federal level. Then there would be more helpers in a crisis.

The CDU wants local matters to be decided locally again to a greater extent. Existing municipal structures are to remain and be strengthened. Experimentation clauses are to let municipalities deviate from standards to test new solutions.

Towns should decide more for themselves. Today's local governments should stay. Towns should be allowed to try new ideas. For this, they can skip some rules.

The CDU wants red-tape reduction laws to scrap unnecessary rules so that there are significantly fewer regulations at the end of the term than in 2024. New laws are to apply for only five years, and two old rules are to be repealed for every new one. In the program's view, unnecessary rules burden citizens and businesses.

The CDU wants fewer rules and less paperwork. New laws should only last five years. Then they must be checked. For each new rule, two old ones should go. People and companies should be able to report problems online.

The CDU wants to secure municipal finances while also cutting municipalities' workload. Mayors and county chiefs would be allowed to suspend impractical rules that do not affect fundamental rights, provided they give reasons.

The CDU wants to help towns and cities. They should have enough money. Mayors should be able to skip impractical rules. They must give a reason.

The CDU wants to fulfill the constitutional mandate for equal living conditions and avoid gaps between regions. New public agencies are to be located outside the capital region as well, and municipalities are to be allowed to test new solutions.

People should live well everywhere in Brandenburg. Not only near Berlin. New government offices should also open in other regions. Towns should be allowed to try new ideas.

The CDU wants to reduce rules for volunteers and relieve them of administrative work. Volunteering should also be rewarded more, since the party sees civic engagement as the basis of a lively society.

Many people work for free to help others. This is called volunteering. The CDU wants fewer rules and less paperwork for them. Volunteers should get more thanks. For example, cheaper bus and train tickets.

The CDU wants to support the work of the churches financially over the long term and index state payments to the Catholic Church, as is already the case for the Protestant Church. It regards Christian values as the foundation of the culture while also supporting interfaith dialogue.

The CDU wants to support churches more. The Catholic Church should get money that rises over time. The Protestant Church already gets this. The dancing ban on Good Friday should stay. Religion classes in schools should stay.

The CDU affirms its support for the EU and wants to strengthen it where individual states and regions are too small to tackle global challenges. Brandenburg should keep receiving EU funding for structural change at a similar level from 2027.

The CDU supports the European Union. The EU should be strong where countries alone are too small. Brandenburg should keep getting a lot of EU money. The money helps the region change its economy. Local politicians should travel to Brussels more often.

The CDU wants to cultivate good relations with neighboring Poland and offer more Polish classes in schools. Polish culture and history should become a fixed part of the curriculum, and cooperation should deepen across many policy areas.

Brandenburg borders Poland. The CDU wants good relations with its neighbor. More schools should teach Polish. Children should learn more about Poland. Classes should take more trips to Poland.

The CDU wants stronger support for the Bundeswehr (German armed forces) in Brandenburg. Youth officers should generally have access to schools, and universities should permanently forgo civil clauses banning military research.

The CDU wants to support the army in the state. Army officers should be able to visit schools. Universities should be allowed to do military research. Soldiers in uniform should ride buses and trains for free.

The CDU wants to develop the state's cultural policy further through a strategy with secure funding. Cultural offerings should be available throughout the state, since the party sees culture as a source of identity and cohesion.

The CDU wants to support culture across the state. There should be a clear plan with secure money. Music schools should get more help. Zoos should get state support. Buses should bring rural people to cultural sites.

The CDU wants to keep alive the memory of the Nazi era and the SED (East German communist) dictatorship and adapt it to the dwindling number of eyewitnesses. The Cottbus Human Rights Center would become the state's central memorial to injustice in the GDR.

The CDU wants people to remember the Nazi era and East Germany. Few eyewitnesses are still alive. So new ways of remembering are needed. Cottbus should get a main memorial for East German injustice. People should learn there about persecution.

The CDU wants to promote the language, culture, and identity of the Sorbs and Wends and fulfill the constitutional mandate to preserve their language. Low German should also be kept alive and passed on as cultural heritage.

The Sorbs and Wends live in Lusatia. They have their own language. The CDU wants to protect this language and culture. More teachers are needed for this. The old language Low German should also stay alive.

The CDU wants to expand support for sports in Brandenburg, with a focus on children and young people. Every child should learn to swim, sports facilities should keep being built, and the state sports federation should get more money.

The CDU wants to spend more on sports. Children and teens should benefit most. Every child should learn to swim. Pools should be easier to reach. Sports fields and gyms should be expanded.