CDU: program for the 2023 Hesse state election

The CDU wants to create a "Hessenfonds" (Hesse fund) to support new ideas across all industries. It also wants tax relief for newly founded businesses and more help for small and midsize firms going digital.

The CDU wants to set up a new fund. A fund is a pot of money. It will help companies with new ideas. New businesses should pay less tax. Small and midsize firms get more help with going digital.

The CDU wants to set up a commercial court in Frankfurt that hears business disputes in English. In addition, a new "Made in Hessen" concept is meant to raise the state's profile abroad.

The CDU wants a special court in Frankfurt. Companies can settle their disputes there in English. The CDU also wants to promote Hesse more abroad. This should bring workers and companies to Hesse.

The CDU wants to keep and expand key industries in the state, including carmaking, pharmaceuticals, mechanical engineering, heavy industry and aerospace. For the party, the car is part of mobility.

The CDU wants to strengthen key industries in Hesse. These include carmakers and drug companies. Machine builders and heavy industry should stay too. The space sector in Darmstadt should grow.

The CDU wants to strengthen city centers and retail with funding programs. Stores without staff are to be allowed to open on Sundays, and four Sunday openings without a special occasion are to be examined.

The CDU wants lively city centers. Funding for this should continue. Stores without staff should be allowed to open on Sundays. This should help rural areas most of all. The CDU will also look at four open Sundays a year.

The CDU wants to speed up and better support business start-ups. Founders should be able to set up within two days; this comes with more financing options and a continued start-up initiative.

The CDU wants to make starting a company easier. It should take just 48 hours. There should be more loans for founders. Women who start companies get their own funding program. Students should learn more about business.

The CDU wants a funding program that helps mainly small and medium-sized companies become more attractive employers. It adds skills camps for teenagers, the skilled-labor alliance and more employee ownership in companies.

The CDU wants to help small and medium-sized firms. The firms should become more attractive for workers. One example is housing for employees. Teenagers should get to know jobs in camps. Workers should be able to buy shares in their own firm.

The CDU wants to boost start-ups from universities and science with the ZusePower initiative, which gives every university ten euros per student. An innovation and founders' fund is to provide venture capital as well.

The CDU wants more students to start companies. Every university gets 10 euros per student for this. A new fund should give money to founders. In return the fund can get shares in the company. Founders should be better connected.

The CDU wants to create better economic conditions for the health and pharmaceutical industry in Hesse. In the program's view, medicine shortages can only be avoided with a strong industry and domestic production.

The CDU wants to strengthen drug companies in Hesse. They should get better conditions. Medicines should also be made here at home. This is how the CDU wants to prevent shortages of medicines.

The CDU wants to secure raw material deposits in Hessen for the long term, including fossil fuels. It rejects a special levy on extracting gravel, sand, and rock as well as a general water charge, arguing these would burden businesses and consumers.

Hessen has raw materials in the ground. The CDU wants to secure them for later. This includes natural gas and other fossil fuels. The CDU does not want a new charge on gravel, sand, or water. It says this would make things more expensive.

The CDU wants to strengthen tourism as an economic factor and above all keep inns and hotels in rural areas open. This includes funding programs, a family-friendliness label, further development of garden shows, and time-limited trials of new working-time models.

The CDU wants to strengthen tourism in Hesse. Country inns should not have to close. There should be funding for this. Hotels and restaurants should be allowed to try out new working hours. There should be a label for family-friendly businesses.

The CDU wants to overhaul planning and permitting law at all levels so that infrastructure and investment projects are built faster. Applications are to count as approved if the authority does not respond within a deadline. Procedures are to be fully digital.

The CDU wants faster permits for building projects. It wants to change the planning rules. If an office does not answer in time, the request counts as approved. The process should be digital.

The CDU wants noticeably fewer regulations at the end of the legislative term than at its start. To that end it is considering the "one in, two out" principle and pilot projects for "bureaucracy-free zones." Small and mid-sized businesses and the skilled trades are to help draw up a list of measures.

The CDU wants fewer rules in Hessen. For each new rule, two old ones should go if possible. The CDU is looking at test areas with very little red tape. Businesses and tradespeople should make suggestions.

The CDU wants to bring the European anti-money-laundering authority AMLA to Frankfurt and make Hesse an international leader in sustainable finance. Universities and training institutions for the finance sector are to be strengthened as well.

Frankfurt is an important place for banks and the stock exchange. The CDU wants a new EU agency against money laundering to come to Frankfurt. Hesse should also lead in sustainable investing. Training for finance jobs should get better.

The CDU wants European banking regulation to take savings banks and cooperative banks into account rather than being built around large banks. It is skeptical of a ban on commissions in investment advice and wants investors to keep the choice between commission-based and fee-based advice.

The EU makes rules for banks. The CDU says these rules often fit only big banks. Small banks and savings banks should get rules that fit them. Advisers should still be allowed to earn commissions. A commission is money paid for arranging a contract.

The CDU wants to expand Hesse's foreign trade, achieve more free trade and attract international companies. At the same time it expects the federal government to protect key companies and infrastructure from investments by autocratic states.

The CDU wants more trade with other countries. It wants new trade deals, for example with the US. More foreign companies should come to Hesse. Important companies should be protected from the influence of dictatorships.

The CDU wants to recruit a total of 10,000 additional early childhood educators for Hesse by 2028. To do so, the ongoing skilled-staff campaign is to be continued and stepped up together with municipalities.

Hesse needs more daycare teachers. The CDU wants to gain 10,000 new ones by 2028. Training should become easier and more attractive. Skilled workers from abroad should come too.

The CDU wants job centers to once again give priority to placing people in work or training. To that end, it plans to push at the federal level for a change to the Social Code.

The CDU wants job centers to get people into work first. That should again be their main task. A federal law must change for this. The CDU wants to push for that at the federal level.

The CDU wants working hours to take families' needs into account more and to allow more digital, location-independent work. Rigid rules are to give way to more flexible models such as family time accounts.

The CDU wants more flexible working hours. Parents should have more time for their children. They should be able to leave early on some days. They then work longer on other days. Working from home should also become easier.

The CDU wants to combine the state's social policy measures in a future fund and increase it to 150 million euros. It also wants to support the founding of social cooperatives and provide reliable backing for multigenerational centers.

The CDU wants to spend more money on social help. There will be a fund of 150 million euros. Clubs and charities can then plan safely. Social cooperatives should also get money. These are groups of citizens who offer social help together.

The CDU wants to launch a state program against child poverty if the federal government fails to act, with a Hessisches Familiengeld (Hessian family allowance) at its core. It sees work as the best protection against poverty; jobless parents are to be helped into employment. Food banks are to receive higher funding permanently.

The CDU wants to fight poverty. Children especially should not be poor. It wants to bring in a family payment in Hesse. Parents without work should get help finding a job. Food banks should keep getting money.

The CDU wants to improve the situation of people with disabilities and expand accessibility. The action plan for the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is to be reissued. Inclusion should follow individual needs, which for the CDU includes special-needs schools.

The CDU wants to support people with disabilities better. State buildings should be free of barriers. Public offices should be easy for everyone to use. Special-needs schools should stay. There should be more sign language interpreters.

The CDU wants to expand the "Aktion Generation" funding program so that municipalities can make everyday life more senior-friendly. It also plans a Grandparents' Day, an "Innovation Prize 60 Plus," and more opportunities for volunteering, education and media skills in old age.

The CDU wants to do more for older people. Towns and villages should get money for senior-friendly projects. There should be a Grandparents' Day. Older people should find it easier to volunteer and to study. They should also get help with using the internet.

The CDU wants to make the transition from work to retirement more flexible and is pushing for a part-time pension. Older people should be able to keep working voluntarily so that companies retain their knowledge. At the same time, pensions are to remain reliable.

The CDU wants to make the move into retirement more flexible. People should be able to get a part-time pension. Those who want to can keep working in old age. This should be voluntary. Pensions should stay secure.

The CDU wants to push at the federal level for more tax relief for families. The tax allowance for single parents is to rise to 5,000 euros, and childcare costs of up to 6,000 euros are to be deductible.

The CDU wants families to pay less tax. Single parents should get a higher tax allowance. Parents should be able to deduct more childcare costs from their taxes. The federal government decides on this.

The CDU wants to reorganize the Kommunaler Finanzausgleich (state transfers to municipalities) following an evaluation and keep transfers at record levels. Municipalities are to get more leeway and fewer earmarked funds.

The state gives money to towns and counties. The CDU wants new rules for this. Towns should keep getting a very large amount. They should decide more freely how to spend it. Small, spread-out towns should get more help.

The CDU stands by the debt brake and wants to lower government spending as a share of the economy. Consumption spending and subsidies it considers inefficient are to fall, while investment in schools, digital government and infrastructure is to rise. All plans in the program are subject to available funds.

The CDU does not want new debt. The state should spend less money overall. More money should go to schools, digital offices and roads. All plans only apply if there is enough money.

The CDU wants to keep the Länderfinanzausgleich (fiscal equalization among the states) but redesign it to create more economic incentives and competition between states. If talks fail, Hesse would join other contributor states in a new challenge before the Federal Constitutional Court.

Rich German states give money to poorer states. Hesse pays a lot into this system. The CDU wants to change the rules. If talks fail, it wants to go to court.

The CDU rejects additional caps on cash payments as well as any end to cash. It holds this position even as more people pay without cash in everyday life.

Many people now pay by card or phone. The CDU still wants to keep cash. It also wants no new limits on paying with cash.

The CDU wants a corporate tax reform under which retained profits are taxed at no more than 25 percent. It rejects further tax increases and any tax on wealth, and intends to take that position in the Bundesrat as well.

The CDU wants companies to pay less tax. Profits that stay in the company should be taxed at 25 percent at most. The CDU does not want higher taxes. It also rejects a tax on wealth.

The CDU intends to push at the federal level for inheritance and gift tax allowances to rise by a quarter. It also wants states to be able to shape inheritance tax themselves so that Hesse can align allowances with real estate prices.

People who inherit often have to pay tax. Part of the inheritance is tax-free. The CDU wants this part to be bigger. Heirs should not have to sell their parents' house. If needed, the CDU wants to go to court.

The CDU wants to enshrine in law the offsetting of bracket creep and seeks a special allowance for 2023 and 2024 for incomes under 60,000 euros. At the federal level it also wants childcare costs, club membership fees and blood donations to become tax-deductible.

When prices and wages rise, people often pay more tax. This is called bracket creep. The CDU wants a law to offset it. People earning under 60,000 euros should get an extra 1,000 euros tax-free. Childcare costs should also lower the tax bill.

The CDU sees more housing as the only route to affordable housing and therefore wants to cut construction costs and requirements. A task force is to simplify procedures; converting offices and adding stories to buildings are to become easier.

The CDU wants building to become cheaper. A working group should make rules and procedures simpler. Offices should more easily become apartments. New floors should be allowed on top of existing buildings, including supermarkets.

The CDU wants to enable more people to buy a home and plans to pay a "Hessengeld" grant for the first purchase of an owner-occupied property. This is paired with adjusted subsidized loans and initiatives at federal level for tax relief.

The CDU wants to help people buy their first own house or apartment. The state should pay money for this. Each buyer should get 10,000 euros. Every child adds another 5,000 euros. State loans should also reach more people.

The CDU wants to scrap the review required before rental apartments in larger buildings can be converted into condominiums. Rules on Zweckentfremdung (use of housing for other purposes) are also to be fundamentally revised so owners can decide more freely about their property.

The CDU wants to give owners more freedom. Today there is a review before rental apartments become owner apartments. The CDU wants to abolish this review. Other rules on how housing may be used should also become looser. The CDU rejects a ban on single-family homes.

The CDU wants municipalities to be able to designate new residential building land faster and more easily. Financial incentives, a digital land register and subsidies for development costs are meant to help.

The CDU wants more land for housing. Towns should be able to set up new building areas faster. They should get money as an incentive. The state should offer a digital list of suitable sites.

The CDU wants to secure affordable housing through housing benefit, the purchase of occupancy rights and more practical subsidy rules. It rejects tightening rent regulation, as well as speculation with building land or vacant apartments.

The CDU wants to keep low-cost housing. The state should buy rights so that social housing stays cheap. The new housing benefit should reach people quickly. The CDU does not want stricter rules on rent prices.

The CDU wants more senior-friendly and accessible housing. It wants to support housing complexes for older people statewide, subsidize the conversion of existing homes, and expand multigenerational forms of living.

Older people should be able to stay in their homes for a long time. The CDU wants to pay for changes to homes. One example is adding elevators. There should also be more housing for seniors.

The CDU wants to fight homelessness in Hesse and develop a support plan together with municipalities and social service providers. It also wants to examine whether the "Housing First" approach can help.

Some people have no home. The CDU wants to help them. Helpers should go to where these people are. The CDU will also look at the idea of "Housing First." This means people get a home first.

The CDU wants to make it easier to convert old barns, stables and commercial buildings in village centers into housing or other uses. Mid-sized rural towns are also to benefit more from urban development funding, and bus and rail service is to be reliable there.

Many old barns and stables in villages stand empty. The CDU wants to make it easier to turn them into homes. Small towns in the countryside should get more money for urban development. Buses and trains should run reliably in the countryside too.

The CDU wants to give parents more flexibility with their time, for example through more flexible working hours and family time accounts. It also wants to expand services for families, such as family centers.

The CDU wants parents to have more time for their children. Working hours should be more flexible. There should be more family centers. Couples who want a child should get help.

The CDU wants to give families with children more priority in everyday life and plans a "Pact for Child-Friendliness" with municipalities and civil society institutions. Children under six are to get free admission to state-owned facilities.

The CDU wants to make Hesse friendlier for children. Small children should not pay admission at state-owned places. There should be family tickets for any number of children. Young people should have more say in their towns.

The CDU wants to strengthen child protection, relying first on prevention and support for parents. Institutions working with children are to be required to report suspected abuse or neglect, and youth welfare offices are to get child protection coordinators.

The CDU wants to protect children better. Schools and other places should have to report suspected abuse. Youth welfare offices should get their own child protection experts. Parents should get help early.

The CDU wants to expand all forms of childcare so that every child whose parents want it gets a good place close to home. It regards care in the family, by childminders, in nurseries and in daycare centers as equally valuable.

The CDU wants to create more childcare places. The state should give towns money for daycare centers. Childminders should also get more support. Parents should be free to choose.

The CDU aims to make childcare for children aged three and over entirely free, going beyond the six hours a day that are already free of charge. The condition is that Hesse keeps more money after renegotiating the fiscal equalization system among the German states.

Today six hours of daycare a day are free. The CDU wants care from age three to be completely free. This should only happen if Hesse can keep more money. For that, the money-sharing system between the states must be renegotiated.

The CDU wants to make attending a childcare facility compulsory in the year before a child starts school. Language screening and German-language support in daycare centers are to become mandatory statewide so that all children have a command of German when school begins.

The CDU wants one required year of daycare before school. All children should take a language test. Children who need extra help must attend a preparation course. This way all children should speak good German when school starts.

The CDU wants to keep Hesse's school system with several types of schools and rejects a single comprehensive school for all. Special-needs schools (Förderschulen) are to remain and be expanded as needed; the focus should be on good teaching rather than debates about structure.

The CDU wants to keep the different types of schools in Hesse. It is against one single school for everyone. Special-needs schools should stay and grow where needed. The state should keep spending a lot on schools.

The CDU wants to gradually revise the core curricula so that certain content is taught uniformly across Hesse. More practical life skills and knowledge about the stock market and shares are to be added to lessons.

The CDU wants to renew what schools teach. All students in Hesse should learn certain things the same way. They should learn more for daily life, such as contracts and healthy food. They should also learn about stocks.

The CDU wants to keep expanding all-day programs at schools and hire more staff for them. It rejects compulsory all-day schooling and points to parents' freedom of choice.

The CDU wants more afternoon care at schools. More staff should be hired for this. But parents should decide for themselves. The CDU does not want all-day school to be required.

The CDU supports inclusion in schools as a goal but sees limits and does not consider it the best path for every child. It therefore wants to keep Hesse's Förderschulen (special-needs schools) and rejects a single solution for all children.

Children with and without disabilities can learn together. This is called inclusion. The CDU likes this, but not for every child. So special-needs schools should stay.

The CDU wants to add one more German lesson in grades 1 and 2 and to support math skills even before children start school. Small primary schools are to be kept, especially in rural areas.

Children in grades 1 and 2 should get one more German lesson. There should also be math courses before school starts. Small primary schools in the countryside should stay. That keeps the way to school short.

The CDU wants to keep numerical grades as well as holding students back, grade repetition and transfers to another school track. At the same time, mandatory learning assessments are to be introduced so students can be supported in a more targeted way.

The CDU wants to keep number grades at school. Students should still be able to repeat a year. New tests of learning progress will be required. They should show teachers what help a child needs.

The CDU regards vocational and academic education as equal in value and wants to strengthen dual vocational training. To this end, career guidance is to be expanded, more mandatory internships introduced and all vocational school locations kept.

The CDU says job training is worth as much as university. Students should learn about jobs earlier. There should be more required internships. All vocational schools should stay open.

The CDU wants to make training for the Meister (master craftsman), technician and Fachwirt (business specialist) qualifications free of charge. In addition, an advancement grant is to lower financial barriers to continuing education.

People who want to become a master craftsman or technician should no longer pay for it. The CDU also wants to give money for further training. Money should not stand in the way.

The CDU wants to offer more free swimming lessons for students and to help municipalities maintain and modernize their pools. Physical activity programs at schools, especially in all-day settings, are to be strengthened together with sports organizations.

More students should learn to swim for free. The CDU wants to help towns with their swimming pools. Schools should offer more sports and exercise. Sports clubs should take part.

The CDU wants to pay primary school teachers at the A13 civil-service pay grade and guarantee basic teacher staffing of 105 percent. Additional educational staff, career changers and more funding for schools in difficult settings are to relieve teachers.

Primary school teachers should get more pay. Schools should have more teachers than the minimum they need. Other experts should also help at schools. Schools with many poor children should get more money and staff.

The CDU wants schools to continue teaching democracy, values and extremism prevention and to strengthen historical and civic education. It stands by denominational religious instruction and ethics classes and wants to expand child protection, school psychology and suicide prevention.

Students should learn more about democracy and German history. They should visit important places for this. Religion and ethics classes should stay. Muslim children should also get an offer. Schools should protect children better from violence.

The CDU wants vocational and academic education to be treated equally in law, funding and schooling. Vocational schools are to be better equipped, and students are to come into contact with skilled trades earlier.

The CDU wants job training to count as much as a college degree. Vocational schools get modern equipment and more teachers. Children should learn more about skilled trades at school. There will be a skilled trades day at schools.

The CDU wants to set up a separate Hessian ministry for research and technology and to conclude a "Stärke-Pakt" (strength pact) with universities, research institutions and business. Permit applications for research projects are to be free of charge in the future.

The CDU wants a separate ministry for research and technology. Universities, researchers and firms should agree on a pact. Applications for research should no longer cost money. This should keep Hesse at the top in research.

The CDU wants to raise universities' core funding in the next higher education pact from 2025 and give them more independence again. Rising costs are not to come at the expense of research and teaching.

Universities should get more fixed money from the state from 2025. Prices and building costs are rising. Research and teaching should not suffer from this. Universities should also be allowed to decide more on their own.

The CDU wants to increase funds for the university construction programs HEUREKA and COME and launch a new HEUREKA DIGITAL program for digital infrastructure. An expanded digital pact, a shared university portal and a statewide student app are to follow.

The CDU wants to give more money for university buildings. A new program should improve digital technology at universities. All universities should get one shared online portal. An app should replace the student ID card. Administration should become simpler.

The CDU wants to improve the ratio of teaching staff to students by reforming the teaching-load regulation and capacity law. It adds better student advising, more permanent positions for mid-level academic staff and a more focused range of bachelor's programs.

The CDU wants to improve teaching at universities. There should be fewer students per teacher. Advice for students should get better. More university staff should get permanent jobs. More students should finish their studies successfully.

The CDU wants to continue and increase the funding program for student housing and strengthen the student services organizations. It also wants to examine whether the broadcasting fee can be lowered or dropped for trainees and students.

The CDU wants to fund more housing for students. Cafeteria food should stay cheap and healthy. The CDU will check whether students and trainees can pay less for the broadcasting fee. It will also watch BAföG. BAföG is state money for studying.

The CDU wants Hesse to gain a University of Excellence and to continue and develop the LOEWE research program. Major research sites such as FAIR, hessian.AI and the ESA in Darmstadt are to be strengthened.

Hesse should get a University of Excellence. That is a university with a special award. The LOEWE research program should continue. The state and private firms should do research together. Large research centers in Darmstadt should grow.

The CDU wants to improve the structure and funding of maternity care in Hesse and keep maternity wards close to where people live. Midwives are to get more support, and a scholarship is meant to help secure new recruits.

The CDU wants better care around birth. Maternity wards close to home should stay. Midwives should get more support. There should be a scholarship for people training as midwives.

The CDU wants to keep basic and emergency care, maternity clinics and pediatrics close to where people live, including in rural areas. State investment funding for hospitals is to stay at least at its current level. The party wants to represent Hesse's interests in the federal hospital reform.

The CDU wants to keep hospitals close to where people live. This also applies to the countryside. Hesse should keep investing a lot of money in hospitals. University hospitals should also get enough money. The CDU wants Hesse to have a say in the federal reform.

The CDU wants to secure statewide coverage with general practitioners and specialists. To that end, more university places are to be awarded through the rural doctor quota, medical care centers are to be supported, and the "Gemeindeschwester 2.0" (community nurse) project is to become permanent.

The CDU wants more doctors in the countryside. More students should get a place through the rural doctor quota. They later work in a practice in the countryside. There should be more care centers with several doctors. Community nurses should help permanently in many places.

The CDU wants to set up crisis services across the state for people in acute mental health emergencies. It also calls for more psychotherapy places, including for people with statutory insurance and for children, because it believes waiting times put treatment success at risk.

The CDU wants to help people in a mental crisis faster. There should be crisis help everywhere in Hesse. There should be more places for psychotherapy. This also applies to children and people with public health insurance. Waiting times should get shorter.

The CDU wants to raise the status of rescue workers and place them under the Interior Ministry, like the police and fire services. Community emergency paramedics and a statewide rollout of the cross-sector outpatient emergency care project are meant to ease the load on emergency rooms.

The CDU wants to strengthen the rescue service. It should belong to the Interior Ministry, like the police and fire service. New community paramedics should treat less serious cases. Only real emergencies should come to the emergency room.

The CDU wants to train more people in social and health professions and to raise the number of medical school places in Hesse once again. School-based training is to be paid, and high school grades are to count for less in admission to medical school.

The CDU wants to train more skilled workers for health and care. People who attend a school for these jobs should get paid. There should be more places to study medicine. School grades should matter less for this. Staff in doctors' offices should get 500 euros to make up for inflation.

The CDU wants to prevent shortages in medical care for children and will review rules and structures to that end. It aims for health professionals at all schools, wants to extend preventive checkups, and intends to pay more attention to young people's mental health.

The CDU wants to secure medical care for children. Schools should have health workers. There should be more checkups for children. Children with mental health problems should get better help. People who want to become child psychiatrists can get a scholarship.

The CDU wants to expand cancer research in Hesse and link universities and industry more closely for that purpose. The university tumor center in Frankfurt and the Frankfurt Cancer Institute are to be strengthened further.

The CDU wants to strengthen cancer research in Hesse. Universities and companies should work together more closely. The tumor center in Frankfurt should get more support. There should also be special centers for rare diseases.

The CDU wants to staff the public health service better and review the Hessian law governing it in light of the pandemic experience. Pandemic plans are to be exercised regularly. Further help is planned for people with long COVID and COVID vaccine injuries.

The CDU wants to strengthen the public health offices. They should get enough staff. Hesse should check and practice its pandemic plans regularly. People with long COVID should keep getting help. People with vaccine injuries should have one central place to turn to.

The CDU wants to extend the tele-emergency physician system to all of Hesse and keep promoting digitalization in health care. Hospitals, practices and citizens should be able to use digital services so that patients receive better care.

The CDU wants more digital medicine. A tele-emergency doctor helps from a distance in emergencies. This should exist in all of Hesse. Doctors should be paid fairly for treatment by video. Practices will keep getting money for digital technology.

The CDU wants to give more support to people with addiction and provide money for this from the "Hessen steht Zusammen" fund. Counseling, help with withdrawal and outreach social work in particular are to grow.

The CDU wants to help people with an addiction more. Money for this should come from a state fund. There should be more counseling. There should be more help with withdrawal. Social workers should go out to people more often.

The CDU opposes legalizing soft drugs such as cannabis, citing risks to health, families and society. At the same time, it wants to expand counseling and support for those affected and to have the substances used as knockout drops strictly regulated.

The CDU does not want to allow cannabis. It says the drug harms health and families. There should be more advice and help for people affected. Substances used for knockout drops should face stricter rules. Knockout drops make people defenseless.

The CDU wants a care guarantee: everyone should receive the care they need. To that end, the federal government is to merge the many separate benefit pots for long-term care into one budget that can be used with little red tape.

The CDU wants everyone to get the care they need. Today there are many separate pots of money for care. The federal government should turn them into one pot. That makes things easier for people.

The CDU wants to introduce a care allowance paid by the state of Hesse. People in need of care could spend the money on themselves or use it to recognize those who care for and support them.

The CDU wants a new care payment from the state of Hesse. People who need care get this money. They can spend it on themselves. Or they can give it to people who help them.

The CDU wants to press the federal government to make it easier for more companies to offer supplementary long-term care insurance. Modeled on company pension plans, this would create a further pillar of provision.

The CDU wants more extra care insurance through employers. This is insurance you get through your job. The federal government should set the rules for it. This should help people prepare for later.

The CDU wants to expand advice for people in need of care and their relatives. Care support centers are to become competence centers, care managers are to help with bureaucracy statewide, and community nurses and preventive home visits are to spot needs early.

The CDU wants more advice about care. Care managers should help relatives with applications. There should be community nurses everywhere. Experts should visit older people at home early on. That way people get help faster.

The CDU expects Hesse to need at least 16,000 additional care workers by 2040. It therefore wants to create more training and university places, win back people who left the profession, recruit skilled workers from abroad and relieve care staff of paperwork.

Hesse needs many more care workers. The CDU wants more training places. Former care workers should come back. Skilled workers from other countries should come too. Care workers should have less paperwork.

The CDU calls on the federal government for a comprehensive reform of care benefits, arguing that the federal government's proposals so far fall short. At its core are care leave with wage replacement modeled on parental leave and parental allowance, plus ten days off a year for family caregivers.

Many people care for relatives at home. The CDU wants to help them more. They should get care leave, similar to parental leave. During that time they should get money to replace their pay. They should also get ten days off each year. The federal government should arrange this.

The CDU wants to give family caregivers temporary relief by expanding short-term, respite and day care. A state funding program is to create more places; added to this are an entitlement to rehabilitation, more caregiver courses and new forms of housing and support.

People who care for relatives sometimes need a break. The CDU wants more places for short-term care and day care. The state should pay for this. Family caregivers should get a right to rehab. Rehab means rest and treatment for your health.

The CDU demands a plan from the federal government to limit residents' co-payments in nursing homes, saying the announced supplements are not enough. At the state level, it wants to improve the homes' facilities, add staff to care oversight and tie homes more closely into their neighborhoods.

A place in a nursing home costs a lot of money. The CDU wants the federal government to limit the costs for residents. The state should help improve the homes' equipment. More staff should inspect the homes. The homes should be more open to the neighborhood.

The CDU wants to expand the infrastructure and digitalization of rescue services and give paramedics (Notfallsanitäter) more medical authority. Responsibility for rescue services is to move to the ministry in charge of fire and disaster protection.

The CDU wants to keep expanding rescue services. Paramedics should be allowed to decide more on their own in an emergency. There should be more training places for them. Volunteers should be paid back for lost wages during courses. The state of Hesse will pay for this.

The CDU wants to improve medical care in rural regions, from recruiting young doctors to outpatient and inpatient services. In addition, the local first-responder system is to be expanded.

The CDU wants to do more for health care in the countryside. There should be enough doctors and hospitals there. Trained local first-aiders should also get more support. They help until the ambulance arrives.

The CDU wants to bring qualified workers from abroad to Hesse faster and create a "fast lane" for them. Procedures for skilled workers are to be separated from those for people seeking protection and streamlined overall.

Hesse needs more skilled workers. The CDU wants to bring skilled workers from abroad faster. Their applications should run separately from asylum cases. Foreign degrees should be recognized faster. There should be more visas for skilled workers.

The CDU follows the principle of "support and demand" and wants to write integration duties explicitly into the Hessian Integration Act. German courses and courses on civics and basic values are to be mandatory; at the same time, support programs are to continue and expand.

The CDU wants to put duties for people with a migration background into law. They should learn German. They should take courses about the country and its values. These courses should be required. The state should keep supporting integration.

The CDU rejects general dual citizenship because, in its view, civic loyalty should not be divided. It also rejects the plans of the federal "traffic light" coalition for shorter residence periods and lower requirements for naturalization.

The CDU does not want dual citizenship for everyone. It says a person should belong to only one state. The federal government wants to make naturalization easier. The CDU is against that. Naturalization should come only after successful integration.

The CDU commits to protecting people in need but wants to manage and limit immigration to avoid overburdening the state and society. It backs mandatory asylum procedures at the EU's external borders and wants to consistently enforce the obligation to leave for people with no right to stay.

The CDU wants to protect people in need. But fewer people should come to Germany. Asylum claims should be checked at Europe's borders. People who may not stay should leave the country. The CDU says towns are overwhelmed otherwise.

The CDU wants EU law to explicitly regulate turning people back at the external borders and calls for a reform of the Common European Asylum System and the Schengen rules. Public funding for private sea rescue should end. In the platform's view, open internal borders depend on secure external ones.

The CDU wants better protection for the EU's outer borders. EU law should say when people can be turned back there. Private sea rescue groups should no longer get state money. The EU's asylum rules should also change.

The CDU wants reception, asylum and court procedures to run quickly and under the rule of law. Anyone who deceives about their identity or fails to cooperate should be denied any further right to stay. Protection from deportation during a petition would be capped at three months.

The CDU wants faster asylum procedures. People who show a passport should get a quick decision. People who lie about who they are should not be allowed to stay. A petition should block deportation for 3 months at most. A petition is a request to the state parliament.

The CDU wants to strengthen counties and municipalities with money and staff for receiving refugees, because the platform says they are reaching their limits. In providing for refugees, benefits in kind should take priority over cash.

Many towns and counties struggle to take in refugees. The CDU wants to give them more money and staff. Refugees should get goods rather than cash. People who help refugees should get support.

The CDU wants to set up state-run shelters where people stay until their residence status is settled. Only those with a residence permit would be assigned to municipalities. The initial reception center in Giessen would take on more responsibilities and a central office for unaccompanied minors.

The CDU wants to set up shelters run by the state. People stay there until it is clear if they may remain. Only people with a residence permit move to towns. Deportations happen straight from these shelters. Giessen would get an office for young people without parents.

The CDU wants people who are legally required to leave to actually depart, and plans to expand deportation detention and pre-departure custody. More states are to be classed as safe countries of origin. The platform justifies this with capacity for those in need of protection and public acceptance.

People who must leave should really leave the country. The CDU wants more places for deportation detention. Leaving by choice comes before force. Criminals should leave especially fast. More countries should count as safe.

The CDU wants to press the federal government for a different course on refugee policy. It rejects the Chancen-Aufenthaltsrecht (opportunity residence right) for people long tolerated and the switch from the asylum track to work-based residence, arguing that both create incentives for unauthorized entry.

The CDU opposes the federal government's refugee policy. It rejects new rights to stay for tolerated people. It says this draws more people into the country without permission. The federal government should deport faster.

The CDU wants to keep supporting expellees and Spätaussiedler (ethnic German resettlers), citing their contribution to rebuilding the country. Hesse is to keep taking in resettlers, and at the federal level the party wants to push for better pension rules and a fairer hardship fund.

Spätaussiedler are ethnic Germans who move to Germany from Eastern Europe. The CDU wants Hesse to keep taking them in. They should get better pensions. The CDU wants to push for this at the federal level. The state offices for expellees should stay.

The CDU wants to expand the Hasselroth facility into housing and an education and community center for Spätaussiedler (ethnic German resettlers). Because the party sees resettlers as German citizens rather than migrants, they are to be housed separately.

The CDU wants to expand the facility in Hasselroth. Young resettlers and families should live there. There should be language classes and career advice. The CDU says resettlers are Germans. So they should be housed apart from other newcomers.

The CDU acknowledges the contributions of Muslims to Hesse and wants to integrate Muslim culture and ways of life more closely into society. The Dialog-Forum Islam is to become permanent, and mosque communities are to be supported in pastoral care, social work and integration.

The CDU wants to keep talking with Muslim communities. The Islam dialogue forum should become permanent. Mosques should open up to their neighbors, for example with festivals. The CDU wants to support this.

The CDU opposes gender-inclusive spellings using special characters such as colons or underscores at Hesse's schools. Only the official spelling rules are to apply; in the party's view such spellings make reading harder.

Some people write words with a colon or underscore to include all genders. The CDU does not want this at schools. It says this makes reading harder. Schools should follow only the official spelling rules.

The CDU rejects making gender-inclusive language with special characters mandatory at Hessian universities. Those who do not use it should face no disadvantages such as lower grades; the rules of the Council for German Orthography are to apply.

Nobody at universities should have to use gender spelling. This means writing with asterisks or similar signs. People who do not use it should not get a worse grade. The official spelling rules should apply.

The CDU wants to launch an alliance for values lived in everyday life to strengthen respect, consideration and civic courage. It commits to an open society, opposes all forms of discrimination and wants to review age limits.

The CDU wants more respect and cohesion in daily life. It wants to found an alliance with towns, clubs, churches and the media. Nobody should be treated unfairly, for example because of age, religion or sexual orientation. The CDU wants to review age limits.

The CDU wants everyone to be addressed in a gender-fair way but rejects any obligation to use gender-inclusive forms with special characters. In its view, language should unite, so it wants to use German according to the established rules.

The CDU does not want a duty to use gender forms with special characters. These are, for example, asterisks or colons inside words. This applies above all to schools and universities. The CDU says language should bring people together.

The CDU wants to reduce differences between women and men in pay and leadership positions. It wants to attract more women to STEM careers and business start-ups, ease the return to work after family leave, and have home care count more toward pensions.

Women often earn less than men. The CDU wants to change that. More women should become bosses. More young women should choose technical jobs. People who care for relatives should get a higher pension.

The CDU wants to better protect women from violence, especially domestic violence. Hotlines, counseling centers and women's shelters are to be kept and expanded where needed.

The CDU wants to protect women from violence. There are hotlines and advice centers for women. There are also women's shelters. This help should stay. Where needed, there should be more of it.

The CDU wants to fight racism, hate and discrimination and implement Hesse's anti-discrimination strategy. Counseling services and the reporting office "Hessen gegen Hetze" (Hesse against hate speech) are to be strengthened. It wants to record violence against LGBTQ people more clearly and update the action plan for acceptance and diversity.

The CDU is against racism and hate. It wants to strengthen advice centers for this. There is an office where people can report hate speech. It should become better known. Queer people should also be better protected from violence.

The CDU wants to give special support to clubs that create inclusive sports programs for people with disabilities. The program "Sport integriert Hessen" for refugees, people with a migration background and socially disadvantaged people is to be expanded.

The CDU wants to support sports for people with disabilities. Clubs with such programs get special help. Guides will show people with disabilities the way to sports. Refugees and immigrants should also find it easier to join sports clubs.

Citing Europe's Jewish heritage and Germany's responsibility for the Holocaust, the CDU sees a special duty toward Jewish life in Hesse. It wants to protect Jewish institutions, strengthen the office of the antisemitism commissioner, and further develop the state treaty with the Jewish communities.

The CDU wants to give Jewish people in Hesse special protection. Synagogues and Jewish schools should be protected too. There is a commissioner against hatred of Jews. This office should become stronger.

The CDU rejects requiring gender-inclusive spelling with special characters in official administrative language. Its reasoning is that a language that is imposed and hard to understand loses its purpose.

Some people write words with a star or colon to include all genders. The CDU does not want to make this a rule in government offices. It says language must be easy to understand. Offices should write by the normal rules.

The CDU wants to make Hesse the leading location for eco-tech research and relies on innovation rather than bans for climate and nature protection. Universities should be able to research energy questions without being tied to particular technologies.

The CDU wants to protect the climate with new technology. It thinks bans are the wrong way. Hesse should lead in research on green technology. Companies from this field should come to Hesse. Universities should be free to research all energy technologies.

The CDU wants to promote energy-efficiency upgrades of owner-occupied homes through incentives and help people save energy. It rejects mandatory renovations as proposed at EU level, calling them a disproportionate intrusion on owners' rights.

The CDU wants to help homeowners save energy. There should be incentives, for example for upgrading a house. The CDU does not want a duty to renovate. The EU proposes such duties. The CDU thinks this is too hard on owners.

The CDU wants to launch a state funding program for energy-related measures in buildings. At the federal level, it wants the earlier subsidy scheme for the Efficiency Standard 55 to be extended by five years.

The CDU wants to give money for energy-saving homes. People who insulate their house get support. This also applies to solar panels. The federal government should keep paying its old subsidy for new buildings longer.

The CDU rejects the federal government's heating law and a ban on gas and oil heating systems. It wants to modernize heating through incentives and technology-neutral solutions instead. Heating with wood and biomass should remain allowed, including in new buildings.

The CDU is against the federal heating law. It does not want bans on gas and oil heaters. It prefers to offer incentives. Heating with wood should stay allowed.

The CDU commits to making Hesse climate-neutral by 2045 and to meeting the agreed interim steps. The state's climate law is to be adapted to changed federal rules, which means fixed sector targets will be dropped.

Hesse should be climate-neutral by 2045. That means Hesse will no longer harm the climate. The CDU wants to change the state's climate law. There will be no more fixed goals for single areas. The state's own offices should be climate-neutral by 2030.

The CDU rejects the federal government's planned de facto ban on new gas and oil heating systems as well as a blanket ban on cars with combustion engines. It also rejects building renovation mandates planned at the EU level.

The CDU is against a ban on new gas and oil heating. It is also against a ban on cars with combustion engines. The EU plans rules that force owners to renovate homes. The CDU rejects that too. It says bans make climate protection unpopular.

The CDU regards European emissions trading as the central tool of climate policy and supports extending it to buildings and transport. In the long run, it aims for a single CO2 price across all sectors throughout Europe.

Those who emit CO2 must buy permits. This is called emissions trading. The CDU wants to expand this system in Europe. It should also cover buildings and transport. In the end, all of Europe should have one CO2 price.

The CDU relies on technical solutions rather than doing without when it comes to climate protection. It wants to launch a special program for climate technologies, advance carbon capture and storage, and expand natural carbon sinks.

The CDU wants to protect the climate with technology. People should not have to give things up. The state should invest in new climate technology. It should be possible to capture and store CO2. Forests and bogs should also absorb more CO2.

The CDU wants to keep supporting hydrogen and fuel cell technology and turn Hesse into a lead market. To that end, filling stations and infrastructure are to be expanded and cooperation with other states stepped up.

The CDU wants to support hydrogen more. Hydrogen is a gas that can provide energy. Hesse should become a leading market for it. There should be more hydrogen filling stations. Skilled workers for climate protection should be well trained.

The CDU wants to prepare Hesse for the consequences of global warming with a "climate adaptation offensive." Plans include investment in flood and extreme-weather protection, precautions against power outages, and help for farming and forestry.

The climate is getting warmer. The CDU wants to prepare Hesse for this. The state should spend more on protection from floods and storms. There should be emergency points for power outages. Farmers and forest owners should also get help.

The CDU announces an "energy offensive" that rules out no technology for generating energy. Hesse is to become a leading location for energy research, especially for laser-driven nuclear fusion.

The CDU wants research on all kinds of energy. No technology should be ruled out from the start. Hesse should lead in energy research. Nuclear fusion matters most to the CDU. In fusion, atomic nuclei merge and release energy.

The CDU wants to push for keeping the most recently shut-down nuclear power plants as a strategic reserve for the time being rather than dismantling them. It cites security of supply and stable prices during the energy crisis.

Germany has shut down its last nuclear power plants. The CDU does not want them taken apart yet. They should stay ready as a reserve. The CDU says this helps keep power secure and prices stable.

The CDU wants to expand power grids at all levels, advance energy storage and speed up permits for power lines. Local and district heating as well as energy efficiency are also to be increased.

The CDU wants more power lines to be built. Permits for them should come faster. It should be easier to store electricity. Storage should face fewer charges. There should also be more district heating.

The CDU wants to advance energy savings in households, buildings and businesses through more advice and funding. It intends to lobby the federal government for a scrappage bonus for old large household appliances.

The CDU wants people and companies to use less energy. There should be more advice for this. People who swap an old appliance for an efficient one should get money. The federal government should pay for this.

The CDU wants to lobby the federal government for a support model called "PrivatPlusEnergie" to follow the electricity price brake. People who generate and use their own green power would also get a benefit on the rest of their electricity use.

Some people make their own power, for example with solar panels. The CDU wants to reward these people. They should also get help with the rest of their power. The CDU wants to push for this at the federal level.

The CDU wants to expand solar energy on roofs, commercial sites, along transport routes, over parking lots and in part over farmland and water. A 100,000-roofs program with cheap or interest-free loans plus lower taxes and less red tape is meant to make solar the norm.

The CDU wants many more solar panels in Hesse. They should go on roofs, parking lots and next to highways. There should be cheap loans for 100,000 roofs. People should pay no taxes on solar power they use themselves.

The CDU wants to keep expanding wind energy in Hesse in a way that fits the landscape and has public acceptance, and to shorten procedures considerably. At the same time it criticizes the federal government for requiring more than the two percent of land agreed in 2011.

The CDU wants more wind turbines in Hesse. Permits should come faster. Old turbines should be replaceable with new ones. But the CDU is unhappy about a federal rule on land area.

The CDU wants to make greater use of geothermal heat, both near the surface and from great depth. Legal and bureaucratic obstacles are to be removed, especially in the Upper Rhine Rift with its favorable geology.

The CDU wants to use more heat from the ground. This is called geothermal energy. There should be fewer rules for it. It works especially well in the Upper Rhine Rift.

The CDU wants to preserve and promote biogas, heating with wood and hydropower as renewable energy sources. It rejects additional requirements and new taxes on earnings at the federal level.

The CDU wants to keep supporting energy from manure and plants. Heating with wood should stay too. Small hydropower plants and old mills will keep getting money. The CDU does not want new strict rules for this.

The CDU wants to keep supporting and to expand energy production from agricultural biomass and biogas. At the federal level it advocates fair payment models and opposes additional taxes on earnings.

Manure, slurry and plants can be turned into energy. The CDU wants to use this more. Farmers should be paid fairly for it. There should be no new taxes on the earnings. Biogas should get into the gas grid more easily.

The CDU wants lasting funding for preserving, restructuring and rebuilding damaged forests under all types of ownership. Forest owners are to be paid for the carbon their forests store, for instance through a low-bureaucracy forest bonus.

Many forests in Hesse are sick. The CDU wants to save and rebuild them. There should be lasting money for this. Forest owners should also get money because their forest stores CO2.

The CDU rejects taking additional forest land out of management and wants no new requirements for forestry. In its view, sustainable forestry already protects biodiversity effectively, while set-asides harm climate protection and the wood supply.

Some forests are no longer used. Nobody cuts trees there. The CDU does not want more such areas. It says: The managed forest already protects animals and plants well. And people need the wood.

The CDU wants to use more wood from local forests and secure supplies for Hesse's sawmills and wood industry. Forest owners are to be relieved of some costs of keeping roads safe from tree hazards.

The CDU wants to use more wood from Hesse's forests. Sawmills should get enough wood. Forest owners must protect roads from falling trees. They should pay less for this.

The CDU affirms hunting as a cultural asset and wants to extend hunting seasons for several species, while the hunting law keeps its basic principles. Hunters and anglers are to get more self-responsibility and less red tape.

The CDU thinks hunting is important. Hunters should be allowed to hunt some animals for longer. They should be allowed to hunt wild boar all year. Hunters and anglers should manage many things themselves.

The CDU wants to include the wolf in Hesse's hunting law and actively manage its population as soon as federal law allows. It no longer regards the wolf as an endangered species in Germany and wants better protection for people and grazing animals.

Wolves live in Germany again. The CDU says: The wolf is no longer at risk. Hunters should be allowed to hunt wolves once federal law permits it. This way the CDU wants to protect people and grazing animals.

The CDU wants to secure affordable, clean drinking water even as the climate changes, expanding pipeline networks and water sourcing to do so. It rejects a general "Wassercent," a levy on water extraction.

Everyone in Hesse should have clean and affordable drinking water. The CDU wants to renew the water pipes. It does not want a new charge on water. Rivers and streams should become more natural again.

The CDU wants to keep supporting the mining company Kali+Salz as it becomes more environmentally compatible. Jobs and economic value are to be preserved until mining ends, while environmental standards are met.

Kali+Salz is a mining company in Hessen. The CDU wants to keep supporting it. The company should harm the environment less. The jobs should stay until mining ends.

The CDU wants to keep reducing nitrate and phosphorus in water bodies, but on a polluter-pays basis. The "red zones" with stricter fertilizer rules are to be drawn more precisely, based on additional measuring points.

Water should contain less nitrate and phosphorus. In "red zones" there are strict rules for fertilizer. The CDU wants to draw these zones more exactly. For that, there should be more measuring points. Farmers who protect water should get exceptions.

The CDU rejects blanket land set-asides of the kind it says are being considered at EU level. Conservation is instead to work through voluntary contracts with owners and land users, with contract-based conservation taking priority.

The CDU does not want to take land out of use across the board. It says the EU is discussing such ideas. Nature protection should be voluntary. The state signs contracts with farmers and owners for this. Insects should also get more places to live.

The CDU aims for material cycles that are as closed as possible and wants to advance the recyclables bin and the Dual System (Germany's packaging recycling scheme). At the same time, new landfill capacity is to be created and less food and plastic should end up as waste.

The CDU wants more waste to be recycled. For this, there should be a bin for recyclable materials. There should be more landfill space for construction waste. People should throw away less food and plastic.

The CDU wants to improve conditions at animal shelters with more money for the Stiftung Hessischer Tierschutz (Hessian animal welfare foundation) and a special program. For farm animals, it relies on the roundtable with farmers and associations, without rules that apply only in Hessen.

The CDU wants to help animal shelters. There will be more money for building work. Farm animals should be treated better. The CDU talks about this with farmers and associations. There should be fewer animal experiments.

The CDU rejects giving animal welfare organizations their own right to sue. It expects no gain for animal welfare from it, but more strain on courts and longer permitting procedures. Break-ins at livestock barns are to be punished as a crime.

Animal welfare groups should not be able to go to court themselves. The CDU says this does not help animals. It only makes procedures longer. People who break into a barn should be punished.

The CDU wants to set up a separate ministry for agriculture, forestry, and winegrowing to underline the importance of these sectors for society and supply. The main land users' associations are to get the same rights and duties as recognized conservation groups.

The CDU wants to create a new ministry. It will deal with farming, forests, and winegrowing. Farmers' associations should get more rights. They should have as much say as nature protection groups.

The CDU wants to market regional food more strongly and use it more often in public cafeterias, daycare centers, and schools. Processing businesses such as dairies, mills, and slaughterhouses are to be kept in the region.

The CDU wants more food from Hessen. Daycare centers, schools, and cafeterias should use more of it. There will be a campaign for products from Hessen. Dairies, mills, and slaughterhouses should stay nearby.

The CDU wants to implement EU farm funding in Hessen so that the programs involve little bureaucracy and are used by as many farms as possible. Besides general investment support, it plans special funds, for example for livestock, crop protection, and insect protection. It regards conventional and organic farming as equal in value.

Farmers get support money. The CDU wants to make applying easier. There should be extra money for special tasks. For example, for better barns or modern technology. For the CDU, organic farms and other farms are worth the same.

The CDU wants plants from new breeding techniques such as CRISPR/CAS not to be treated legally like genetically modified organisms. It advocates a swift, science-based distinction at EU level.

There are new ways to breed plants. One is called CRISPR/CAS. The CDU says this is not the same as genetic engineering. The EU should set clear rules on this quickly.

The CDU wants more livestock farming in Hessen and plans to fund the modernization of farms to achieve it. It relies on the Borchert plan for restructuring animal husbandry, mandatory husbandry labeling, and secured investments.

The CDU wants more livestock farming in Hessen. Farmers should modernize their barns. They get money for this. Labels on meat should show how the animals lived. Farmers who invest should be able to rely on the rules.

The CDU wants to make it easier to get compensation for damage caused by returning species such as wolves, lynx, beavers and otters, and to reverse the burden of proof. Wolf protection measures for grazing livestock would also be fully funded across Hesse.

Wolves, lynx, beavers and otters live in Hesse again. Sometimes they cause damage. The CDU wants people to get money for this more easily. Farmers should no longer have to prove the damage themselves. The state should pay the full cost of protection against wolves.

The CDU wants to cap the loss of agricultural land at 2.5 hectares per day and agree on a package of measures with farmers. This includes priority for building within existing settlements, an end to compensatory tree planting on farmland, and agri-photovoltaics as the standard.

Farmland is lost every day, for example to buildings. The CDU wants to limit this strongly. The limit should be 2.5 hectares per day. Replacement forests should no longer be planted on fields. Solar panels should be built so that farming can continue below them.

The CDU wants to suspend the set-aside of cropland required under EU farm subsidies. Fallow land is to be opened temporarily for all crops nationwide, and conservation-law restrictions on agricultural production are to be reduced.

The EU requires farmers to leave part of their fields unused. The CDU wants to pause this rule. Farmers should be allowed to plant unused land again for a time. Nature protection rules should restrict farming less.

The CDU rejects blanket bans in transportation and wants to stick with the car, including the combustion engine. In the platform's view, this technology has a future with synthetic, CO2-neutral fuels, and the car remains indispensable above all in rural areas.

The CDU does not want to ban cars. Cars with combustion engines should stay too. They should run on clean, man-made fuel. Many people in rural areas need a car. No type of transportation should be treated worse than another.

The CDU wants to make Hesse the state with the most autonomous vehicles in transportation. Self-driving buses are to bring passengers from the city outskirts to public transit in metropolitan areas, and pilot projects are also planned for rail.

The CDU wants to support vehicles that drive without a driver. Such buses should bring people from the edge of town to transit. Hesse should have more of them than other states. Trains without drivers should be tested too.

The CDU wants to expand Hesse's rail network, with priority for the Rhein Main Plus program in the Frankfurt area. Closed lines are to be reopened where it makes sense, and train stations are to be renovated.

The CDU wants more and better rail lines in Hesse. New lines around Frankfurt matter most. Old lines should get trains again where it makes sense. Train stations should look better.

The CDU wants buses and trains to run reliably and regularly everywhere in Hesse and aims for at least half-hourly service, especially in rural areas. On-demand services, community buses, and weekend night service are to be added.

The CDU wants better buses and trains in Hesse. In rural areas, something should run at least every 30 minutes. There should also be buses and taxis you can order. On weekends, buses and commuter trains should run at night too. People should still be able to buy tickets without a phone.

The CDU wants to make crosswalks and pedestrian signals easier to approve, based on how dangerous a spot is rather than only on the number of cars. For bike paths, an amount equal to ten percent of road construction funds is to remain available.

The CDU wants to protect pedestrians better. Crosswalks and signals should be easier to set up. What matters is how dangerous a spot is. Bike paths should keep getting fixed funding. There should be more fast bike routes.

The CDU wants to fund road construction and maintenance adequately over the long term and complete ongoing highway projects. Town bypasses are to be built step by step from a dedicated budget line according to fixed criteria.

The CDU wants to build roads and keep them in good shape. The A49 and A44 highways should be finished. Many towns should get a bypass road. Then fewer cars drive through town. Planning and permits should be faster.

The CDU rejects blanket, across-the-board speed limits beyond today's rules. Instead, variable speed limits that respond to traffic and weather are to apply.

The CDU does not want a new speed limit for all roads. Speed limits should apply where it is dangerous. The allowed speed should be able to change. That depends on traffic and weather.

The CDU wants to promote electric mobility and names climate-neutral drive systems as its long-term goal. As a first step, a statewide charging network with competition among electricity providers is to be built, while other drive types remain an option.

The CDU wants to support electric cars. There should be charging stations all over Hesse. Different power companies should be able to sell electricity there. Street lamps could become charging stations too. Other types of engines should still be possible.

The CDU wants to manage road construction sites better to reduce congestion. It also pursues the goal of zero road deaths and calls for European rules requiring driver-assistance systems in trucks and buses.

The CDU wants fewer traffic jams caused by roadworks. On busy sites, crews should work six days a week in three shifts. Traffic should also become safer. Trucks and buses should get technical aids such as cameras and emergency brakes.

The CDU backs Frankfurt Airport as an international hub and supports construction of Terminal 3. The airport is also meant to become a pioneer in e-fuels, while EU climate programs, in the party's view, must not put the location at a disadvantage. The CDU also commits to Kassel Airport.

The CDU wants to strengthen Frankfurt Airport. This is meant to secure jobs. The new Terminal 3 should be built. The airport should become more climate-friendly, but EU climate rules should not hurt it. The CDU also wants to support Kassel Airport.

The CDU wants to strengthen the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main metropolitan region and, for the first time, develop a joint mobility plan with Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate. It is to cover all modes of transport.

The region around Frankfurt reaches beyond Hesse. The CDU wants to plan transport there with three neighboring states. The plan should cover buses, trains, cars, bikes and walking. The CDU wants to make the whole region stronger.

The CDU wants to make the subject 'Digitale Welt' (Digital World) a regular subject in grades 5 and 6 statewide and to strengthen computer science in lower secondary school. From grade 7, children are to be able to learn with a digital device, and schools' technical equipment is to grow.

Grades 5 and 6 everywhere should have the subject Digital World. From grade 7, children should be able to learn with a digital device. Schools should get better Wi-Fi. Experts should take care of the technology.

The CDU wants gigabit-capable connections everywhere in Hesse by 2025 and fiber-optic access everywhere by 2030. Public subsidies are meant to flow only where companies do not build networks themselves, especially in rural areas.

The CDU wants fast internet in all of Hesse. By 2030, fiber should be available everywhere. Fiber is a very fast cable for the internet. Companies should build the networks first. The state pays where companies do not build.

The CDU wants to close the remaining mobile dead zones in Hesse and make 5G available statewide. It plans a new subsidy program for poorly covered areas and shorter permitting procedures.

The CDU wants good cell phone coverage everywhere in Hesse. Dead zones should disappear. The fast 5G network should cover the whole state. Many new cell towers should be built for this. The state pays where building does not pay off for companies.

The CDU wants to expand Hesse's digital ministry into a "ministry of the future" that brings together digitalization, research, and technology. In addition, the state is to test new technologies itself and make digital services accessible to everyone.

Hesse has its own ministry for digital topics. The CDU wants to make it bigger. It should also handle research and technology. The state should try out new technology itself. Everyone should be able to use digital services.

The CDU wants to build up Hesse as a location for digital companies and names Silicon Valley as its model. This includes venture capital with private partners, more data centers, a regulated Web3 environment, and help for small and medium-sized businesses going digital.

The CDU wants to bring more digital companies to Hesse. Young companies should get money more easily. Hesse should get more data centers. These are buildings with many large computers. Small businesses should get advice on going digital.

The CDU wants to expand funding for artificial intelligence and set up a Hessian agency for breakthrough innovations. The state is also to support the creation of a center for applied quantum computing.

The CDU wants to spend more money on artificial intelligence. The state should set up a new agency for big inventions. The agency should be able to give money to young companies. Hesse should also help build very fast quantum computers.

The CDU wants to strengthen IT security in Hesse's public administration and conclude a cybersecurity pact with municipalities. Binding minimum standards are to apply to state agencies. The program sees information security as a precondition for the state and government remaining able to act.

The CDU wants to protect public offices better from online attacks. State offices should have fixed security rules. The state should help towns and cities with this. A joint pact is planned for that.

The CDU wants to roll out electronic case files in the judiciary quickly and make greater use of artificial intelligence as support. A human is always to make the final decision. Citizens are to get easier access to the courts through digital services.

The CDU wants to make courts more digital. Files should be electronic. Artificial intelligence should help with the work. But a human always decides in the end. People should also be able to file requests online.

The CDU wants every dealing with state and municipal authorities to be possible online by 2030 in order to speed up procedures. At the same time, offices are to remain reachable in person and be relocated more widely across the state.

By 2030, people should be able to handle all government business online. This should be faster and easier. But people should still be able to go to the office in person. More offices should move to the countryside.

The CDU wants to make the state administration more digitally self-reliant and secure. The state's own IT provider is to be expanded, specialists trained in-house, and the Hessen3C cyber competence center developed further.

The CDU wants better technology in government offices. The state should train its own computer experts. It should be able to build its own software. A center should protect better against attacks from the internet.

The CDU wants to weigh data protection and data use against each other more evenly. Data protection should not block digitalization projects, and small businesses and associations should face less red tape. At the same time, citizens are to have more say over their data.

The CDU wants to protect data. But it also wants to use data better. Data protection should not always come first. Small firms and clubs should have less paperwork. People should decide more about their own data.

The CDU wants to better protect older people from fraud and crime. A future commission on "Safety in Old Age" is to develop proposals, and the network of safety advisers for seniors is to grow across all of Hesse.

The CDU wants to protect older people better. For example from the grandchild scam and from fraud on the internet. A commission should collect ideas on this. There should be safety advisers for seniors everywhere in Hesse. The police should continue their work against scammers.

The CDU wants to raise the number of police officers beyond 16,000 and modernize their equipment. Police should be more visible in cities and rural areas. The stated goal is less crime and a higher clearance rate.

The CDU wants to hire more police officers. The police should get better equipment. This includes body cameras and stun devices. People should see police on the street more often. A fourth helicopter should be added.

The CDU wants to continue digitalizing the police, with new software, apps for use in the field and a police cloud. Large volumes of data from investigations are to be analyzed largely automatically. Virtual reality is to be used more in training.

The CDU wants to make the police more digital. Officers should get good apps and software. Computers should sort through large amounts of data quickly. One office should be able to unlock locked phones and computers. Officers should also train with VR headsets.

The CDU wants to adapt Hesse's police law (HSOG) to the digital world and advocates data retention. Automated data analysis, including with artificial intelligence, is to help fight crime. Under the platform's guiding principle, the more serious the offense, the more data protection should yield.

The CDU wants to give police more access to data. Phone and internet companies should store connection data in advance. Computer programs should analyze data automatically. For very serious crimes, police should also be able to read encrypted messages. The CDU says data protection must not protect offenders.

The CDU wants to make Hesse a leader in drones, drone tracking and autonomous flight. A drone detection system is to be built step by step, and security forces are to use drones more often on a clear legal basis.

The CDU wants to build a system that spots drones in the sky. It should start in the big city regions first. The police should use more drones themselves. Airports should be protected from illegal drones.

The CDU wants to reverse the burden of proof when seizing assets from organized crime and create a legal basis for seizing cryptocurrencies. A cross-agency task force is to step up enforcement. Fast-track proceedings are to apply to juvenile repeat offenders.

The CDU wants to act harder against organized crime. Suspects should prove that their assets are legal. Police should also be able to seize digital money. A team from several agencies should investigate together. Young repeat offenders should get to court faster.

The CDU wants to keep using video surveillance and add facial recognition for manhunts. Weapon and alcohol ban zones, more public-order staff in the evening and better lighting are meant to raise actual and perceived safety in public spaces.

The CDU wants more cameras in public places. The cameras should also be able to recognize faces. This way police want to find wanted people faster. There should be more zones where weapons are banned. More public-order staff should be on buses and trains in the evening.

The CDU announces a safety package for women. Contact and restraining orders are to be monitored with electronic ankle bracelets. According to the platform, women should be able to feel safe in every situation.

The CDU wants to protect women better from violence. Some offenders are not allowed to come near a woman. An electronic ankle monitor should check this. It is a device on the leg that reports the location.

The CDU wants to expand crime prevention with a particular focus on children and young people. Programs in schools are to be set up with the state prevention council. Better media literacy is meant to protect against abuse imagery and cybergrooming.

The CDU wants to prevent crime. Children and teens should learn at school how to protect themselves. They should know how to use the internet safely. There should be self-defense courses. People should be able to send tips to the police online more easily.

The CDU wants to overhaul the system of police allowances and raise the general police service allowance. Officers who perform especially demanding duties are to receive an appropriate allowance. The job is also to become more attractive through modern workplaces and relief from administrative work.

The CDU wants new rules for police allowances. An allowance is extra money on top of pay. Officers with very hard duties should get more. Police should also have less office work.

The CDU wants to push at the federal level for a minimum prison sentence of six months for attacks on emergency personnel. A fine would then no longer be possible. The program argues that society has a duty to protect those who protect it.

The CDU wants tougher punishment for attacks on emergency workers. These are police, firefighters and rescue workers, for example. The sentence should be at least 6 months in prison. A fine should no longer be enough.

The CDU wants to give the Landesamt für Verfassungsschutz (state domestic intelligence agency) more staff and revise the law governing it. In the program's view, a democracy able to defend itself needs a stronger early-warning system against extremism and organized crime.

The CDU wants to strengthen the Verfassungsschutz. This agency watches enemies of democracy. It should get more staff. The law for the agency should also change.

The CDU wants to act against right-wing and left-wing extremism, Islamism, and antisemitism and keep prevention funding at its current level. The program calls right-wing extremism the greatest current threat to democracy.

The CDU wants to fight all kinds of extremism. Extremists reject democracy. The CDU says the biggest danger now comes from right-wing extremists. The state should keep spending a lot on prevention.

The CDU wants members of anti-constitutional organizations to be deemed unfit to hold weapons without exception. The waiting periods after which former extremists may own firearms again are to be doubled. Sport shooters and hunters are not to be placed under general suspicion.

The CDU says extremists should not have guns. Members of anti-constitutional groups should get no permit. Former members should wait twice as long as now. Hunters and sport shooters should not face general suspicion.

The CDU wants crimes to be prosecuted faster and more strictly, on the streets and online. Minimum sentences are to apply to blocking emergency routes and to blowing up ATMs. Fast-track proceedings are to be used wherever possible.

The CDU wants to prosecute crimes faster. People who block emergency routes should get at least a prison sentence. Blowing up ATMs should also carry a higher minimum sentence. Fast court proceedings should happen more often.

The CDU wants IP addresses to be stored on a mandatory basis for a limited period. It points to the leeway the European Court of Justice has left for this. According to the program, this is needed to solve serious crimes such as child abuse.

The CDU wants IP addresses to be stored. An IP address shows which connection someone used online. Storage should be required and last only a set time. The CDU wants to solve serious crimes this way, such as child abuse.

The CDU wants to give more support to victim assistance and victim protection and anchor the state's victims' commissioner in law. Counseling centers and women's shelters are to be available statewide. Prevention programs for young people and for protecting children are to grow as well.

The CDU wants to help crime victims more. The state's victims' commissioner should get a legal basis. There should be counseling and women's shelters all over Hesse. Children should get special protection in court.

The CDU wants to improve working conditions and pay for prison staff. Prisons are to be kept and modernized, and there should be enough prison places.

The CDU wants to make work in prisons better. Staff should get better pay. They should also get more training. Prisons will be modernized. There should be enough places for prisoners.

The CDU wants to focus more on reintegrating offenders while expanding electronic location monitoring for people under post-release supervision. Radicalization in prisons is to be fought more strongly.

Offenders should find their way back into society after prison. For this, the CDU wants more language courses and courses on the rule of law. More released prisoners should wear an electronic ankle tag. The CDU also wants to act against radicals in prison.

The CDU wants to continue funding for fire engines, fire stations and disaster-relief facilities and adjust it to rising prices. At the same time, regulations are to be reviewed and volunteers relieved of administrative work.

The CDU wants to keep giving a lot of money to fire services and disaster protection. The money is for vehicles and buildings. There should be less red tape. Volunteers should have less paperwork. Help should still arrive within 10 minutes.

The CDU wants to expand the state fire service school and make training more digital and flexible. Children's and youth fire brigades and fire safety education are to keep receiving strong support.

The CDU wants to make the school for firefighters in Hesse bigger. Courses should also be offered digitally and locally. That way training fits better with family and work. The CDU also wants to win children and young people for the fire service.

The CDU wants to step up preparation for emergencies and set up a crisis and resilience council for this purpose. Shelters, stockpiles, emergency power and warning systems are to be expanded, and people should be better able to protect themselves.

The CDU wants to prepare Hesse better for emergencies. A new council will write guidelines for this. There should be more shelters and more supplies. Sirens and a warning app will alert people. Each year there will be a civil protection day.

The CDU wants to set up security management for critical infrastructure and offer municipalities a resilience seal. With the ESOC space operations center, Darmstadt is to become a European hub for crisis resilience and for protecting space infrastructure against cyberattacks.

Power, water and data networks matter to everyone. The CDU wants to protect them better from outages and attacks. Towns and cities should be able to get a seal for good preparation. In Darmstadt, a center will protect satellites from attacks over the internet.

The CDU wants every crime against public employees and local politicians to be reported to the authorities. The employer is to support those affected. Support services for victims of violence are to be strengthened.

Some people attack public workers or local politicians. The CDU wants every such crime to be reported. The employer should help the people affected. Victims of violence should get more help.

The CDU wants to strengthen the state economics ministry and move responsibility for labor into it. Businesses would then have a single point of contact.

The CDU wants to merge two ministries. The labor ministry will become part of the economics ministry. Companies will then have just one place to go. This should save them time.

The CDU wants to ban money from student bodies from going to organizations hostile to the constitution. According to the program, student funds should serve student interests only.

Students pay fees to their student body. This money should only benefit students. It should not go to groups that work against the constitution. The CDU wants to ban this.

The CDU wants to make volunteering easier with less red tape and lower costs. The state is to pay GEMA music licensing fees for nonprofit clubs, the Ehrenamtskarte (volunteer card) is to become digital and usable nationwide, and tax allowances for clubs are to rise.

The CDU wants to help clubs and volunteers. Volunteers work for others freely and without pay. The state should pay the GEMA fees for clubs. These are fees for music at events. The volunteer card should also come as an app.

The CDU supports a period of service to society for all young people and calls on the federal government to create the legal basis for a mandatory year. Until then, it wants to expand the Freiwilliges Soziales Jahr (voluntary social year) and make it more flexible.

The CDU wants a required year of service for young people. During this year they work for the community. The federal government should pass the laws for it. Until then there should be more voluntary programs.

The CDU wants future police officers, prosecutors, and judges to undergo a mandatory check by the domestic intelligence agency before they are hired. According to the program, those who represent the state should demonstrably stand behind the free democratic order.

The CDU wants to check new police officers, prosecutors and judges. The domestic intelligence agency should do this before hiring. The check should be required. The CDU wants to be sure these people support democracy.

The CDU wants to continue Hesse's Pakt für den Rechtsstaat (pact for the rule of law) and fully cover the calculated staffing needs of courts and prosecutors' offices. According to the program, citizens should get legal protection within a reasonable time. The judiciary is also to become a more attractive employer.

The CDU wants more staff for courts and prosecutors. Cases should then move faster. Courts should stay in rural areas too. Jobs in the justice system should become more attractive.

The CDU aims to abolish the Verbandsklagerecht (the right of associations to bring lawsuits) and wants to speed up civil proceedings with new procedural tools. Frankfurt is to be strengthened as a venue for complex commercial cases, including through more hearings in English.

The CDU wants to end the Verbandsklagerecht. This right lets associations sue in court. Civil cases should move faster. In Frankfurt, more cases should be possible in English.

The CDU wants to give more support to lay judges, local courts (Ortsgerichte) and volunteer arbitrators. The law on the arbitration office (Schiedsamt) is to be revised, and municipalities are to get help with IT equipment for local courts.

Some people work for the justice system as volunteers. They do not get paid for it. The CDU wants to help these people more. The rules for the arbitration office will be rewritten. An arbitration office settles disputes without a court.

The CDU wants to review Hesse's municipal code together with local governments and amend it selectively. It would examine an electoral threshold for local councils, dropping runoff elections for mayors and county heads, and digital meetings; it also plans experimentation clauses.

The CDU wants to revise the rules for towns and counties. It is looking at an electoral threshold. That means very small groups would no longer get council seats. It will also check whether runoff elections can be dropped. Towns should be allowed to try out new ideas.

The CDU wants a commission to review all state funding for effectiveness and simplification and to cut programs that involve excessive red tape. Applications are to become simpler so that small municipalities can also use funding.

The state has many funding programs. The CDU wants all of them checked. Programs with too much paperwork should be dropped. Applying should get easier. That way small towns can also ask for money. Advisers should help them do it.

The CDU wants to keep funding cooperation among cities, towns and counties, scaled to how far it goes. A digital pact between the state and municipalities is meant to digitalize local administration end to end.

Towns should work together more. This saves money and shares knowledge. The CDU wants to pay for this. Towns that work together more closely get more. They should stay independent. Local offices should also work digitally.

The CDU wants to further cut red tape and speed up administrative procedures without lowering the quality of decisions. A commission is to critically review the administration's tasks, and a Hessian regulatory review council is under consideration.

The CDU wants government offices to work faster. There should be less red tape. A group from business, politics and government should check which tasks are needed. The CDU is also looking at a council that reviews laws.

The CDU wants the state of Hesse to remain an attractive and competitive employer and to train more of its skilled staff itself. Entry and advancement are to depend more on performance and ability, making lateral entry easier.

The state of Hesse needs good employees. The CDU wants the state to train more people itself. After training, they should get a permanent job. Performance should count more than certificates. That way, people from other jobs can also move to the state.

The CDU wants to keep the career civil service (Berufsbeamtentum) while modernizing it. Career-track rules are to become more flexible so that performance and further qualification pay off more. The state administration should largely stop using fixed-term contracts without an objective reason.

The CDU wants to keep civil servants. These are people with a permanent job for the state. People who get more training should move up more easily. The state should avoid short-term contracts that have no reason.

The CDU wants to make working for the state of Hessen more flexible and family-friendly. This includes flexible hours, part-time work, remote work, offices close to home and more childcare. The free LandesTicket for public transit is to stay.

The CDU wants more flexible jobs in the state government. Staff should combine family, care and work more easily. They should work from home or near home more often. The free ticket for buses and trains should stay.

The CDU wants to keep raising civil servants' pay until the Federal Constitutional Court's requirements are met. Health cost subsidies (Beihilfe) and allowances are to be revised. The party stands by the state's own collective agreement.

The CDU wants to pay civil servants better. The top court has set rules for this. The CDU wants to meet these rules. The state should also cover more health costs. Hessen should keep its own pay agreement.

The CDU wants only those actually affected to be able to sue over infrastructure projects. The municipal code is to be changed so that citizens' petitions (Bürgerbegehren) do not delay important projects. A dedicated panel at the Higher Administrative Court is to decide such cases faster.

The CDU wants to build big projects faster. Only people who are really affected should be able to sue. Citizens' petitions should not hold up important projects. A citizens' petition is a local vote that residents demand. A special court team should decide such cases faster.

The CDU wants to create its own "Democracy Action Plan" to convey the value of democracy and freedom. It justifies this with attacks on democracy through hate, antisemitism, racism and fake news, and with what it sees as a damaging cancel culture.

The CDU wants to make an action plan for democracy. The plan should show why democracy and freedom matter. The CDU says hate and false news harm democracy. It also wants to keep fighting hate speech online.

The CDU does not want to lower the voting age and wants to keep it tied to the age of majority. At the same time it wants to involve young people more in political decisions and backs strong, directly elected constituency representatives.

The CDU does not want to change the voting age. People should still vote from age 18. But young people should have more of a say. Lawmakers elected in a district should stay strong.

The CDU demands that no additional burdens on businesses come from Brussels. EU rules should be transposed in Germany one-to-one, without going further. The party invokes the principle of subsidiarity.

The CDU says the EU creates too much red tape. It wants no new burdens for businesses from Brussels. Germany should not make EU rules stricter than needed. The EU should not solve every problem itself.

The CDU supports EU enlargement to Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans but demands that new members meet every criterion at accession. Ukraine may join after the war ends, while the CDU rules out Turkish membership.

The CDU wants new countries to be able to join the EU. But these countries must meet all EU rules. Ukraine can join after the war. Turkey should not join the EU.

The CDU rejects EU-level taxes and EU borrowing and wants to preserve the stability criteria and the narrow mandate of the European Central Bank. At the same time the EU should tackle major tasks such as defense, the single market, migration and climate protection jointly, while respecting subsidiarity.

The CDU does not want the EU to raise its own taxes. The EU should not take on its own debt either. On big issues the EU countries should work together. For example on defense and climate protection. But each country should be able to decide a lot on its own.

The CDU wants to actively represent Hesse's interests toward the EU institutions. This includes EU funding for strong regions too, expanding Darmstadt as a space hub and bringing the EU anti-money-laundering authority to Frankfurt.

The CDU wants to speak up for Hesse in the EU. Hesse should keep getting EU funding. The space sector in Darmstadt should grow. A new EU agency against money laundering should come to Frankfurt.

The CDU wants to expand participation and exchange programs to interest young people in Hesse in Europe. Plans include a Europe scholarship and a parliamentary youth exchange.

The CDU wants to get young people excited about Europe. There should be more exchanges with other countries. Students should be able to get a Europe scholarship. A scholarship is money for studying. Young people can keep winning train tickets for Europe.

The CDU rejects civil clauses at state-funded universities, meaning self-commitments to conduct research for civilian purposes only. It sees them as a restriction on academic freedom and a disadvantage for the defense industry.

Some universities only do research for peaceful purposes. This rule is called a civil clause. The CDU is against this rule. It says the rule limits the freedom of research. Defense companies should also benefit from research.

The CDU wants to press the federal government for a well-equipped Bundeswehr with growing personnel. It justifies this with the threat to Europe from Russia's war of aggression. In Hesse it backs the bases of the Bundeswehr and of US forces.

The CDU wants a strong German army. Soldiers should get good equipment. There should be more soldiers. The CDU says Russia threatens security in Europe. Soldiers should keep visiting schools to talk about their work.

The CDU supports further deliveries of military equipment to Ukraine and wants the federal government, together with its partners, to keep supplying Ukraine's army. In its view Ukraine must win the war. It also commits to the arms industry in Hesse.

The CDU wants to keep giving weapons to Ukraine. It says Ukraine should win the war. The weapons also protect our freedom. The CDU stands by the companies in Hesse that build weapons.

The CDU wants to keep raising Hesse's funds for development cooperation and set up a foundation for politically persecuted people. It also wants to maintain and expand the state's international partnerships.

The CDU wants to give more money to help poorer countries. It wants to set up a foundation for persecuted people. The foundation should help people in their home countries. Hesse should build more partnerships with other regions.

The CDU wants to keep funding and expanding existing music education programs because, in its view, music supports children's development and language learning. It also plans a recorder project, culture buses and a new institute for cultural education.

The CDU wants more music for children. Children starting school should get a recorder. Buses should take rural children to cultural places. A new institute should steer all the programs.

The CDU wants to make heritage protection more practical and affordable. The register of protected buildings is to be updated, the law adjusted, and agency responsibilities streamlined. Buyers of listed buildings are to receive funding for renovation.

Old buildings are often protected by law. The CDU wants to make these rules simpler. Owners should get money for repairs. The list of protected buildings should be checked again.

The CDU wants to actively support traditions, customs and cultural identity and create a dedicated Heimat (homeland) division in the agriculture ministry. Dialects are to be strengthened in daycare centers and schools, local studies sharpened in elementary school, and a "House of Hessian History" prepared.

The CDU wants to do more for local identity and old customs. One ministry should get its own division for this. Children should learn more about dialects in daycare and school. Town signs may also show the name in dialect. A new building should show the history of Hesse.

The CDU wants to give special support to cultural life and clubs in rural areas because, in its view, they shape quality of life and cohesion in villages. It plans mobile cultural offerings and more construction and modernization of sports facilities.

The CDU wants to give more support to culture and clubs in the countryside. Museums should come to villages by bus. Rural movie theaters should get funding. Sports fields, gyms and swimming pools should be renovated.

The CDU wants to keep alive the memory of the flight, expulsion and deportation of Germans after World War II. To that end, the day of remembrance is to be secured, the topic expanded in school lessons, and research and cultural preservation funded.

After World War II, many Germans had to leave their homes in the East. The CDU wants people to remember this. The day of remembrance in Hesse should stay. Students should learn more about it. Towns and counties should look after the memorials.

The CDU wants to support Hesse's entire cultural scene, from major institutions to traditional customs and choirs, film, music, literature and urban arts. Volunteers are to be relieved, for example by having the state cover GEMA (music licensing) fees and by simplifying funding procedures; the party also rejects what it calls cancel culture.

The CDU wants to support culture across Hesse. This includes theaters, museums, choirs, carnival, film and books. Clubs should have less paperwork. The state should pay GEMA fees for clubs. These are fees for playing music in public.

The CDU wants to continue museum funding, keep strongly supporting the three state museums and maintain a fixed budget for art acquisitions. A non-commercial NFT platform is meant to make museum holdings that are not on display known to the public.

The CDU wants to keep funding museums in Hesse. Museums should be able to buy important works of art. Many artworks sit in storage. The CDU wants to show them online. Children and young people should learn more about art.

The CDU wants to preserve Kassel's documenta as a globally important art exhibition and thoroughly overhaul its structures to that end. Dealing with the events surrounding antisemitic content at the most recent edition is to be a priority.

Documenta is a big art show in Kassel. At the last show there were images hostile to Jews. The CDU wants this to be examined closely. Documenta should get new rules and a new structure. There may also be a museum of its own.

The CDU wants to give priority in future budgets to renovating state-owned palaces, castles and gardens and to turn the palace administration into a major provider of cultural education in rural areas. Funding for heritage conservation is also to grow, with faster procedures at the authorities.

Hesse has many palaces, castles and gardens. The CDU wants to repair and preserve them. There should be more learning programs there. Old protected buildings should also get more help. The offices in charge should decide faster.

The CDU wants to keep funding and renovating the three state theaters and to increase state support for festivals. The independent theater scene is also to receive state money so that ensembles can plan reliably.

Hesse has three big state theaters. The CDU wants to keep paying for them and repair the buildings. Festivals should also get more money. Independent theater groups should get money from the state. This helps them plan ahead.

The CDU wants to draw up Hesse's first overall plan for memorials and sites of remembrance. It would rest on three pillars: the victims of National Socialism, the history of East Germany, and sites of democratic history.

Memorial sites remind people of important and terrible times in history. The CDU wants to make a big plan for them. It should remember the victims of the Nazi era. It should also remember East Germany and the history of democracy.

The CDU calls for a fundamental reform of public broadcasting aimed at quality, transparency, stable license fees and balanced reporting. It stands by an independent Hessischer Rundfunk (Hesse's public broadcaster) and the state media authority, and takes a critical view of EU media regulation.

The CDU wants to change public broadcasters like ARD and ZDF. They should report in a neutral way and work openly. The broadcasting fee should stay as stable as possible. Hesse's own broadcaster should stay independent. The CDU is critical of new EU media rules.

The CDU wants to expand media literacy programs across Hesse and bundle existing offerings in a single concept. People of all ages should be able to assess information and spot fake news.

The CDU wants people to handle media well. They should be able to spot false news. The many programs for this should work together better. Older people should also learn more about digital media.

The CDU wants to give more support to sports clubs and sports facilities and provide 12 euros per club member per year from state funds. The funding programs for building sports facilities are to be widened and simplified.

The CDU wants to give sports clubs more money. The state will pay 12 euros a year for each member. Sports halls and fields will be built and renewed. Funding should become simpler. Clubs will keep getting help with high energy costs.

With a program called "KidS," the CDU wants to pay every child in Hesse two years of membership fees in a sports club. In addition, athletic talent is to be spotted and supported as early as school.

The CDU wants to bring more children into sports clubs. The state will pay the club fee for two years. Each child can choose the club. Experts will look for talent in schools. The children then get offers from clubs that suit them.

The CDU wants to bring more major international sporting events to Hesse and to back Germany's Olympic bid. Olympic and Paralympic elite sports are to receive more support.

The CDU wants big sports events to come to Hesse. It backs Germany's bid for the Olympic Games. Top athletes should get more help. A large sports campus is planned in Frankfurt.

The CDU wants to support organized e-sports and its clubs. It also wants to build up the Rhine-Main region as a location for game development and major tournaments.

The CDU wants to support e-sports. E-sports means people compete in video games. Sports clubs should be able to offer e-sports without tax problems. Hesse should become an important place for video games.

The CDU wants to strengthen staffing for municipal food inspections so that far more of the required checks take place. Consumer advice is to receive at least the same funding, and the hardship fund against energy cutoffs will stay in place.

The CDU wants food to be checked better. The authorities should have enough staff for this. Advice services for consumers keep getting money. People who cannot pay for power or heat should get help.

The CDU wants to expand, simplify and better coordinate funding for rural areas. The Dorfentwicklung (village development) program is to stay well funded, a new "UnserWIRHaus" program is to be created, and vacant buildings in village centers are to be turned into housing.

The CDU wants to do more for villages and rural areas. The village development program should keep a lot of money. Village community halls should also be able to host shops or doctors. Empty houses in village centers should become homes again. The CDU asks the federal government for more money for rural areas.

The CDU commits to protecting Christian holidays and traditions and wants to keep enforcing Good Friday quiet, including the dancing ban. For up to four shopping Sundays, it wants workable and legally sound rules.

The CDU wants to protect Christian holidays. Good Friday should stay a quiet day. The ban on dancing that day should stay. The authorities should check that people follow it. Stores should be allowed to open on up to four Sundays a year.

The CDU wants to keep the existing relationship between state and churches and develop the partnership with churches and religious communities on a cross-party basis. Village churches are to be preserved and denominational religious education offered statewide.

The CDU wants the state and the churches to keep working together well. Small village churches should be preserved. Schools everywhere should offer religion classes. Students who do not take part have ethics class.