CDU on democracy and the state

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 enlarged ministry is to become the central office for three tasks: securing skilled workers, supporting new businesses and promoting investment. The platform describes it as a modern "one-stop shop," meaning one office that handles all matters for companies.

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 program calls for an explicit funding ban. It argues that student contributions are meant for students' own concerns. Organizations directed against the constitution are to be excluded from receiving them.

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.

A campaign called "Ehrenamt – aber ohne Bürokratie" (volunteering without red tape) is to match offers of help with demand; the "Ehrenamt digitalisiert" program continues. The GEMA payment covers noncommercial events held by nonprofit clubs. The CDU wants to push for higher tax allowances on clubs' commercial side activities and to ensure that employer support for volunteering causes no tax disadvantages. Volunteering should count more toward waiting time for a university place. Coordination centers are being set up with the counties, and volunteer agencies and training programs such as #zukunftsmacher will keep receiving support.

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.

Places for a voluntary social year are to be expanded considerably and made more flexible. They are aimed mainly at young people but also at seniors after their working lives. Participants should face no disadvantages from taxes or benefit offsets. Until the federal government enables a mandatory year, the CDU wants to motivate more young people to volunteer. Volunteering and social initiatives are to keep receiving support.

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 check is to take place as a rule and without exception. The Landesamt für Verfassungsschutz (state domestic intelligence agency) would be responsible. It would apply to applicants for the police service, the public prosecutor's offices, and the judiciary.

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 goal is staffing at 100 percent under the Pebb§y calculation system, with extra support for heavily burdened areas. The federal government is to make its own rule-of-law pact permanent, add a digital pact, and share in the states' additional staffing costs. Court locations across the state are to be kept and modernized; centralizing register courts in rural areas is to be examined. Plans include better pay structures, easier civil-servant status for court clerks, fewer fixed-term contracts, and more training places. New judges and prosecutors are to get mentors and a capped caseload at first, and social courts are to be relieved of hopeless suits by so-called serial litigants.

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.

In mass civil litigation, key legal questions are to be settled early by the highest courts; the CDU wants legislation to make this possible. Possible improvements to the Musterfeststellungsklage (model declaratory action) are to be reviewed. In Frankfurt, specialization and pooling of complex commercial cases are planned. English-language proceedings are meant to make state courts more competitive with private arbitration.

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.

Lay judges should find it easier to combine their office with a job, raising children or caring for relatives. The program regards the local courts as indispensable for the community; the state is to help municipalities improve the IT equipment of their members. The legal rules for the arbitration office are to be revised so that the work of the volunteer arbitrators becomes easier.

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.

In the CDU's view, a threshold would make councils work better and reduce a mathematical imbalance between votes and seats. For elections of mayors and county heads, it wants to assess whether dropping the runoff makes sense. Digital meeting formats are to be examined at least for certain bodies, while respecting directness, transparency and public access. Experimentation clauses would let municipalities test unusual solutions that could later serve as models for statewide laws. The CDU commits to local self-government and the principle of subsidiarity.

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 commission would be led by Hesse's finance ministry. Programs are to be bundled, application and processing simplified, and municipalities given more freedom in how they use funds. The CDU is examining so-called zero notices as a way to speed up procedures. The funding guide office at the interior ministry is to be greatly expanded and also advise on federal and EU funds. Regional development and urban development funding will remain and rely more on locally developed concepts.

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.

A report on shared opportunities is to show where cooperation is possible, such as administrative units, security, digital infrastructure or cultural offerings. Large and exemplary projects can receive considerably more funding. The independence of municipalities is to be preserved. The digital pact is meant to advance digital procedures as well as the digital skills of administrative staff.

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.

Responsibilities, hierarchies and decision paths are to become more efficient at all levels of government. The commission is to receive its mandate right at the start of the legislative term. Staff suggestions, new ways of organizing work and an open culture around mistakes are to feed into modernization. More staff exchange is planned with business, think tanks, research institutions and start-ups, and between ministries and levels of government. All state government reports are to be reviewed in the first year. A regulatory review council at state level could systematically evaluate laws and quantify their benefits.

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 state's training and degree programs are to be expanded and made more attractive. Trainees and students in the state administration are to have a reliable prospect of permanent employment. Moving between the private sector and public service is to become easier. Under the umbrella brand “Arbeitgeber Land Hessen,” the CDU wants to step up recruiting of young people and experienced professionals.

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 program argues that civil servant status ensures the administration works reliably in the state's core functions even during crises. Promotion is to be made easier, especially for civil servants who gain further qualifications during their careers, including alongside their job. They should not be worse off than lateral entrants with the same qualifications. Permanent jobs should be the norm, so the state should avoid fixed-term contracts without an objective reason as far as possible. Training opportunities and an organized handover of knowledge when staff leave are also planned.

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.

Staff with family duties are to have the same chances at careers and leadership roles. Childcare for the administration, including emergency care, is to grow according to need. Working-time accounts are to become easier to use and serve as family-time accounts; more flexible hours are meant mainly to raise the employment and full-time rates of women. The Hessenbüros, local workspaces tested in the tax administration, are to be expanded. The move into retirement is to become more flexible, with attractive terms for those who work longer.

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 program cites the pay adjustments of 2023 and 2024 as first steps and wants to build on them. Beihilfe is to cover more services, especially psychotherapy, preventive care and early detection, and the reimbursement rate is to be set per person. Allowances and compensation for overtime and on-call duty are to be restructured and made clearer. The CDU will examine whether allowances can count toward pensions. The state's own collective agreement ("Hessentarif") is to be developed further together with the unions.

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 Hessen Municipal Code (HGO) is to be amended so that citizens' petitions do not endanger the swift completion of important infrastructure; public participation in planning is to stay untouched. The party also stresses effective legal protection with high standards. It wants to push for a change to the German Judiciary Act so administrative courts can be staffed more flexibly. A new panel solely for infrastructure cases is to be created at the Hessen Higher Administrative Court.

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 action plan is meant to strengthen democracy from within and stress its value compared with other forms of government. The CDU wants to build on the "Hessen gegen Hetze" (Hesse against hate speech) program and its online reporting office. Beyond criminal and media law, it wants to raise awareness of shared values among citizens and media players. The state agency for civic education is to be made fit for the future. The platform calls open, controversial debate indispensable and sees it damaged by ideology, political correctness and cancel culture.

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 current rules on the right to vote and to stand for election are to stay unchanged. Young people are to get more say in political decisions by other means. The CDU wants constituency representatives who speak independently for their local voters. It rejects the federal electoral reform of the Ampel (the SPD, Greens and FDP coalition) because directly elected candidates could lose their seat after the fact.