CDU on other topics

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.

The so-called Hessen-Euro, one euro per member per month, is to go to grassroots sports and club funding. Maximum funding rates for sports facility construction are to rise because of inflation and building costs, as are the procurement thresholds for clubs. A special program with a higher funding rate is planned for sports halls and centers shared by several clubs. The subsidy per coaching hour is to rise to two euros, lottery and sports betting funds for sports and welfare associations are to increase, and clubs will get help with digitalization.

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 state would cover the first two years in a Hessian club of the child's choice in order to lower barriers. Once during their school years, every child is to complete a movement course and get feedback from a talent scout on their strengths, plus matching offers from local clubs. For this, the Hessian movement check (Bewegungscheck) is to be expanded and offered in as many counties as possible. Sports training centers are to be strengthened for especially talented children; more elite sports schools and sports boarding schools are under consideration.

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 platform plans to expand elite funding and support services for top athletes from Hesse, and to make professional sports easier to combine with a job or university studies, especially in the police and at universities. The Otto-Fleck-Schneise site and the German Football Association's academy in Frankfurt are to be developed into a "Sportcampus Deutschland in Hessen." The national Nordic skiing training center in Willingen and Winterberg is to get a long-term future, including new and modernized ski jumps. The CDU wants to use the 2024 European Football Championship to present Hesse as a host; fan projects and fair-play programs are to continue.

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.

Sports clubs are to be able to offer a gaming section without putting their nonprofit status at risk. The platform plans a dedicated funding line for "Games made in Hessen," focused on big-budget AAA titles. The Rhine-Main region is to become a venue for major national and international tournaments. To promote top performance, the CDU wants to set up a "players foundation" together with private partners.

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 agreement between the state and municipalities on food inspections is to be reviewed. The food safety task force is to keep supporting municipalities and work more on a risk basis. The consumer advice center and the Deutscher Hausfrauenbund (a homemakers' association) remain the providers of advice. Consumer and nutrition education is to start early, with more room for everyday skills in curricula. The CDU expects the federal government to find social yet market-based solutions against power and energy cutoffs, and it wants to give more support to energy-saving advice.

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 calls on the federal government for more and more flexible money from the joint agriculture and coastal protection fund. As many regions as possible are to become EU LEADER regions, and rural funding is to be possible below the current minimum thresholds. In village development, the funding cap is to rise considerably, especially for groups of village districts; village facilitation and the "Starkes Dorf" program will continue or grow. "UnserWIRHaus" would open community halls and small civic halls to shops, mobile medical practices or pharmacies. To tackle vacancy, municipalities would get help with buying property and owners would be funded too, with special attention to half-timbered buildings.

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 program describes holidays as times of reflection and rest and Christian traditions as part of Hesse's culture. Public order authorities are to keep monitoring the dancing ban in the state holiday law. The CDU considers exceptions to Sunday protection necessary because of competition from online retail and to preserve retail jobs. Rules for up to four open Sundays on the weekends permitted so far are meant to let municipalities make clear and legally secure decisions.

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.

The program calls Christianity the foundation of the culture and the churches major employers and a pillar of the welfare state. In the CDU's view, religious freedom exists only on the basis of the Basic Law. Ending the historic state payments to the churches is to happen in a fair process among churches, state and federal government. The preservation of Hessian village churches will be supported. Ethics remains the substitute subject for denominational religious education, and there is to be a class offering for Muslim students.