CDU: program for the 2022 Lower Saxony state election

The CDU wants to help businesses find skilled workers and bundle the measures in the Fachkräfteinitiative Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony skilled labor initiative). The platform points to the gap that retiring baby boomers will leave in the labor market.

Many older workers will retire soon. Then skilled workers will be missing. The CDU wants to help companies find them. The state should watch closely which jobs are needed.

The CDU wants to make Lower Saxony Germany's leading state for start-ups and innovation and plans a statewide innovation and transfer strategy for this. It is meant to align the many players behind shared goals and allocate resources within a strategic framework.

The CDU wants many new ideas to come from Lower Saxony. There should be one shared plan for this. Universities, companies and trades should work together. A new agency should support new tech companies.

The CDU wants to set up innovation regions where new solutions can be tested with fewer regulatory requirements. Deviations from legal standards are also to be allowed there.

The CDU wants special regions for new ideas. Fewer rules should apply there. This makes it easier to try new things. Examples are transport, energy and health care.

The CDU wants to make it easier to start a business through less red tape, faster procedures and more venture capital. Lower Saxony is to become the German state where the legal steps of founding a company take the least time.

The CDU wants people to start a company more easily. There should be less paperwork. Procedures should be faster. New companies should also get money more easily.

The CDU wants to pool the state's high-tech expertise and target funding at specific research fields. These include quantum technology, artificial intelligence, high-performance computing and aerospace.

The CDU wants to fund research on new technology more. This includes quantum technology and artificial intelligence. It also includes aviation and space. Researchers in the state should work together more closely.

The CDU wants to strengthen the state-owned NBank as the central development bank and expand funding considerably. The bank is to offer advice and financing from a single source and provide venture capital, because the program sees a market gap for it in Lower Saxony.

NBank is the development bank of the state of Lower Saxony. The CDU wants to make this bank stronger. It should advise companies and give them money. It should also fund risky new business ideas. For this, the bank should get more staff and more money from the state.

The CDU wants to support small and mid-sized companies with a grant program of €250 million over two years. It justifies this with the pressure that the crises of recent years have put on these firms and on business start-ups.

The CDU wants to help small and mid-sized companies. There should be 250 million euros over two years for this. About 25,000 companies could get money this way. Companies should also get more money for staff training. Applying for support should be simple and digital.

The CDU wants to keep the start-up bonus and the master craftsman bonus in the skilled trades and extend the start-up bonus to solo self-employed people. At the same time, the trades are to be relieved of red tape. The program calls the skilled trades a pillar of mid-sized business and of dual vocational training.

The CDU wants to support the skilled trades. People who start or take over a trade business should keep getting a bonus. The bonus for the master craftsman certificate should stay too. The state should pay more for the training centers of the trades. Businesses should have less paperwork.

The CDU wants to back brick-and-mortar retail, which it considers necessary for lively town centers and for supply in rural areas. It plans a new state program for town and village centers, help with digitalization, and legally secure rules for Sunday openings.

The CDU wants to help shops in town centers. Towns and villages should get money from the state for this. Shops should get help with going digital. The CDU also wants to change the law on Sunday opening. Sunday should stay protected.

The CDU wants to keep Lower Saxony an industrial state and secure its value chains and jobs. It relies on fast permits, low energy prices, and support for the shift to Industry 4.0. Companies are also expected to contribute to meeting climate targets.

The CDU wants Lower Saxony to stay an industrial state. Jobs in industry should be safe. Companies should get permits quickly. Energy should be reliable and cheap. The state should support change in industry with money.

The CDU wants to keep the VW law, which secures the state of Lower Saxony special influence at Volkswagen, and to preserve and expand the company's sites in the state. It wants to shape the auto industry's shift to climate-friendly mobility so that it succeeds economically and is socially acceptable.

Volkswagen is the biggest company in Lower Saxony. The CDU wants to keep the VW law. This law gives the state a say at Volkswagen. The plants in Lower Saxony should stay and grow. The state should also support charging stations and battery factories.

The CDU wants to make Lower Saxony more attractive to aerospace companies and bring such firms to the state. Hannover Airport is to be secured economically and made greener through funding projects, without additional night flights. The research airport in Braunschweig is to be expanded.

The CDU wants more aircraft and space companies in the state. Hannover Airport should get money for new projects. There should be no extra night flights for this. The airport in Braunschweig should get more money for research.

The CDU wants to increase support for tourism in Lower Saxony, focusing on sustainability and adaptation to climate change rather than just higher overnight-stay figures. It plans a new funding program, more offerings inland, and specific measures for the islands and the coast.

The CDU wants to spend more money on tourism. Guests should come all year round. Tourism should be kind to the environment. The islands should get their own contact person. Tourism workers should be able to find affordable homes.

The CDU wants to allow private partners to take part in state-owned holdings because, in its view, this often increases efficiency. The NBank, the state's development bank, is to remain profitable, and savings banks and cooperative banks are to stay on a stable footing. In addition, an initiative is to strengthen Lower Saxony as a financial and stock exchange location.

The state owns shares in companies. The CDU wants to let private partners join in. The state's development bank should keep making a profit. Savings banks and cooperative banks should stay stable. Lower Saxony should grow as a place for banks and the stock exchange.

The CDU wants to invest heavily in workplace continuing education and link it more closely with vocational schools, universities, and adult education. Retraining is meant to secure jobs amid change driven by digitalization, climate protection, and aging.

The CDU wants to put a lot of money into training at work. People should be able to learn new things on the job. Universities and vocational schools should take part more. This should keep jobs safe.

The CDU wants to encourage part-time arrangements for the transition to retirement so that older people can stay in work longer. Returning to a job after time spent raising a family is also to receive targeted support.

Older people should be able to work longer if they want. For this, the CDU wants part-time options before retirement. People who want to work again after family time should get help. This includes advice and training.

The CDU wants to merge the educational leave law and the adult education law into a new statute and set up state funding for a second career chance. Employees are to find it much easier to take part in continuing education, especially alongside their jobs.

The CDU wants a new law for training during working life. It should replace two old laws. Workers should be able to join courses more easily. The state should also give money for a second career.

The CDU wants to support new working-time models, working from home and coworking while keeping jobs with social insurance at the core. At the same time, conditions for contract workers and temporary agency workers are to improve.

The CDU wants to make flexible working hours possible. Working from home should become easier. Regular jobs with social insurance should stay important. Temporary workers should get better conditions.

The CDU wants more companies to be covered by collective agreements and wants to adapt workplace co-determination to a changing world of work. Employees should also be able to take a larger stake in their companies and share in their success.

The CDU wants more companies to pay agreed union wages. Works councils should become stronger. Workers should be able to share in their company's success.

The CDU wants stricter and more prompt workplace safety inspections, especially at particularly hazardous sites. It cites the meat industry as an example of poor conditions and also wants to act more firmly against undeclared work.

The CDU wants to make workplaces safer. Authorities should check more strictly, mostly in dangerous workplaces. The CDU names the meat industry as a bad example. It also wants to fight illegal work harder.

The CDU plans a state program for people who are hard to place in jobs. It sees them as untapped workers who can help companies in the state stay competitive.

Some people have a hard time finding a job. The CDU wants to help them with a state program. This includes people who have been out of work for a long time. Companies need these workers.

The CDU wants to pay civil servants adequately and prevent the lowest pay grades from being close to the level of basic welfare benefits. Bonuses for unfavorable working hours and strenuous duties are to rise. This is meant to keep the state attractive as an employer.

The CDU wants to pay civil servants fairly. Even those with low pay should earn clearly more than basic welfare. People who work at night or on weekends should get higher bonuses. All state employees should be able to lease a bike.

The CDU regards inclusion as a human right and wants to give people with disabilities more participation in housing, culture, health care, and working life. It plans funding programs for accessible housing and more support for sheltered workshops.

People with disabilities should be able to take part everywhere. The CDU wants to fund more homes without barriers. Doctors' offices and hospitals should also be easier to enter. Workshops for people with disabilities should get more money. Moving into a regular job should become easier.

The CDU wants to support people who have fallen into hardship through illness, economic trouble, or family crises. It plans help for homeless people, more support for food banks, and expanded debt and psychosocial counseling.

Some people lose their home or have large debts. The CDU wants to help them. Towns and cities should get support to help homeless people. Food banks should get more support. There should be more counseling for debt and mental health problems.

The CDU wants older people to be able to live independently in their neighborhoods for a long time. Age-appropriate housing, barrier-free renovations and support services are to be funded. An action plan against loneliness is also planned.

Old people should be able to stay in their neighborhood for a long time. The CDU wants to support fitting housing. Old houses should be rebuilt without barriers. There should be a plan against loneliness.

The CDU wants to push for the reduced value-added tax rate for the hospitality sector to become permanent. Hotels and restaurants should also be able to recruit workers from outside the EU. The platform regards the sector as an important part of the economy.

Restaurants and hotels pay less sales tax right now. The CDU wants to keep it that way. These businesses should also be able to hire workers from outside the EU. The CDU wants to help them after the Covid period.

The CDU wants to keep the Schuldenbremse (constitutional debt brake), continue paying down debt and consolidate the state budget. It cites responsibility toward taxpayers and future generations as well as protection against inflation. At the same time, the budget is to focus on raising investment.

The CDU does not want new debt. It wants to keep the debt brake. That is a rule in the constitution against new debt. The state should spend carefully and pay off old debt. Still, more money should go to investment.

The CDU wants to modernize the division of tasks between the federal government and the states through a new federalism commission. The states are to get a larger share of indirect taxes and be allowed to set their own surcharges and discounts on tax rates. According to the platform, this is meant to promote competition among the states.

The CDU wants new rules on what the federal government does and what the states do. A commission will work on this. The states should get more money from certain taxes. They should be allowed to raise or lower tax rates a little.

The CDU wants to create a separate pension fund for newly hired state civil servants. Their retirement benefits are to be capital-funded, meaning paid from accumulated reserves. The state legislature is no longer to have access to this money.

The CDU wants a new fund for civil servants' pensions. It only covers newly hired state civil servants. The state will save money there for later. The state parliament may not take this money for other uses.

The CDU wants to pursue money laundering and organized tax crime more forcefully, using artificial intelligence and big-data technology in tax investigations. The tax administration is to work fully digitally and without paper. Citizens are to be able to communicate with tax offices easily and quickly.

The CDU wants to fight money laundering and large-scale tax fraud harder. Tax investigators will use artificial intelligence for this. Tax offices will work digitally and without paper. People should find it easier to contact the tax office.

The CDU wants to hand municipalities more money they can spend at their own discretion and to simplify funding procedures. The program argues that municipalities account for about two thirds of public investment in the state.

The CDU wants to give towns and villages more money. They should decide for themselves how to spend it. Applying for funding should become easier. One office should advise them on all funding programs.

The CDU wants to keep the debt brake and the existing rule for paying down old municipal debt. At the same time, the state and municipalities are to jointly support financially weak municipalities through a "partnership for the future."

The CDU wants to keep the debt brake. The debt brake limits new government debt. Poor towns should get help. The state and the towns should pay for this together.

The CDU wants to make it easier for families to own a home through a state Baukindergeld (home-buying grant per child). For each minor child in the household, families are to receive 12,000 euros toward buying or building a property.

The CDU wants to help families buy or build a home. There should be a grant for this. Families get 12,000 euros for each child under 18. The money is for buying or building a house or an apartment.

The CDU wants to stop charging Grunderwerbsteuer (property transfer tax) on the purchase of a first owner-occupied home. It calls on the federal government to make mortgage interest for home ownership tax-deductible for ten years.

People who buy a house pay a tax on the purchase. The CDU wants to drop this tax for the first home of your own. Interest on the home loan should also lower taxes. This should apply for ten years.

The CDU wants to tackle high rents and purchase prices through more new construction and rejects a rent cap. There is to be no state-owned housing company; instead, it plans a construction drive with cooperatives, municipalities and private investors.

The CDU wants more homes to be built. It believes prices will then fall. It rejects a rent cap. The state should not set up its own housing company. The state's development bank should give loans for building.

The CDU wants to support municipal housing companies and cooperatives and to heavily subsidize construction, including by private investors, through the state's NBank development bank. Housing companies should get cheaper access to land, and tax depreciation for housing investment should improve.

The CDU wants more homes to be built. The state's development bank should give more money for this. Cities, cooperatives and private firms should all get support. Builders should get cheaper land more easily.

The CDU wants to implement the federal Baulandmobilisierungsgesetz (building land mobilization act) and help municipalities activate and stockpile land for construction. Suitable state-owned plots would be sold to municipalities at a discount, and rules on compensating for land use would be changed to free up more building land.

Many towns do not have enough land for building. The CDU wants to help them. The state should sell its own plots to towns for less money. Rules on making up for built-on land should also change.

The CDU wants to introduce a state-level conversion law that makes it easier to remodel buildings in city and town centers and to fill vacant lots. It also wants to act against vacancies and misuse of housing, and to simplify and subsidize adding stories and converting attics.

The CDU wants new rules for remodeling old buildings. Remodeling in town centers should get easier. Empty apartments should be usable again faster. People who add a floor or convert an attic should get money.

The CDU wants to create more affordable and rent-controlled social housing and to subsidize it. It argues that many subsidized apartments are still losing their rent restrictions and have rarely been replaced. It rejects a return to the nonprofit housing status (Wohnungsgemeinnützigkeit).

The CDU wants more low-cost homes. Many social apartments are losing their price limits. So the state should give better support for new social housing. The CDU does not want nonprofit housing status back. That is an old model with tax breaks for landlords who limit rents.

The CDU wants to roll out digital building offices statewide so that building applications and permits are handled electronically. In addition, standardized documents, standards and procedures are meant to shorten approval processes.

The CDU wants building offices to work digitally. People should apply for building permits online. They should also see how far their application is. This should make permits faster.

The CDU wants to keep expanding childcare according to demand and create more nursery places. The state would support cities and towns in doing so, and the federal government should also share the costs.

The CDU wants more places in daycare and nurseries. The state should help cities and towns with this. The federal government should also give money. Every child should be able to go to daycare.

The CDU wants to pay childminders better and give home-based childcare more support so that supply grows. Legal hurdles for larger childminding groups are to be removed.

Childminders look after children at home or in small groups. The CDU wants to give them more money. This should lead to more childminders. Larger childminding groups should also be easier to set up.

The CDU wants to reorganize family centers as contact points for parenting questions and fund them more, especially in rural areas. Large families are to get a family card that makes visiting museums, zoos and similar places easier.

The CDU wants more family centers. Parents get advice and help there. They should also exist in the countryside. Families with many children should get a family card. It makes visits to museums and zoos easier.

The CDU backs ten days of statutory leave for fathers after a birth at the federal level. It also wants to act against disadvantages for parents at work and give parenthood more recognition in tax and pension law.

The CDU wants fathers to get ten days off after a birth. A law for all of Germany should set this. Parents should not be treated worse at work. People with children should do better on taxes and pensions.

The CDU wants to accompany couples in family planning and continue help for those unable to conceive. Fertility clinics are to be funded and adoption law made easier.

Some couples want a child and cannot have one. The CDU wants to keep helping these couples. It wants to fund clinics for this. Adoption should also become easier.

The CDU wants to bring daycare, schools and youth welfare together in a single ministry in order to fight child abuse more effectively. Uniform standards for child protection, youth welfare offices and family courts are to apply statewide.

The CDU wants a ministry for children and youth. It should be in charge of daycare, schools and youth welfare. The CDU wants to protect children better from abuse this way. Youth offices should have enough staff everywhere. Judges should get better training for working with children.

The CDU wants a state child protection law that makes data exchange between youth welfare offices, doctors, schools and prosecutors easier. Suspected child abuse is to become subject to mandatory reporting, and protecting children is to take priority over data protection.

The CDU wants a new law to protect children. Anyone who suspects abuse must report it. Offices, doctors and schools should share data more easily. Protecting children should matter more than protecting data.

The CDU wants to require protection plans against violence and sexualized violence at all schools and daycare centers and to oblige youth work associations to adopt them as well. Preventive support, medical contact points and technical help for investigators are to be expanded.

Every school and daycare center should have a plan against violence. This should also apply to clubs that work with children. There should be more help for young families. Police should use computer programs to find abuse images faster.

The CDU wants to introduce a youth support law and provide more money for youth work. The aim is to give young people the time and backing to discover their talents.

The CDU wants a new law to support young people. Youth work should get more money. Young people should find out what they are good at. The CDU also wants to strengthen volunteer services.

The CDU wants to recruit 10,000 new early childhood educators by 2027 through a staffing and training drive. To do so, paid, practice-based training would be expanded and entry into the profession made easier.

Many daycare centers lack trained staff. The CDU wants 10,000 new educators by 2027. Training should be paid and include more hands-on work. People from other jobs should also be able to switch to daycare more easily.

The CDU wants to introduce a third professional per group in daycare centers. This would happen in stages by 2027 at the latest and improve the staff-to-child ratio.

A third trained person should work in each daycare group. That way more adults look after the children. The CDU wants to do this step by step by 2027. It should also make daycare jobs more attractive.

The CDU wants to bring back the Brückenjahr (bridge year) in the final year of daycare starting in 2024, to ease the transition to elementary school. In the medium term, this is meant to develop into a modern form of preschool.

The last daycare year should be a bridge year again. In it, children get ready for school. The CDU wants to start this in 2024. Later it should become a new kind of preschool.

The CDU plans an investment program for daycare quality and a "DigitalPakt Kita" (digital pact for daycare) to simplify administration and reporting. New buildings are also to be cheaper and faster to build, and new types of daycare easier to set up.

The CDU wants to put more money into good daycare. Digital tools should make office work in daycare easier. New daycare centers should be built faster and cheaper. Forest daycare and company daycare should also be easier to start.

The CDU promises teacher coverage of at least 100 percent statewide and calls this a teaching guarantee. To achieve it, 5,000 additional teachers are to be hired within five years.

The CDU wants as few canceled classes as possible. For that, there must be enough teachers. In five years, 5,000 extra teachers should be hired. This applies to all schools in the state.

The CDU wants to gradually raise starting salaries for all types of teachers to pay grade A13 over the legislative term. This is meant to reflect the length of their studies and the esteem for the profession in their pay.

Teachers start with different pay depending on the type of school. The CDU wants to change that. All should start at pay grade A13. This should happen step by step over five years.

The CDU wants to introduce a bonus for teachers in shortage subjects and underserved regions. Teachers are also to be freed from administrative work, in part through a new trained occupation called "Schulfachangestellte" (school administration specialist).

Some subjects and areas do not have enough teachers. Teachers who work there should get a bonus. That is extra money. Teachers should also have less office work. New school office specialists should do that work.

The CDU wants to significantly expand school social work and employ twice as many school psychologists as today. Actual demand is to be determined for this purpose.

Schools should have more social workers. The CDU also wants twice as many school psychologists. They help children with worries and problems. First the CDU wants to check how many are needed.

The CDU wants to run a pilot project testing how teacher training can include more practical work from the first semester on. In addition, a "Quereinstieg Plus" (lateral entry plus) program would let experienced professionals enter teaching through part-time study.

People who want to become teachers should practice in schools earlier. The CDU wants to test this first in a trial. People from other jobs should also be able to become teachers. They would study while working.

The CDU wants to identify learning gaps and emotional strain from the COVID period and address them with catch-up, mentoring and support programs. A new program is also meant to warn early when students are at risk of dropping out.

Many children learned less because of COVID. The CDU wants to find these gaps and close them. There should be tutoring and mentoring for this. There should also be help with emotional problems. A new program should stop young people from dropping out of school.

The CDU wants to gradually reduce class sizes, starting in elementary schools, and make reading, writing and arithmetic a priority. German language skills are to be supported early, including through language assessments for all four-year-olds.

Classes should have fewer children. This should start in elementary schools. Reading, writing and math should matter more. All children should take a language test at age four. Children who speak little German then get extra help.

The CDU wants to make computer science a compulsory subject sooner than planned and train more teachers for it. Economic knowledge, everyday life skills, consumer education and swimming lessons are also to get more weight in schools.

The CDU wants to make computer science a required subject sooner. There should be more teachers for it. Students should also learn more about business and everyday life. Every school should have a plan for swimming lessons.

The CDU wants to keep denominational religious education while expanding the subject Werte und Normen (values and norms) and Islamic religious education. Cooperation with the association Ditib is to be cut back sharply and later ended altogether because of political interference.

The CDU wants to keep religion classes in schools. The subject values and norms should get more room too. There should be more Islamic religion classes. But the CDU wants to stop working with the Turkish group Ditib.

The CDU wants digital technology to become a fixed part of teaching. The state is to provide vetted learning software centrally, equip teachers with devices and recognize tablets and laptops as learning materials that students can borrow.

The CDU wants more digital technology in schools. The state should buy good learning programs for all schools. Teachers should get their own devices. Students should be able to borrow tablets and laptops at low cost.

The CDU wants school authorities to set their own school structure based on parents' wishes and rejects what it sees as an ideological debate over structures. At the end of primary school there is to be a recommendation for the secondary track again, and Gymnasien (academic-track secondary schools) are to be guaranteed.

The CDU wants a recommendation after primary school again. It says which school fits the child. The Gymnasium schools should be safe from closing. Towns and counties should decide on their school types themselves.

The CDU wants to help municipalities meet the legal right to all-day care in primary schools from 2026 through a school construction drive. More outside education partners are to take part in all-day programs so that teachers can be used more for regular lessons.

From 2026, primary school children have a right to afternoon care. The CDU wants to help towns with this, also with money for school buildings. More music schools and art schools should join in the afternoon. That gives teachers more time for regular lessons.

The CDU wants to keep all Förderschulen (special-needs schools), develop them into inclusive competence centers and anchor the special schools for learning and for speech permanently in the school law. The party says inclusion should be guided by the child's well-being and leave parents a real choice between school types.

The CDU wants to keep all special-needs schools. These are schools for children who need extra help. New schools of this kind should be allowed too. Parents should be able to choose their child's school. All schools should get more experts for these children.

The CDU wants to make schools more autonomous and strengthen school heads. They are to be able to hire staff themselves and take on more responsibility for digitizing their school.

The CDU wants schools to decide more on their own. School heads should be able to hire teachers themselves. This should be possible all through the school year. There should be new training for school heads.

The CDU wants to recalculate state subsidies for private and church-run schools on the basis of their full costs. It sees these schools as an indispensable part of the school landscape and wants to include them more in support programs.

The CDU wants to support private and church schools. The state should work out anew how much money they get. They should also benefit more from support programs. Catholic schools should be allowed to take more non-Catholic children.

The CDU wants to embed career orientation in lessons as early as possible and create a dedicated anchor subject at all school types. The goal is above all to make dual vocational training better known and more attractive.

The CDU wants a new school subject on career orientation. All types of schools should have it. Students should learn about many jobs early on. There should also be vouchers for internships.

The CDU wants to simplify transitions between vocational training and higher education in both directions. The platform stresses that vocational and academic education are of equal value.

The CDU wants to make it easier to switch between job training and university. Master craftspeople should get into university more easily. People who drop out of university should find it easier to start job training. What they already learned should count.

The CDU wants to give vocational schools more money, more staff, and better digital equipment. By 2025 they are to become regional centers of excellence for vocational education with more autonomy.

The CDU wants to strengthen vocational schools. They should get more money, more staff and better digital equipment. The schools should decide more on their own. Fewer lessons should be canceled.

The CDU wants to create more university places, make degree programs more flexible and digital, and make it easier to take courses at other universities in the state. High-achieving school and university students are to get dedicated support programs.

The CDU wants more places at universities. Students should find it easier to take courses at other universities. Studying part-time should also get easier. Very gifted school and university students should get special support.

The CDU wants to create more student housing in university towns and back the Studentenwerke (student services organizations) in doing so. Semester fees and the semester transit pass are to be in reasonable proportion to their benefit.

The CDU wants more housing for students in university towns. The semester transit pass should not cost too much. There should be cheap tickets for students. Universities should get help with child care.

The CDU wants to expand language and basic education programs for adults. The platform cites as its motivation that ten percent of people in the state cannot read and write well enough to take part in society.

Many adults cannot read and write well. The CDU wants more learning programs for them. Young adults from immigrant families should also get language support. The programs should be easy to reach.

The CDU wants to scrap all school fees in vocational training and introduce training pay instead. This is meant to attract more people to these occupations and ease the shortage of skilled workers.

In some training programs, trainees have to pay school fees. The CDU wants to end these fees. Trainees there should get paid instead. This should lead more people to learn these jobs.

The CDU wants to create a Lower Saxony training bonus for low-income employees once the federal scheme ends. It also wants tax incentives for lifelong learning and more ways for adults to complete a school-leaving qualification later in life.

The CDU wants to support further training. People with low pay should get money from the state for it. There should also be tax benefits. Adults should find it easier to finish school later.

The CDU wants to change the state's higher education law so that universities with many successful spin-offs benefit financially. It also plans up to 50 additional professorships in key digital fields and easier moves between academia and business.

The CDU wants more new companies to come out of universities. Universities with many such companies should get more money. There should be up to 50 new professor jobs for digital topics. Experts should move more easily between research and business.

The CDU wants to support universities in the federal-state Excellence Strategy competition and have at least one "University of Excellence" in the state. Stable core funding and a new university development agreement are meant to secure the universities.

The CDU wants to strengthen the state's universities. At least one should win the title "University of Excellence." This is an award for very good research. Universities should get reliable funding.

The CDU wants to open up new sources of money for universities beyond the state budget, such as funds fed by donations, bequests, and contributions from alumni. It also commits to university autonomy and wants to give universities more room to make their own decisions.

The CDU wants to set up a fund for universities. Donations and inherited money should go into this fund. Former students should also be able to give money to their university. Universities should also be able to decide more things on their own.

The CDU wants to improve the digital equipment of universities, drawing on federal programs as well. This includes more digital workspaces on campus and better-equipped libraries.

The CDU wants better digital equipment at universities. Students should get more digital workspaces on campus. Libraries should become more digital too. Online degree programs should get as much money as other programs.

The CDU wants to renovate and modernize university buildings through a dedicated construction program. The aim is to keep the space and technology for research and teaching up to date.

The CDU wants to renew university buildings. There should be a special building program for this. Research and teaching should have modern rooms and technology. Sometimes private companies should take part in the building work.

The CDU wants to introduce students and doctoral candidates to starting a business early on and make studies more flexible for founders. It also focuses on STEM subjects, which it sees as a field of the future, and wants to attract more women to them.

The CDU wants more students to start a company. There should be courses on starting a business during studies. Students who start a company should be able to take a break or study part-time. The CDU also wants to strengthen STEM subjects. STEM means science, technology, engineering, and math.

The CDU wants to amend Lower Saxony's university law so that universities, universities of applied sciences, and non-university institutes can more easily do research together. It sees exchange among these institutions as the basis of successful research in the state.

The CDU wants to change the law for universities. Universities, applied-science universities, and other research institutes should do more research together. The state should give special support to such alliances. The CDU also wants to keep basic research strong.

The CDU wants to expand capacity in medical degree programs because many regions lack doctors. It plans up to 200 additional places in human medicine, 50 in dentistry and 20 in pharmacy.

Lower Saxony does not have enough doctors. So the CDU wants more university places for medicine. There should be up to 200 new places. Dentistry and pharmacy should get more places too.

The CDU wants to expand health research at universities and non-university institutes, especially on cancer, lung disease, infections, and transplantation. Cooperation among the northern German states is also to grow.

The CDU wants to strengthen health research. This is mainly about cancer, lung disease, and infections. Researchers in northern Germany should work together more. Artificial intelligence should also help find new treatments.

The CDU wants doctors' practices to be spread more evenly across Lower Saxony so that rural regions remain well served. It relies on rules for oversupplied areas and on incentives for setting up practice in underserved ones.

Some areas have many doctors, others too few. The CDU wants to change that. Young doctors should get benefits if they move to rural areas. Family doctors should be paid better.

The CDU wants to keep investing in hospitals and introduce tiers of care to raise quality and secure basic care everywhere. Investment funding is to rise quickly to eight percent of revenue from inpatient services.

The CDU wants to spend more money on hospitals. Hospitals should be sorted into levels. Big centers should treat serious illnesses. Basic care should be available everywhere.

The CDU wants to ensure that emergency, basic and standard care can be reached within half an hour everywhere. To that end, rescue services and care in rural areas are to be expanded.

Everyone should reach medical help within 30 minutes. The CDU wants to make sure of that. Rural areas should get more health centers. Rescue services should become stronger.

The CDU wants to draw up an overall plan for digital health care together with insurers and providers. Telemedicine is to be used across the state, especially in rural areas, because the program sees it as improving care.

The CDU wants more digital technology in health care. Doctors should also be able to treat patients by video. This is called telemedicine. It should help people in rural areas most of all.

The CDU wants to improve care for mental illness and make sure there are enough psychotherapists. It points out that mental health is becoming more important and that the COVID-19 pandemic leaves its mark.

Many people have mental health problems. The CDU wants enough therapists to be available. Children and young people should get more help. The CDU also wants research on loneliness.

The CDU wants to secure the supply of medicines close to where people live and support pharmacies in this role. The local pharmacy is also to serve as an easily accessible advice point in the health system.

The CDU wants to keep local pharmacies. People should get their medicines close to home. Pharmacies should also give advice and guidance. They should get help with digital technology.

The CDU wants a state initiative to set up midwife coordination centers everywhere, because many expectant parents struggle to find a midwife. Maternity wards with permanently employed midwives are to be available throughout the state.

Many parents find it hard to get a midwife. So the CDU wants midwife centers everywhere. Hospitals should have midwives on staff. Training at universities should keep growing.

The CDU wants gender-specific medicine to receive more attention and wants to fund research on it in Lower Saxony. It bases this on people's individual medical needs.

Women and men can get sick in different ways. Medicine should pay more attention to this. The CDU wants to fund research on it. It also wants better information on illnesses like endometriosis.

The CDU wants a state program to recruit 5,000 more nursing and care workers within five years and to improve working conditions in care. In the party's view, this is the only way to keep staff, win back those who left and attract new ones.

There are not enough care workers. The CDU wants to find 5,000 new care workers in five years. A care commissioner should lead the program. Care workers should be allowed to decide more on their own.

The CDU wants to bring back the one-year training course for care aides to create an easy entry into the profession. Care training is also to be organized as dual training, freed of school fees and promoted more strongly.

The CDU wants to bring back a short training course for care aides. It lasts one year. This should bring more people into care work. No one should pay school fees for the training.

The CDU wants to make nursing training more hands-on and recruit more instructors for nursing schools. To do so, it plans practice labs, additional university places, and new nursing schools.

The CDU wants better training for nurses. Schools should get practice rooms with people who play patients. There should be more university places for nursing. Experienced nurses should find it easier to teach.

The CDU wants to meet the demand for nursing staff partly through more skilled workers from abroad and career changers. Foreign qualifications are to be recognized more easily, visas granted more readily, and entry barriers lowered.

There are not enough care workers. The CDU wants to bring in more care workers from other countries. Their qualifications should be recognized more easily. People from other jobs should also be able to move into care work more easily.

The CDU wants to introduce a Landespflegegeld (state care allowance) as a subsidy so that people needing care are not financially overwhelmed. It also wants long-term care insurance reformed at the federal level and investment funding restored for nursing homes.

Care costs a lot of money. The CDU wants the state to pay a care allowance. This is extra money for people who need care. Nursing homes should also get state money again. This should lower the costs for residents.

The CDU wants people needing care to be able to live at home longer and plans to link outpatient, day-care, and residential services more closely. Family caregivers are to get relief and new housing models are to be enabled. The party rejects a rigid quota of fully qualified staff.

Many people want to be cared for at home. The CDU wants to make this easier. There should be community nurses. These are nurses who visit people in their town. Family members who give care should get more help, such as day care. There should also be new kinds of shared housing for care.

The CDU wants to streamline administrative procedures in the care sector and consolidate authorities. At the same time, digitalization is meant to simplify work processes and documentation.

Care work comes with many rules and a lot of paperwork. The CDU wants to reduce this. Government offices should work together better. Computers and digital tools should make the work easier.

The CDU rejects a nursing chamber with compulsory membership and favors voluntary representation of interests. Unions, workplace representatives, and professional associations are to be strengthened, and a collective agreement for the care sector is to be pursued again.

Care workers should be able to speak up for their interests. The CDU does not want to force them to join a chamber. It wants to strengthen unions and associations. It also wants a collective agreement for care work. A collective agreement sets pay and working conditions for many workers.

The CDU opposes any legalization of drugs except for medical purposes. At the same time, it wants to expand prevention, counseling, and treatment in addiction services with additional funding.

The CDU does not want to allow drugs. The only exception is for medical use. The party wants to inform people more about the dangers of addiction. Schools should talk about addiction earlier. There should be more money for helping people with addiction.

The CDU wants to recruit skilled workers abroad, arguing that the gap left by retiring baby boomers cannot be closed otherwise. Foreign qualifications are to be recognized more easily, and refugees are to be brought into work more effectively.

Lower Saxony lacks skilled workers. The CDU wants to bring skilled workers from other countries. Foreign degrees should count more easily. Refugees should also find work more easily.

The CDU wants to make the state reception authority the central body for deportations, relieving local immigration offices. It argues that overlapping responsibilities and a lack of expertise have sometimes prevented removals so far.

The CDU wants one office to handle deportations. The state reception authority would take this over. Local immigration offices would then have less work with it. The CDU says too many offices are in charge today.

The CDU wants to introduce a residence requirement in initial reception centers and distribute asylum seekers to municipalities only if they have good prospects of staying. Reading out mobile devices to clarify identity and origin would become standard procedure.

The CDU wants stricter rules for asylum seekers. They would have to stay in the first reception center. Only people with good chances of staying would move to a town. Authorities would routinely read out cell phones. This is meant to clarify identity and origin.

The CDU wants an integration law that gives immigrants a right to integration services while making participation mandatory. It expects everyone living in Germany to commit to the values of the Basic Law, the German constitution.

The CDU wants a new law on integration. Immigrants should get a right to help, such as courses. But then they must also take part. Everyone should respect the values of the German constitution. There should be integration centers in the regions.

The CDU wants to conclude personal integration agreements with immigrants that combine support with required efforts of their own. Learning German and earning one's own living are to be fixed parts of integration. Language support is to be expanded at the same time.

The CDU wants to make single agreements with immigrants. These list the steps toward integration. People should get help, but they must also do their part. They should learn German and earn their own money.

The CDU rejects strict language rules in research and teaching. People who do not use gender-inclusive language at universities, research institutions or elsewhere should face no disadvantage; the party bases this on academic freedom.

The CDU does not want strict language rules at universities. Nobody should have to use gender-inclusive language. People who do not use it should face no disadvantage. The CDU says science must stay free.

The CDU wants to make equal rights for women and men a reality in everyday life and break down fixed gender roles. Work and family are to be easier to combine, more women are to reach leadership roles and STEM jobs, and women who care for relatives are to be protected from poverty in old age.

Women and men should have the same chances. The CDU wants more child care places. More women should become bosses and start companies. Women who cared for relatives for a long time should get a better pension.

The CDU wants to improve implementation of the Istanbul Convention, a Council of Europe treaty against violence toward women. Shelters, counseling services, and prevention projects are to be expanded.

The CDU wants to protect women and children better from violence. There should be more money for shelters. Counseling should be easy to reach everywhere and anonymous. Police, courts, and counseling centers should work closely together.

The CDU wants lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and intersex people to be able to live safely and free from discrimination. Police and prosecutors are to be made more aware of hostile violence, and services in rural areas are to be expanded.

LGBTI means lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and intersex people. They still often face violence and rejection. The CDU wants to protect them better. The police should get better at recognizing such crimes. Rural areas should get groups and counseling.

The CDU wants to push through a special economic zone for hydrogen and renewable energy across the entire coastal region. There, the use of these energy sources would be free of taxes and levies for 20 years. This is meant to speed up building a hydrogen industry, which according to the program requires much lower energy prices.

The CDU wants to set up a special zone on the coast. Companies there should use hydrogen and renewable energy. They should pay no taxes or charges on it for 20 years. This should help build a hydrogen industry. New industrial companies should also come to the coast.

The CDU wants to continue converting the steel industry to climate-neutral production together with the companies. Green hydrogen is to replace carbon in steelmaking; the energy supply should be both ecologically and economically sustainable.

The CDU wants steel to be made without harming the climate. Green hydrogen should replace coal for this. Green hydrogen is made with power from wind and sun. The CDU wants to support steel companies in this change. Workers should get further training.

The CDU wants to pay farmers for storing CO2 in soils and forests and to strengthen their role as energy producers. Funding is to go to regional energy concepts, to linking biogas, wind and solar with green hydrogen, and to agrivoltaics. The platform says this will strengthen security of supply and decentralized energy.

Farmers should get money when they store CO2 in the soil. CO2 is a gas that harms the climate. Farmers should also produce power and heat. Fields should be usable for solar panels and farming at the same time.

The CDU wants to develop a strategy for protecting peatlands together with those affected, conservation groups, and farmers. The program regards peatlands as important carbon stores that need to be rewetted to work. Rewetting is to happen only with compensation for disadvantages and after a participation process.

Peatlands store a lot of CO2. To do that, they have to be wet. The CDU wants to make a plan to protect peatlands. Farmers, residents, and environmental groups should have a say. People who are worse off should get compensation.

The CDU wants Lower Saxony to meet its entire demand for energy and hydrogen from renewable sources by 2040. In its view, climate protection should be carried out in an economically efficient way and remain open to all technologies. Businesses are to get room to act and support.

By 2040, Lower Saxony should use only clean energy. This also applies to hydrogen. The CDU does not want to prescribe one specific technology. Companies should get help with the switch.

The CDU wants to invest at least one billion euros in renewable energy, energy efficiency, and CO2 reduction and set up a climate fund at the state-owned NBank. Lower Saxony is to become a "solar state." Sustainability is to be considered in all government decisions.

The CDU wants to spend a lot of money on climate protection. It should be at least one billion euros. A new fund should support climate-friendly projects. There should be more solar panels in the state.

The CDU wants to make the state administration climate-neutral by 2040 and sees the public sector as a role model. To that end, state-owned buildings are to be renovated in a climate-friendly and cost-effective way. The state's vehicle fleet is also to become greenhouse-gas neutral.

The state's offices should be climate-neutral by 2040. That means they no longer harm the climate. To get there, the CDU wants to renovate the state's buildings. The state's cars should run clean too.

The CDU wants to scrap the obligation to carry out compensation and replacement measures when bike paths or renewable energy facilities are built. This covers generation facilities as well as transmission lines.

People who build often have to do something for nature elsewhere. This is called compensation. The CDU wants to drop this duty for bike paths. It should also end for clean energy facilities.

The CDU wants to bring companies, universities, research institutes, business associations and policymakers together in decarbonization clusters. Part of the revenue from CO2 certificate trading is to go to forest owners and farmers so they can invest in climate-friendly projects.

The CDU wants businesses to emit less CO2. Companies and researchers should work together more closely. Forest owners and farmers should get money from CO2 trading. They should use it for climate projects.

The CDU wants to provide more money for flood protection on the coast and inland and to speed up planning with a dedicated law. It cites climate change, rising sea levels and the fact that about 14 percent of the state's area is at risk from storm surges.

The CDU wants to protect the state better against floods. There should be more money for this. A new law should make planning faster. The dikes on the coast should become stronger.

The CDU wants to do without gas, oil and coal from Russia by the end of 2023. To that end, the ports of Wilhelmshaven and Stade are to be upgraded together with the federal government for liquefied natural gas (LNG) and biogas, and LNG terminals are to be built as fast as possible.

The CDU wants to stop buying energy from Russia. This should happen by the end of 2023. Two ports are to be expanded for this. Ships should deliver liquid gas there. This liquid gas is called LNG.

The CDU wants to allow more conventional natural gas production in Lower Saxony and issue new permits. It argues that gas produced locally under German standards has a better carbon footprint than gas transported over long distances.

The CDU wants to produce more natural gas in Lower Saxony. There should be new permits for this. It stays banned in the Wadden Sea. It also stays banned in water protection areas.

The CDU wants to return existing gas storage facilities in Lower Saxony to public ownership if security of supply requires it. It intends to use every legal avenue to do so.

Gas storage sites hold gas for the winter. Many of them belong to companies. The CDU wants the state to take them back if needed. This should keep the gas supply safe.

The CDU wants to sharply increase production of green hydrogen and fund the implementation of the state's hydrogen strategy. It also plans a research cluster for storage technologies with neighboring countries and a focus on synthetic fuels.

The CDU wants to make much more green hydrogen. Green hydrogen is made with power from wind and sun. The state should pay for this. Researchers should develop new ways to store energy.

The CDU sees permit requirements and long planning procedures as the main obstacle to expanding renewable energy. It wants to create a central state office for permits, reduce requirements and digitalize procedures.

Wind and solar plants need a permit. The CDU says this takes too long. It wants fewer requirements. A new state office should help local agencies. The procedures should become digital.

The CDU commits to the climate targets and wants to double wind power capacity in Lower Saxony in the coming years, both offshore and onshore. Turbines are to be built in natural areas rather than close to housing; to allow this, it wants to relax species protection in federal law.

The CDU wants twice as much power from wind. Wind turbines should stand farther away from homes. They should also be allowed in forests. Protected areas stay free of them. Towns should get more money from wind power.

The CDU considers the potential of photovoltaics untapped so far and wants to increase its expansion significantly. Funding programs for rooftops of homes and commercial buildings are to become simpler and more worthwhile for builders.

The CDU wants more power from the sun. People who put solar panels on roofs should get funding more easily. Solar plants should also stand along highways and rail lines. Farmland should not get more expensive because of this.

The CDU regards biogas and hydropower as steady energy sources that complement wind and solar. It wants to use more agricultural residues for biogas, examine hydropower potential and fund geothermal exploration.

The CDU wants to use more biogas. Biogas is made from manure, for example. Hydropower should also deliver more electricity. Heat from the ground should be explored and funded.

The CDU wants to expand storage so that wind and solar power is available even when output is low. It also plans an efficiency strategy for all consumption sectors and more energy advice.

Wind and sun do not always deliver power. So the CDU wants more energy storage. Households should get money for their own storage units. Everyone should also use less energy. There should be more advice for this.

The CDU wants to expand local energy generation and support municipal utilities in doing so. Municipal heat planning is to be introduced, and heating networks with a high share of renewable energy are to be supported.

The CDU wants more energy to be produced locally. City utilities should get help with this. Towns should plan how homes will get heat in the future. Whole neighborhoods should be supplied together.

The CDU wants a fertilizer ordinance that follows the polluter-pays principle. Farms that work according to good professional practice should be able to exit existing restrictions. More nitrate monitoring sites are to be set up, and water protection is to be pursued in cooperation with those involved.

There are strict rules for putting fertilizer on fields. The CDU wants limits only for those who pollute the water. Farmers who work cleanly should be freer again. There should be more sites that measure nitrate in water.

The CDU backs hunters and wants to keep statewide hunting under the district-based system. The list of species that may be hunted is not to be shortened, and trapping is to remain permitted. The program regards hunting as cultural heritage and as hands-on nature conservation.

The CDU supports hunters in Lower Saxony. Hunting should stay possible across the whole state. There should be no new bans for certain animal species. The CDU sees hunting as culture and as nature protection.

The CDU wants to actively manage the wolf population and add the wolf to the hunting law, in line with species protection and EU law. It cites the growing population, attacks on livestock, and unease especially in rural areas. Coastal regions are to become wolf-free zones.

There are more and more wolves in Lower Saxony. The CDU wants to control the number of wolves. Hunters should be allowed to hunt wolves under certain rules. There should be no wolves on the coast. Sheep protect the dikes there.

The CDU wants to keep implementing and expand funding for the Niedersächsischer Weg ("Lower Saxony Way"), an agreement between environmental groups and farmers. On species protection, it relies on incentives, cooperation, and personal responsibility alongside necessary rules. Programs for insects, protected areas, and greener cities are added.

The CDU wants to protect nature and species. Farmers and environmental groups should work together on this. The CDU relies on rewards and not only on rules. There should be more flower strips for insects. Cities should become greener too.

The CDU wants to launch large reforestation programs, especially in the Harz and the Heide regions, and adapt forests to climate change. It points to bark beetle damage and to the forest's role for nature, climate, the economy, and recreation.

The CDU wants to plant many new trees. This applies mainly to the Harz and the Heide regions. The forest should cope better with climate change. More trees should grow in cities too.

The CDU wants a long-term strategy for water use by households, businesses, and industry. Plans include better wastewater treatment, more water reuse, and protection of groundwater reserves. The program points to the effects of climate change on the drinking water supply.

The CDU wants to protect water better. Sewage plants should clean water more thoroughly. Used water should be used again more often. When water is scarce, nobody should waste drinking water.

The CDU expects the federal government to secure the Asse II mine and to start the promised retrieval of the nuclear waste soon. It points out that Lower Saxony has borne special burdens from nuclear power for decades.

Nuclear waste lies in the Asse II mine. The CDU calls the mine run-down. The federal government should secure it. The waste should be taken out soon. There should be fewer nuclear waste transports.

The CDU wants to develop a “social contract for agriculture” and base farm policy on incentives and planning certainty. Farmers are to receive support while being relieved of rules the platform describes as impractical and bureaucratic. The platform names securing the population's food supply as the most important goal.

The CDU wants farmers and society to agree on firm goals for farming. Farmers should get money for good work. There should be less paperwork. Farmers should be able to plan far ahead.

The CDU wants the set-aside of four percent of arable land required under EU farm policy to be permanently suspended from 2023. It argues that supplying people with food takes priority in the current situation.

The EU says farmers must leave part of their fields unused. They get no money for this. The CDU wants to stop this rule for good. It says making enough food is more important right now.

The CDU commits to livestock farming and wants to implement the Borchert Commission's recommendations for better animal welfare. The extra costs are to be covered by a permanent, mandatory animal welfare levy and by investment aid. A federal animal welfare law is meant to give farms reliable planning.

The CDU wants animals in barns to live better. That costs farmers more money. So there should be an animal welfare levy. That is a fixed payment that is required. Farmers should also get money to rebuild their barns.

The CDU wants to introduce a Lower Saxony label that bindingly marks how animals were kept and where regional products come from. Animal transports are to be kept short, regional slaughterhouses supported, and more regional food used in public cafeterias.

The CDU wants a label for food from Lower Saxony. It shows where a product comes from and how the animals lived. Animals should only travel short distances to the slaughterhouse. Public and school cafeterias should serve more food from the region.

The CDU wants to keep strengthening organic farming because, in its view, it can advance nature and species conservation. Organic farms are to be given separate consideration in funding programs, and advice on converting to organic is to be expanded.

The CDU wants to keep supporting organic farmers. Organic farms should get their own funding. Farmers who want to switch to organic should get more advice. One university should get a professor for organic farming.

The CDU wants new plant breeding methods to be approved and agricultural research at universities to be strengthened. According to the platform, farming should be based on scientific findings and share in technical progress. This also includes digitalizing farms and the administration.

The CDU wants to allow new ways of breeding plants. Research on farming should get more support. Advisers should help farmers with digital technology. Government offices should share data digitally.

The CDU wants to prevent fields and meadows from becoming objects of speculation and to change land law accordingly. Land is to remain available to family farms and forestry businesses. At the same time, the platform affirms private ownership of land.

Some people buy farmland only to make money from it. The CDU wants to stop that. It wants to change the laws on land for this. Family farms should be able to keep their land. Forest owners should also get more support.

The CDU wants to keep fishing in Lower Saxony competitive and sustainable at the same time. To that end, it plans to secure fishing grounds, protect fish stocks from predators, and preserve training and research facilities.

The CDU wants to help fishers in Lower Saxony. They should keep enough places to fish. Fish should be better protected from animals that eat them. People who fish as a hobby should get support too.

The CDU wants to keep Lower Saxony's sea and inland ports competitive and develop them into energy ports. This includes terminals for liquefied natural gas and facilities for landing hydrogen and ammonia. The platform justifies this with the ports' role in supply chains, energy supply and defense capability.

The CDU wants to strengthen the ports in Lower Saxony. More energy should arrive there, such as liquid gas and hydrogen. Rivers should also be made deeper for ships. The CDU says the ports matter for trade and security.

The CDU wants to shorten planning and approval procedures for transport and infrastructure projects, including through a dedicated state law for specific projects. Planning capacity would be expanded, and public participation would take place earlier but in a consolidated form.

The CDU wants to plan and build roads, bridges and rail lines faster. A new state law should help with this. The state should hire more planners and pay them better. Citizens should have their say early, but in one bundled process.

The CDU wants to push ahead with expanding federal highways and to provide more state money for expanding and repairing state roads. It cites growing car and truck traffic and the importance of accessibility for quality of life.

The CDU wants to spend more money on roads. Highways should be widened and gaps closed. State roads should be repaired and new ones built. Roadwork should be planned better.

The CDU wants to expand local public transit by road and rail, reopen disused rail lines and introduce an electronic fare that works across transit associations. For apprentices and people doing voluntary service, it aims for a statewide ticket costing no more than 365 euros a year.

The CDU wants more buses and trains, especially in the countryside. Old rail lines should run again. People should book rides by app and pay per kilometer. Trainees should get a ticket for at most 365 euros a year.

The CDU wants to support electric mobility, synthetic fuels and fuel cells without committing to one technology, and to expand charging infrastructure. Carsharing, shared taxis, citizen-run buses and on-demand services would also be supported, especially in rural areas.

The CDU wants to support several new ways to power vehicles. These include electricity, hydrogen and synthetic fuels. There should be more charging stations. The countryside should get more shared cars and on-call buses.

The CDU wants to continue the state bike path program and give it more money. A seamless cycling network in cities and rural areas would be planned across municipal boundaries, with funding for its implementation.

More and more people ride bikes or e-bikes. The CDU wants to spend more money on bike paths. Bike paths should connect well everywhere. Taking bikes on buses and trains should get easier.

The CDU wants more noise protection along rail lines and main roads and tougher action against deliberately loud vehicles. It points out that, according to the WHO, noise is the environmental problem with the second-highest disease burden after air pollution.

Traffic noise can make people sick. The CDU wants more noise barriers along roads and rail lines. People who illegally make their vehicles louder should pay fines. Such vehicles should be taken off the road.

The CDU wants to improve road safety because new modes of transport such as e-bikes and scooters raise the demands on it. Pilot projects for 30 km/h speed limits would be evaluated and allowed where they prove worthwhile.

There are more and more e-bikes and scooters on the roads. The CDU wants to make traffic safer. A 30 km/h limit should be tried in test projects. Where it makes sense, it should be allowed.

The CDU wants to create a digital platform where learners and education providers meet, including a personal digital learning account. This is meant to bring digitalization into adult and continuing education as well.

The CDU wants to build a digital platform for education. People can find suitable courses there. Everyone should have their own digital learning account. Certificates are stored there safely too.

The CDU wants to make public-sector data available for research and innovation as far as data protection allows. Small and medium-sized companies are to receive advice and funding when they use artificial intelligence for the first time.

The state holds a lot of data. The CDU wants researchers and companies to be able to use it. Data protection rules should still apply. Small companies should get help when they first use artificial intelligence.

The CDU wants to develop data protection, data security, and data ethics in a practice-oriented way because data-driven technologies are becoming more important. To that end, research and professorships in these fields are to be strengthened and an independent state ethics commission appointed.

The CDU wants more research on data protection and data security. There should be more professors for these topics. A new commission should advise on ethics in data and research. Ethics means asking what is right and what is wrong. The commission should work independently.

The CDU wants to continue the rollout of fiber and mobile networks and stands by the goal of giving all households gigabit-capable connections by 2025. It counts fast internet as a basic public service; municipalities would continue to get state money for the rollout.

The CDU wants fast internet for all households by 2025. The state should keep giving towns money for this. The mobile network should also grow faster. Companies should keep their promises to build networks.

The CDU wants cell towers to no longer need their own building permit once their type has been approved. In addition, a competence center is to support municipalities with smart city and smart region concepts.

The CDU wants to make it easier to build cell towers. Once a type of tower is approved, no new permit is needed. There will also be an advice center for towns and cities. It helps with digital plans for places and regions.

The CDU wants to set up a separate ministry responsible for all of digitalization and for the IT infrastructure of the state and its municipalities. In return, the Ministry for European Affairs is to be dissolved. The platform argues that the principle of departmental autonomy hinders the digitalization of public administration.

The CDU wants a new ministry for digital matters. It will handle all digital questions in the state. In return, the Europe ministry will be closed. The party says each ministry works on its own today. That slows down digital progress.

The CDU wants to create a central, accessible online portal through which all administrative services can be handled at any time. A service center is to help people use it, and government offices are to reach out to citizens on their own initiative. Visiting a local citizens' office in person is to remain possible.

The CDU wants one website for all dealings with government offices. People and companies can do everything there at any time. A service center will help with questions. People can still go to the local office in person.

The CDU wants public agencies to buy software on the market first rather than develop it themselves, with a preference for open-source products. The IT of the state and its municipalities is to be moved into a shared cloud structure. Municipalities are to receive financial support for the switch.

The CDU wants government offices to buy ready-made software. They should write less software themselves. The state and its towns will store data in a shared cloud. A cloud is storage on the internet. Towns will get money for the switch.

The CDU wants to strengthen digital skills in the state administration by recruiting and training more IT professionals. To that end, a separate civil service career track for IT occupations is to be created. The platform points to growing competition for such specialists.

The CDU wants more IT experts in government offices. They will get their own career path as civil servants. The state will offer more training places. Other staff will also get digital training.

The CDU wants to make electronic case files mandatory in the judiciary by 2026 and to launch electronic legal communication across all areas of law. In the party's view, an effective judiciary must also work digitally.

Courts should work with electronic files. By 2026 this should be required everywhere. The CDU wants to provide money for computers and software. Citizens should be able to order some documents online.

The CDU wants everyone in Lower Saxony to be able to use digital services confidently and plans media education starting in kindergarten. School social workers and police are to be trained to deal with cyberbullying. Those who cross legal lines with hate and incitement online are to be identified and prosecuted.

The CDU wants everyone to handle digital media well. Children should learn this in kindergarten and school. School social workers and police should get training against online bullying. People who break the law with hate online should be punished.

The CDU wants to give people holding local offices and council seats stronger protection against hate and attacks. Contact points and counseling services are to be expanded, and online crimes are to be prosecuted consistently. The platform points to 180 attacks and crimes against this group in 2019.

Mayors and local council members often face hate and attacks. The CDU wants to protect them better. There will be more places that help and give advice. Crimes on the internet will be prosecuted.

The CDU wants to combat organized crime and so-called clan crime with coordinated checks by several authorities and strict punishment of even minor offenses. In its view, this kind of crime undermines trust in the rule of law.

The CDU wants to be tough on criminal gangs. Several authorities should carry out checks together. Even small offenses should be punished. The state should take away money from crimes. People who want to leave a gang should get help.

The CDU wants to change the state's data protection and police laws so that authorities can share data comprehensively. More information is also to flow between the German states and with Europol; in the party's view, data protection must not stand in the way.

Authorities should be allowed to share more data with each other. The CDU wants to change laws for this. Police, the domestic intelligence service, and immigration offices should exchange data electronically. Computer programs should analyze the data.

The CDU wants fast-track criminal proceedings to be used more often in simple cases and wants greater use of short "warning-shot" detention for young offenders. The aim is constant pressure on offenders and stopping criminal careers early.

Simple criminal cases should go to court faster. Young offenders should more often spend a short time in detention. This should keep them from further crimes. There should be more "houses of juvenile justice." There, police, courts, and youth services work together.

The CDU wants more specialized investigators to prosecute crimes by extremists, online hate crime, and child pornography. Attacks on emergency workers and local politicians, as well as fraud targeting older people, are also to be pursued specifically.

The CDU wants to prosecute extremists strictly. Extremists reject democracy. Hate on the internet should also be prosecuted. Investigators against child pornography should get more staff and technology. Special teams should solve fraud against old people.

The CDU wants to fill vacant posts at courts, prosecutors' offices, and prisons and to adjust pay. All existing court locations are to be kept so that the judiciary stays within easy reach in rural areas too.

Courts and prosecutors should get more staff. Prisons should get more staff too. Pay should get better. All courts in the state should stay where they are.

The CDU wants daily entrance checks at all courts and more video surveillance in courts and prisons. In its view, courts and prosecutors' offices must be safe places at all times.

All courts should have checks at the entrance every day. Courts and prisons should get more cameras. This should protect the staff. A specially secured court building should be built in Celle.

The CDU wants to maintain enough prison places and build a new prison if needed. Prevention and deradicalization work in prisons is to be expanded, and the effect of rehabilitation measures is to be reviewed using reoffending rates.

There should be enough places in prisons. If needed, the CDU wants to build a new prison. Programs against radicalization should grow. The CDU wants to check whether help for prisoners works. Then it wants to adjust the law.

The CDU wants bodycams to be used more often and to allow their use inside homes. Patrol cars are to get dashcams, and the police are to be better equipped and protected overall.

Police officers should wear cameras on their bodies more often. They should also be allowed to film inside homes. All patrol cars should get a camera. The police should get better equipment. Spitting at police officers should be punished more harshly.

The CDU wants to raise the police allowance to 200 euros, increase other allowances, and speed up promotions. At least 1,600 places at the police academy are meant to keep staffing levels stable.

Police officers should get more money. The police allowance should rise to 200 euros. Officers should be promoted faster. The police academy should have at least 1,600 places. This way the police should have enough new recruits.

The CDU wants to dissolve the separate complaints office for the police and replace it with one for the entire state administration. It thereby opposes what it calls a culture of mistrust toward the police.

Today there is a separate complaints office for the police. The CDU no longer wants this office in that form. There should be one complaints office for all state agencies. People should also be able to report things there without giving their name.

The CDU wants to clear the renovation backlog in police buildings with an investment push, relying more on private partners and modular construction. Police stations in rural areas are to be kept.

Many police buildings are old. The CDU wants to repair them or build new ones. Private companies should take part more often. Police stations in the countryside should stay. The police should get better computer technology.

The CDU wants to equip the police with better digital tools and test smart video surveillance in pilot projects, especially in soccer stadiums. Officers would also patrol the internet without needing a specific reason.

The CDU wants to give the police more digital tools. Cameras with smart software would be tested, for example in soccer stadiums. Officers would also patrol the internet. The police would get more IT experts.

The CDU wants to reorganize the police: fewer staff units, more specialized units and a more visible presence across the state. It cites internet crime, cyberattacks, clan crime and child abuse as reasons.

The CDU wants to reorganize the police. There would be more special units, for example against crime on the internet. The police should be visible everywhere in the state. Police administration would get smaller.

The CDU wants to further strengthen municipal public order offices and help cities and towns expand video surveillance. Drug dealing in public places is to be stopped and punished.

The CDU wants to strengthen the public order offices of cities and towns. Towns should be able to put up more cameras. The CDU wants to stop drug dealing at schools and public squares. Order officers would use the police radio network.

The CDU wants to reorganize the state's cyber defense and create a dedicated state office against online and cyber crime. It cites the shift of crime into the digital sphere and the threat from Russian hacker units.

The CDU wants to protect Lower Saxony better against attacks from the internet. A new state office would be created for this. A council of experts would advise the government. The CDU sees a special danger from hackers from Russia.

The CDU wants a fundamental overhaul of the law on the Verfassungsschutz (domestic intelligence service): it would be allowed, among other things, to surveil homes and search computers remotely, and data protection rules the party considers unnecessary would be dropped. Monitoring of left-wing extremism would be raised to the level of the other areas.

The CDU wants to give the Verfassungsschutz more powers. The Verfassungsschutz is the state's domestic intelligence service. It would be allowed to monitor homes and secretly search computers. Some data protection rules would be dropped. It would watch left-wing extremism as closely as other extremism.

The CDU wants to give disaster and civil protection considerably more money and equipment. It points to heavy rain and extreme weather and to the work of professional and volunteer responders.

The CDU wants to spend more money on disaster protection. There would be more vehicles and reserve equipment. Emergency drills would take place regularly. Volunteers should get time off work more easily.

The CDU wants to bring the state's sirens back into service and send warnings to cell phones via cell broadcast. Operators of critical infrastructure would be required to prepare for disasters and would be monitored.

The CDU wants to warn people faster when there is danger. Sirens would work again. Warnings would also come straight to cell phones. Important operators such as power or water suppliers must make emergency plans.

The CDU wants to make volunteering in the fire service more attractive, including through a dedicated state firefighter pension. The fire protection law would be fundamentally reformed and funding for fire departments broadened.

The CDU wants to strengthen the volunteer fire service. Volunteers would get a special firefighter pension. The state would give more money for training and fire stations. The CDU wants to protect firefighters better against violence on duty.

The CDU wants more intensive support for crime victims and puts victim protection ahead of protecting offenders. Victims of sexual offenses would get a mandatory legal counsel, and support services for domestic and sexualized violence would grow.

The CDU wants to help crime victims better. Victims of sexual offenses would always get a lawyer. Counseling centers and women's shelters would get secure funding. Witnesses should be able to testify without fear.

The CDU wants to expand prevention work against extremism of every kind. Prevention councils would be developed further, justice staff trained, and Islamism prevention made more effective.

The CDU wants to stop extremism early. The prevention councils in the state would be improved. Justice staff would learn more about extremist groups. Children in sports clubs would also be better protected from abuse.

The CDU wants to set up local security partnerships that work on preventing extremism and on deradicalization. They are meant to address right-wing and left-wing extremism, antisemitism and Islamism.

The CDU wants local partnerships for security. They should stop extremism early. Extremism means people reject democracy. Hate against local politicians should also be a topic.

The CDU wants to give Jewish institutions special protection and help pay for security measures. Against antisemitism it relies on education and prevention. It justifies this with historical responsibility toward Jewish life.

The CDU wants to give Jewish institutions special protection. The state should pay money for their safety. The CDU wants to teach people about hatred of Jews. It wants to stand against attacks on Jews.

The CDU wants to review the tasks and structures of the state administration comprehensively and draw up a target organization called "Niedersächsische Verwaltung 2030" (Lower Saxony Administration 2030). Tasks it considers dispensable are to be dropped. The background is that almost 30 percent of staff will retire over the next ten years.

The CDU wants to rebuild the state's administration. It wants to check which tasks are needed. Tasks that are not needed will be dropped. The reason: almost 30 percent of staff will retire within ten years. The administration should still work well.

The CDU wants to fully enforce the Konnexitätsprinzip, the principle that whoever assigns tasks to municipalities must pay for them. Funding programs for municipalities are to become simpler and clearer. The platform argues that legal entitlements, benefit laws and complex funding programs increasingly restrict municipalities.

The CDU wants to strengthen towns and cities. Whoever gives towns new tasks should also pay for them. Funding programs should become simpler. Awarding public contracts should become easier too.

The CDU wants to extend the term of full-time mayors and county heads to eight years to ensure continuity at the top of local administrations. It also wants to ease the burden on local council members and help municipalities recruit staff.

Mayors and county heads should stay in office for eight years. The CDU says local offices need steady leadership. Council members should be able to join meetings by video more often. Towns should get help finding staff.

The CDU wants the injustices of the East German SED regime to be examined further in Lower Saxony as well, and wants the state to do more for the victims. It argues that many of those affected still suffer from the effects of imprisonment, flight and repression.

The East German state treated many people unjustly. Many still suffer from this today. The CDU wants to help these people more. It wants the injustice to be studied further.

The CDU wants to give volunteers better legal protection and reduce administrative work for associations. A framework contract between the state and an insurer is to cover liability and legal risks. Advice, training and volunteer agencies are also to be expanded across the state.

The CDU wants to protect volunteers better. The state should buy insurance for them. Clubs should have less paperwork. There should be offices everywhere that give advice on volunteering.

The CDU wants to expand the Ehrenamtskarte (volunteer card) and merge it with the sports volunteer card. Holders are to get a bonus on local public transport. Volunteer work is also to count toward the waiting time for a university place.

The volunteer card gives benefits to people who volunteer. The CDU wants to improve this card. There should be just one card for everyone. The card should make buses and trains cheaper. Volunteering should also help when waiting for a university place.

The CDU wants to strengthen the Landeszentrale für politische Bildung (state agency for civic education) and give it more presence across the state. People in volunteer political roles are to keep receiving support and be protected from attacks. The platform points to threats to freedom and democracy from authoritarian trends in many countries.

The CDU wants more civic education in Lower Saxony. The state agency for it should get stronger and work in more places. There should be apps and suitable information for children and teens. People who volunteer in politics should be protected from attacks.

The CDU rejects a common European deposit insurance scheme and wants to press the EU to drop the plans. In its view, pooling bank risks creates neither trust in savings deposits nor more stable banks. Instead, banking regulation is to depend on the size and importance of each institution.

The EU plans shared protection for savings across Europe. The CDU is against this. It says all countries would then share the risks of banks. That does not make savings safer. Small banks should have lighter rules than large ones.

The CDU wants to strengthen teaching about Europe in schools with a cross-subject curriculum. Exchange programs run by schools, municipalities and clubs are to be expanded and promoted more. The party commits to continuing on the European path.

Children should learn more about Europe in school. There should be a teaching plan across several subjects. The CDU wants more exchange between countries in Europe. Schools, towns and clubs should take part.

The CDU wants to give the Bundeswehr more support in the state and demand that the federal government keep all bases in Lower Saxony. It sees the armed forces as a contribution to deterring Russia, as a player in disaster protection and as an employer.

The CDU wants to support the Bundeswehr in Lower Saxony. All bases in the state should stay. Police and the Bundeswehr would practice joint disaster operations. There would be more public swearing-in ceremonies for new soldiers.

The CDU wants to end the state's partnerships with the Russian regions of Perm and Tyumen as long as Russia's government is responsible for breaching international law and for war crimes. It sides with Ukraine. Partnerships with Polish regions are to be deepened.

Lower Saxony has partnerships with two regions in Russia. The CDU wants to end them. The reason is Russia's war against Ukraine. The CDU wants to stand by Ukraine. It wants to work more closely with regions in Poland.

The CDU wants to widen the state's development cooperation by topic and region. A Lower Saxony foundation for politically persecuted people is also to be set up and award one-year scholarships. The party justifies this with its Christian view of humanity.

Lower Saxony helps regions in poorer countries. The CDU wants to expand this help. It also wants to set up a foundation. The foundation gives money to people who are persecuted for their political views.

The CDU wants to keep alive the memory of the flight and expulsion of Germans and to safeguard the cultural heritage of expellees. Funding and a dedicated university chair are planned. The party wants to counter the exclusion of ethnic Germans from Russia over the war in Ukraine.

The CDU wants to remember the expellees. These are Germans who had to leave their homes after the war. Their culture should be kept and studied. There should be money for this. Germans from Russia should not be shut out.

The CDU wants to develop Lower Saxony's Kulturfördergesetz (culture funding law) further and expand funding structures as needed. Investment programs for smaller cultural institutions are to become permanent, and the Landschaftsverbände (regional cultural associations) are to get more influence and money. The platform argues that culture is also an economic asset for a region.

The CDU wants to give more support to culture in Lower Saxony. The law on culture funding should be improved. Small museums and stages should get steady money for building work. Regional culture associations should have more say. They support culture in their local area.

The CDU wants to raise state subsidies for municipal theaters and the Göttingen Symphony Orchestra on a regular basis. Independent theaters, amateur stages, amateur music groups and volunteer-run cultural venues are also to receive lasting funding.

The CDU wants to give more support to theaters and orchestras. The money from the state should go up regularly. Amateur theater and music groups should also get money. Volunteer-run culture venues should get more targeted help.

The CDU wants to make working conditions for people in the cultural sector in Lower Saxony more attractive. It plans a grant program for freelance artists, simpler funding applications and a more stable Künstlersozialkasse (artists' social insurance fund), which it demands from the federal government.

The CDU wants to help artists. Freelance artists should be able to get grants. A grant is money that supports their work. Applying for funding should get easier. The social insurance fund for artists should become more secure.

The CDU sees cultural funding as support for young talent as well. It wants to strengthen music and art schools, develop the Landesmusikakademie (state music academy) into a Music Academy of Lower Saxony and create dedicated support for top talent.

The CDU wants to support young talent in music and art. Music schools and art schools should get more help. The state music academy should grow and become more important. Very good young musicians should get special support.

The CDU wants to preserve Low German and Sater Frisian and anchor them more firmly in daycare centers, schools, libraries and public offices. It regards both languages as part of Lower Saxony's identity and points to the European language charter. Regional traditions and customs are also to be brought closer to young people in particular.

The CDU wants to protect Low German and Sater Frisian. These are separate languages in Lower Saxony. Children should get to know them in daycare and school. People should be able to speak Low German in public offices. Young people should also learn about old customs.

The CDU wants more money for cultural work under Section 96 of the Federal Expellees Act, which covers preserving the cultural heritage of Germans expelled after World War II. The office of the state commissioner for expellees and ethnic German resettlers is to be kept permanently.

The CDU wants more money for the culture of expellees. These are Germans who had to leave their homes after the war. There is a state commissioner for them and for ethnic German resettlers. This post should stay for good.

The CDU wants to advance remembrance culture in Lower Saxony and to support and develop its memorial sites. This covers Nazi-era sites such as Bergen-Belsen as well as museums on Germany's division and the review of colonial-era collections.

The CDU wants to strengthen memorial sites in Lower Saxony. They remind people of the Nazi era and of divided Germany. The Bergen-Belsen memorial should work better for school groups. Museums along the former border should get help. The CDU also wants to remember the victims of the East German dictatorship more.

The CDU wants to draw up a plan for a state foundation to look after state-owned castles and palaces. In addition, Marienburg Castle is to be renovated and opened to the public, and state museums, open-air museums and World Heritage sites are to get continued support.

The CDU wants to take better care of the state's castles and palaces. It plans a state foundation for this. Marienburg Castle should be repaired and open to visitors. Museums and World Heritage sites should keep getting help.

The CDU wants strong public broadcasting, financed in the future through an index model in which the license fee is tied to an index. It also wants to preserve the mix of public and private providers and strengthen quality journalism through a certification.

The CDU wants strong public broadcasting. The money for it should follow an index model. That means the fee follows a fixed measure. Private stations and publishers should keep their place too. Good journalism should get a quality label.

The CDU wants to press at the federal level for a Gesellschaftsjahr (year of community service) covering all young people. The proposal appears in the platform alongside the strengthening of volunteer services.

The CDU wants a year of service for all young people. In that year, young people work for the community. The federal government decides on this. The CDU in Lower Saxony wants to push for it there.

The CDU wants to give consumer advice centers more funding and open more of them across the state. It also wants less food to be thrown away, including through public education and a different approach to best-before dates.

The CDU wants more advice centers for consumers. These centers should get more money. People should also throw away less food. A campaign and school lessons are meant to help with that.

The CDU wants to make state sports funding more reliable and raise it regularly. The program for renovating sports facilities is to be extended and enlarged, especially for pools, gyms and fields. Every child should be able to learn to swim.

The CDU wants to give sports more money that clubs can count on. The money should go up regularly. Pools, gyms and sports fields should be renewed. Every child should be able to learn to swim.

The CDU wants to expand sports for children and young people, for people with disabilities and at the competitive level. Schools and clubs are to work together more closely, with more sports in all-day schooling. Support for young talent and elite sports schools is to grow.

The CDU wants more sports for children and young people. Schools and clubs should work together. People with disabilities should find it easier to do sports. Young talents should get more support.

The CDU wants to open organized sports to esports. Sports clubs are to be able to offer computer and console games related to sports with legal certainty and without risking their nonprofit status. A funding program is to support such offers financially.

Esports means people compete in computer games. The CDU wants sports clubs to be allowed to offer this. Clubs should not lose tax benefits because of it. There should also be money for esports.

The CDU affirms the separation of church and state while wanting to continue the existing cooperation. It wants to keep the legal protection of Sundays and public holidays. It intends to further develop dialogue with all religious communities.

Church and state are separate. The CDU wants both to keep working together anyway. Sundays and holidays should stay protected. The CDU wants to keep talking with all religions.