CDU on other topics

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.

According to the platform, the year of service is meant to apply to all young people. The federal level would be responsible, so the Lower Saxony CDU says it will campaign for it there. The proposal is part of the measures on youth support.

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 program puts personal responsibility first and treats transparency and information as its precondition. Energy advice at the consumer centers is to be expanded. Consumers, especially children and young people, are to learn more about how food is produced and processed. Food should not automatically count as spoiled once its best-before date has passed. An information campaign against food waste is planned, and the topic is to be covered in school lessons.

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 variable share of sports funding from the gambling levy is to become permanent in the medium term, in coordination with the LandesSportBund (state sports federation). Funding is to follow cost trends, with a targeted rise of two percent. For the renovation program, the CDU also names switching from grass to artificial turf and more floodlights. It justifies the investment with more energy-efficient buildings and benefits for clubs, municipalities and regional businesses. Swimming lessons for beginners are to get special support.

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.

In all-day schools, more young people doing a voluntary social year are to run sports activities. The voluntary service in sports is to grow and be handled by a single ministry. The integration coordination offices are to get lasting funding and be expanded, and inclusive structures in sports funding strengthened. More sites are to be added to the two existing elite sports schools, and combining a sports career with a job is to become easier. Together with the LandesSportBund (state sports federation), the CDU plans a concept for additional coach and sports teacher positions. It also wants to support national and international sports events in the state.

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 program points to the growing popularity of digital competitions among children, teenagers and adults. Virtual sports related to real sports are to count as nonprofit activity. Planning for sports spaces is also to take the needs of virtually supported sports into account. The funding program is aimed at sports that are virtually supported and recognized by federations.

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.

The cooperation rests on the Loccum Treaty and the Lower Saxony Concordat, which govern the state's relations with the major Christian churches. The CDU sees this shared responsibility as a precondition for cohesion in the state. It points to the formative role of the Christian churches in history and culture and to their social and charitable work. Exchange between cultures and religions is to be continued on an ongoing basis.