CDU: program for the 2026 Rhineland-Palatinate state election

The CDU wants to strengthen small and mid-sized businesses and the skilled trades with faster permits, less regulation and no tax increases. Funding programs are to be merged and simplified, and very small programs scrapped. Municipalities are to get enough money to be able to lower their local tax rates.

The CDU wants to help small and mid-sized businesses. Permits should come faster. There should be fewer rules. Funding programs should become simpler. The party wants to end very small funding programs.

The CDU wants to reduce bureaucracy in four steps: when laws are drafted, when they are enforced, by scrapping existing rules and through fully digital procedures. The program calls bureaucracy the biggest brake on innovation in the state.

The CDU wants less red tape. New laws should cause less paperwork. Old rules should be checked and removed. Applications should be digital. Often a simple notice should replace a permit.

The CDU wants Rhineland-Palatinate to remain an industrial state. Electricity prices are to fall, permits are to come faster, carbon capture is to be allowed, and land for new business sites is to be held in reserve together with municipalities.

The CDU wants to keep industry in the state. Electricity should get cheaper. Permits should come faster. Companies should be allowed to capture and store CO₂. Towns should keep land ready for new businesses.

The CDU wants to give targeted support to the defense and arms sector in the state. It points to location advantages from the Bundeswehr, the procurement office in Koblenz and the US forces.

The CDU wants to support companies that work for defense. The state has German and US troops. The CDU sees this as an advantage. This should create new jobs.

The CDU wants to make it easier to found companies and improve access to capital, especially in later funding rounds. Universities and businesses are to work more closely together, and new ideas could be tested under temporary exemptions from state law.

The CDU wants to support new companies. Founders should get money more easily. Universities and companies should work together more. New ideas can be tested even where state rules stand in the way. This would apply only for a limited time.

The CDU wants to make tourism more digital and more visible internationally and to make downtowns more attractive. This includes legally secure shopping Sundays in all cities, a culture funding law and easier reuse of empty buildings.

The CDU wants to bring more visitors to the state. It wants to build more bike and hiking trails. Downtowns should become livelier. Stores should be able to open safely on some Sundays. Empty buildings should be easier to use in new ways.

The CDU wants to give priority to the skilled trades, strengthen the master craftsman requirement and upgrade dual vocational training. It rejects state rules on collective bargaining coverage that go beyond federal law and relies on the autonomy of employers and unions.

The CDU wants to support the skilled trades. The master craftsman rule should become stronger. The state should not make its own rules on wage agreements. Employers and unions should settle this themselves.

The CDU wants to address the shortage of skilled workers in three ways: better training, more employment among parents and older people, and faster entry into work for qualified immigrants. The program cites thousands of unfilled jobs in the state as the reason.

The state lacks many skilled workers. The CDU wants better job training. Parents and older people should find it easier to work. Skilled workers from abroad should be able to start work faster.

The CDU rules out new taxes, new levies and tax increases for Rhineland-Palatinate. Through the Bundesrat, it also wants to bring about a lower electricity tax for everyone. This is meant to relieve private households and make businesses more competitive.

The CDU promises no new taxes in the state. Existing taxes should not go up. The tax on electricity should also go down for everyone. Then households and businesses pay less for energy.

The CDU wants to restructure the Kommunaler Finanzausgleich (municipal fiscal equalization): municipalities would get more unrestricted money instead of many separate funding programs. Whoever assigns them tasks or raises standards would have to pay for them. The aim is for cities, towns and counties to invest on their own again.

The state gives money to cities and towns. The CDU wants to change how this money is shared. Towns should get more money they can use freely. They should decide for themselves how to spend it. If the state gives new tasks, it must pay for them.

The CDU wants to abolish Straßenausbaubeiträge (charges on property owners for road improvements) entirely. Road work would be paid from general state funds instead, because the platform sees roads as a basic public service rather than the concern of individual adjacent owners.

Today residents must help pay to rebuild their street. The CDU wants to end this. The state should provide the money. The CDU says roads are there for everyone.

The CDU wants to make the state budget transparent and put unused funds into investment. In its view, the state takes in enough money but does not spend it on future needs.

The CDU says the state has enough money. But it does not spend the money. The CDU wants to show where money sits unused in the budget. That money should go to roads, schools and security. Towns and cities should also get a share.

The CDU wants the state to pay families a flat grant when they first buy a home to live in. Under the concept "Aus Eins mach Zwei" (turn one into two), single- and two-family houses that have become too large are to yield extra housing through conversion, added floors or division.

The CDU wants to help families buy their first own home. Each parent would get 10,000 euros. Each child under 18 adds 5,000 euros. Large houses should be easier to split into two homes.

The CDU wants to renovate daycare centers, create new places and hire more qualified staff. Opening hours are to be reliable so that parents can balance family and work. Daycare is to remain free of charge permanently.

The CDU wants to repair and modernize daycare centers. There should be more places and more staff. Daycare centers should be open reliably. Parents should still pay nothing for daycare.

The CDU wants more staff, smaller groups and longer opening hours in daycare centers and wants to expand vacation care statewide. Every new law is to be checked for its effects on families. Single parents are to get targeted support.

The CDU wants more staff in daycare centers. Groups should be smaller. Opening hours should fit parents' working hours. Every new law will be checked: Does it hurt families?

The CDU wants to expand child protection with a statewide strategy, a state competence center and Childhood Houses in every region. Prevention is to start early, for example through parenting courses, school social work and counseling centers.

The CDU wants to protect children better. Youth offices, schools and police should work together more closely. Every region will get a Childhood House. Children who have suffered violence get help there.

The CDU wants to make the last year of daycare (Kita) compulsory for all children and run it as a preschool year. A mandatory language assessment at age four and a half is meant to identify children who need support early. The goal is that no child starts school without the language and social skills needed.

The CDU wants all children to attend the last year of daycare. There they get ready for school. At age four and a half, every child takes a language test. Children who struggle with language then get help.

The CDU promises a statewide guarantee for elementary schools: classes every weekday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. with no cancellations. The focus is to be on reading, writing and arithmetic. This comes with a free lunch and homework done at school.

The CDU wants a guarantee for elementary schools. Classes run every day from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. They should not be canceled. Every child gets a free lunch. Children do their homework at school.

The CDU wants to pay elementary school teachers at the A 13 civil-service grade and bring back regular promotions at secondary and vocational schools. Staffing of at least 105 percent of teaching needs is meant to prevent canceled classes. This is intended to make the profession more attractive and stop teachers from leaving for other states.

The CDU wants to pay elementary school teachers more. Other teachers should get regular promotions again. There should be more teaching positions so classes are not canceled. The job should become more attractive for young people.

The CDU wants no tolerance for violence, threats or disrespect in schools and relies on disciplinary measures and emergency plans. A state task force is to come to schools quickly when acute problems arise. Teachers are to get backing from their employer in crisis situations.

The CDU does not want to accept violence in schools. There should be clear rules and emergency plans. A state team should help quickly when there are problems. The state should stand behind teachers.

The CDU announces an investment drive for school buildings and wants fiber-optic connections and stable Wi-Fi in all educational institutions. All teachers and all students from grade 8 on are to have a digital device. In the party's view, schools should become inviting, safe and digital places to learn.

The CDU wants to repair and modernize schools. All schools should get fast internet and Wi-Fi. Teachers get a digital device. Students get one from grade 8 on.

The CDU rejects a single comprehensive school and wants to preserve and strengthen the multi-track school system. The Realschule plus (a middle-track secondary school) is to be upgraded with its own support program. At Gymnasien and integrated comprehensive schools, the "winter Abitur" is to end and the full nine-year track (G9) is to apply everywhere.

The CDU wants to keep different types of schools. It is against one school for everyone. The Realschule plus should get more support. The final school exam should again come after nine full years of Gymnasium.

The CDU wants binding performance standards, transparent exams and clear grades. Repeating a grade is to remain possible, and the party aims for centralized final exams. It justifies this with the values of achievement, responsibility and cohesion.

The CDU wants clear grades in school. Students can still be held back a year. The party would like the same final exams for everyone. At the national school sports games, there should be certificates everywhere again.

The CDU wants every student to visit a former concentration camp or a memorial site at least once during their school years. Civic education, a culture of remembrance and action against antisemitism are to be a firm part of everyday school life.

The CDU wants a required visit for all students. They should see a concentration camp memorial once. This is a place that remembers the crimes of the Nazis. Schools should also teach about democracy and against hatred of Jews.

The CDU wants to keep and strengthen special-needs schools and special-needs daycare centers. In its view, inclusion should be guided by the child's well-being so that each child attends the school that suits them. Children suspected of needing special support are to be tested again before starting school.

The CDU wants to keep special-needs schools and daycare centers. These are places for children who need extra help. These children should be tested before they start school. Then parents can choose the right school.

The CDU wants vocational training to carry the same standing as a university degree. To that end, master craftsman (Meister) training is to become free, and career orientation in schools is to grow from grade 7 with two more mandatory internships. Vocational schools are to be modernized.

The CDU wants to make master craftsman training free. From grade 7 on, there should be two more required internships. On a "Day of the Skilled Trades," businesses present themselves in schools. Vocational schools should get more modern equipment.

The CDU wants to fund research and teaching better, cut red tape at universities and give them more independence. A long-term construction and renovation program is meant to clear the repair backlog. The aim is for Rhineland-Palatinate to again rank among Germany's leading science locations.

The CDU wants to give universities more money and more freedom. Buildings and labs should be repaired. There should be more places to study medicine. Students and trainees should no longer pay the second-home tax.

The CDU wants to ban private cell phone use in schools to improve concentration, social interaction and a calm learning environment. At the same time, media literacy is to be taught at all ages. Schools decide for themselves on the educational use of devices in class.

The CDU wants to ban private cell phones in schools. Children should be able to concentrate better. Schools may still use phones for learning in class. Children should also learn to spot fake news online.

The CDU wants to keep special-needs schools while expanding inclusion in mainstream schools. People with disabilities are to experience participation in school, work, culture, sports and politics as a matter of course.

Special-needs schools are schools for children who need extra support. The CDU wants to keep these schools. At the same time, more children with disabilities should be able to learn at regular schools. People with disabilities should be able to take part everywhere.

The CDU wants to fund practice clinics that bundle general and specialist care in large counties and in regions where hospitals have closed. The state would finance them without requiring a local co-payment. Health, nursing care and emergency medicine would be combined in one ministry.

The CDU wants to build practice clinics. These are centers with family doctors and specialists under one roof. They would be set up where hospitals have closed. The state pays for setting them up. Care services and pharmacies would also be part of them.

The CDU wants to shorten waiting times for specialist appointments by strengthening appointment service centers and expanding digital booking. Telemedicine and video consultations would become a fixed part of standard care, especially where doctors are scarce.

The CDU wants patients to get specialist appointments faster. More appointments would be arranged digitally. Video visits with a doctor would become normal. This helps most in areas with few doctors.

The CDU wants to raise the number of medical school places to 650 and found a second medical faculty. It argues that 40 percent of doctors in private practice are already over 60. A state program is also meant to win back doctors or persuade them to keep working.

The CDU wants more places to study medicine. There would be 650 places, at least 200 more than now. A second medical faculty would also be set up. Many doctors will retire soon. A program would bring doctors back into the job.

The CDU wants emergency medical services to arrive within ten minutes at most. Emergency doctor bases would be kept, especially in rural areas, and air rescue would be expanded as needed and technically upgraded.

An ambulance should arrive in 10 minutes at most. Emergency doctor bases in rural areas should stay. Rescue helicopters should fly where they are needed. They should also be able to fly well at night.

The CDU wants to set up a state health office that coordinates local health departments and ensures uniform standards. By 2030, hospitals, outpatient providers and emergency services are to be digitally linked. Prevention and addiction services are also to be strengthened.

The CDU wants a new state office for health. It will guide and support local health offices. Hospitals, doctors and emergency services will be linked digitally by 2030. Prevention and help with addiction will also get better.

The CDU wants to improve funding for midwife-led delivery rooms and midwife coordination centers, and to introduce an official state midwife and a midwife registry. At the federal level it wants full pay restored for freelance midwives working in hospitals. Sex-specific differences in medicine are also to receive more attention.

The CDU wants to support midwives better. There will be an official state midwife and a list of all midwives. The list shows who offers which help and where. The CDU also wants to pay more attention to women's health.

The CDU wants to secure every hospital in the state with a fund of 150 million euros a year until the federal hospital reform takes effect. A state investment program is to modernize buildings, digital systems and medical equipment. Hospital planning is to be guided by quality, accessibility and need rather than centralization.

The CDU wants to keep all hospitals in the state. It plans 150 million euros each year for this. The state will also pay for buildings and equipment. Hospitals should stay close to where people live.

The CDU wants to raise the number of training places in nursing care by at least a quarter and equip nursing schools digitally. Care workers are to be relieved through simpler procedures and digital record-keeping. Responsibility for care is to be brought together in one ministry.

The CDU wants to train more people for care work. There will be at least one quarter more training places. Care workers should have less paperwork. One single ministry will be in charge of care.

The CDU wants to reorganize the state's nursing chamber. It is to represent care workers' interests transparently, but membership is to be voluntary.

The nursing chamber speaks for care workers in the state. Today care workers must be members. The CDU wants to change that. Each care worker should decide whether to join.

The CDU wants to support family caregivers with more counseling, additional respite places and emergency plans. Home care, shared care housing and a pilot project for neighborhood-based care are to strengthen care close to home. Hospice and palliative services are also to grow.

Many people care for relatives at home. The CDU wants to help them more. There will be more places for short-term care and day care. Care in people's own neighborhood should also get better.

The CDU wants to set up intensive classes at secondary schools for children and teenagers who do not know enough German. Only once they have sufficient command of the language are they to move into regular classes. The party sees language skills as a condition for success at school.

The CDU wants special German classes. Children and teenagers first learn German well there. Only then do they join a regular class. The party says school does not work without German.

The CDU wants to manage and limit migration. Asylum seekers would stay in initial reception centers until their case is decided and, if they have no right to stay, be deported directly from there. To do this, the party plans a central immigration authority and a state-run deportation facility.

The CDU wants less unregulated immigration. Asylum cases should take only a few months. Asylum seekers would stay in a state facility during that time. People who may not stay would be deported from there. A central office would organize this.

The CDU wants asylum seekers to receive support as benefits in kind rather than cash, aligned with neighboring states. Intake should be based on how many people municipalities can absorb, and the state should cover a larger share of the costs.

Asylum seekers would get housing, food and care instead of money. The CDU wants to align this with neighboring states. Towns should only take in as many people as they can manage. The state should pay more of the costs.

The CDU sees integration as an obligation. It wants a binding integration agreement and mandatory language, integration and orientation courses from day one. Refugees with a permanent right to stay should get early access to work.

The CDU says integration is a duty. Immigrants would get an agreement that lists their duties. Language courses would be required from the first day. There would also be required courses on values in Germany. People who may stay should be able to work quickly.

The CDU rejects the targets in the state climate protection law and wants to follow the federal climate targets instead. According to the platform, separate sector targets and an earlier deadline endanger the local economy and drive businesses away.

Rhineland-Palatinate has its own climate law. It sets stricter goals than the federal government. The CDU does not want these goals. The state should use the federal goals. The CDU says that otherwise companies will leave.

The CDU wants to pursue climate protection through incentives rather than rules, keeping all technologies open. Heat planning should work without mandatory grid connection, and funding guidelines should be technology-neutral. Wind, hydro and geothermal power would be expanded where it makes economic sense and is accepted locally.

The CDU wants to protect the climate with rewards, not bans. Every technology should be allowed. Nobody should be forced to connect to a heating network. Wind turbines should be built where they pay off. Local people should agree to them.

The CDU wants a solar law to make photovoltaics easier on public, commercial and private rooftops. Farmland and other open areas would stay protected so that the energy transition does not compete with farming and conservation for land.

The CDU wants more solar panels on roofs. A new law should make this happen. Building them should get easier. Good farmland should not be used for solar panels. The state should put solar panels on its own buildings.

The CDU wants to keep using the existing gas grid and gradually replace fossil natural gas with sustainable gases, because it considers a statewide hydrogen network unfeasible for now. Natural gas would serve as a bridge technology during this phase. It also advocates a lower electricity tax for businesses and households.

The CDU wants to keep using the gas pipes. Step by step, climate-friendly gas should replace natural gas. Until then natural gas is still needed, the CDU says. The tax on electricity should go down. This applies to companies and households.

The CDU wants to amend the state hunting law, which it says was passed against hunters' interests. It backs adding the wolf to hunting law and wants to lower the protection status of other species with sharply increased populations, such as the rook.

The CDU wants to change the state hunting law. It says the law is bad for hunters. Hunters should also be allowed to hunt wolves. Some animals, like the rook, should be less strictly protected.

The CDU wants to set up mandatory water associations statewide in which upstream and downstream communities jointly organize their water management. Rainwater, especially in winter, would be held back in basins and reservoirs. The platform cites longer dry spells and more heavy rain due to climate change.

Water is getting scarcer. There is also more heavy rain. So the CDU wants to make water associations mandatory. Towns on the same river plan together there. Winter rain should be stored. Flood protection should get better.

The CDU wants to convert forests into climate-resilient mixed woodland and improve wildfire protection. New building and commercial land would be designated sparingly, and towns and cities would get more greenery. The platform recognizes wood as a climate-neutral, renewable energy source.

Forests suffer from drought. So the CDU wants more mixed forests. Protection against forest fires should improve. Less new land should be used for building. Cities should get more trees and green roofs.

The CDU wants to strengthen domestic farm production and relieve farmers of regulations and paperwork. Food production is to take priority over other land uses, and agriculture and the environment would again be handled by a single ministry.

The CDU wants to help farmers. They should have fewer rules and less office work. Fields should be used for food first. Cafeterias in public offices, daycare centers and schools should use more local food. The CDU is against a sugar tax.

The CDU wants to help agriculture adapt to climate change, for example through irrigation, adapted seed and modern technology. A research focus is to develop strategies against the reed glasswing cicada, a crop pest.

The climate is changing. There are more dry spells and storms. The CDU wants to help farmers deal with this. Fields should be watered better. An insect is harming beets and potatoes. The CDU wants research on how to fight it.

The CDU wants to preserve winegrowing through targeted support, research, new grape varieties and modern crop protection technology. Young winegrowers would get interest-free loans, and the subsidy for steep-slope vineyards would rise.

Many winegrowers have big problems. The CDU wants to help them. Young winegrowers should be able to borrow money without paying interest. Vineyards on steep slopes should get more money. The CDU is against bans on crop protection.

The CDU wants to repeal the state government's decree on covered-wagon and tractor tours with wine tastings and replace it with practical, legally sound rules. The platform says these tours are part of wine culture and an important source of income for many businesses. Winegrowing advisory centers are also to get more staff.

Wine regions offer wagon rides with wine tasting. The state government made strict rules for them. The CDU wants to remove these rules. There should be new and simpler rules. The CDU also wants more advice services for winegrowers.

The CDU wants to give all school students a free Deutschlandticket (nationwide public transit pass), paid for by the state. It should no longer matter how far someone lives from school. The party considers the current rule unfair.

The CDU wants a free Deutschlandticket for all school students. This is a pass for buses and trains. The state pays for it. Where a student lives does not matter. So far, only children with a long way to school get it.

The CDU wants to prioritize repairing roads, bridges and rail lines and to set up a dedicated state infrastructure fund for this. Planning and approval of construction projects are to be sped up.

The CDU wants to fix broken roads and bridges. Rail lines should be renewed too. The state should set up its own pot of money for this. Building firms could then plan for years ahead. Permits should come faster.

The CDU wants Rhineland-Palatinate to catch up on rail. Stations are to become more modern and accessible, regional trains are to run more often, and closed lines are to keep being reopened where this pays off.

The CDU wants better train service in the state. Stations should be modern, safe and clean. Everyone should be able to reach the train without barriers. Regional trains should run more often. Old rail lines should reopen if it is worth it.

The CDU wants to strengthen freight transport by ship, arguing that this is the most environmentally friendly way to move large volumes. The Rhine and Moselle are to stay reliably navigable, and inland ports are to be secured as transfer hubs.

The CDU wants more goods to travel by ship. It says this is best for the environment when loads are large. Ships should always be able to use the Rhine and Moselle. The river ports should stay strong.

The CDU backs building a bridge across the Middle Rhine. It argues that there is no Rhine bridge along roughly 80 kilometers between Mainz and Koblenz.

The CDU wants to build a new bridge over the Rhine. It would stand on the Middle Rhine. Today there is no bridge between Mainz and Koblenz. That is about 80 kilometers.

The CDU wants to fund buses and trains better, coordinate them statewide and create a statewide transit ticket. In rural areas, on-demand services and volunteer-run community buses are to secure connections so no one is left behind.

The CDU wants to spend more on buses and trains. There should be one ticket for the whole state. Students and trainees would get a Deutschlandticket. In rural areas, buses should run when people order them. The CDU wants to support community buses everywhere.

The CDU wants to keep strengthening cycling and create safe bike paths that fit into the existing transport network. To do so, the state road agency is to get more planning capacity.

The CDU wants more safe bike paths. The paths should fit well with other routes. The state should have more planners for this. Fast bike routes should be built first.

The CDU sees the car as still important in a largely rural state and does not want to rule out any type of drivetrain. It backs the federal government's push for technology neutrality in the EU and wants to expand charging and fueling networks and make the driver's license cheaper and simpler.

The CDU says the car stays important, mostly in rural areas. All kinds of engines should stay allowed. That includes electric, hydrogen and engines with synthetic fuel. There should be more charging stations. Getting a license should cost less. The CDU wants a license from age 16.

The CDU wants to better protect municipalities, state institutions and utilities against cyberattacks. It plans statewide IT security advice, binding standards and more digital specialists in the police.

Hackers attack towns and utilities more and more often. The CDU wants to protect them better. There should be fixed rules for IT security. The police should get experts for online crime. Power and water should be especially safe.

The CDU wants to make Rhineland-Palatinate a location for data centers, which it counts as critical infrastructure. It also relies on digital traffic management using artificial intelligence and on open data platforms.

The CDU wants more data centers in the state. These are big buildings with many computers. They should waste little power and pass on their heat. Computers should also guide traffic. This should mean fewer traffic jams.

The CDU wants fast internet and mobile coverage across the state and plans a binding timetable for it. Training and accessible services are meant to ensure everyone can take part in digital life.

The CDU wants fast internet in every village. There should be a fixed timetable for this. People should be able to learn how to use the internet. Courses could take place in libraries, for example. The state's online services should be easy for everyone to use.

The CDU wants all important dealings with authorities to be possible online and plans a statewide service portal with a digital mailbox. In-person advice is to remain available alongside it.

The CDU wants people to handle government business online. There should be one website for the whole state. Everyone gets a digital mailbox there. People should only have to give their data once. In-person help should still exist.

The CDU wants to keep police hiring permanently high, improve pay and raise allowances to the federal level. Officers are to be relieved of administrative work and be more present across the state.

The CDU wants to hire more police officers. Officers should earn more money. They should do less office work. Then more officers are out on the street. Equipment should get better too.

The CDU wants to introduce AI-supported video surveillance at crime hot spots and use body cams and electronic ankle monitors more often. It also backs temporary storage of IP addresses and the use of road toll data in criminal investigations.

The CDU wants more cameras at dangerous places. Computer programs should analyze the images. Officers should wear body cameras more often. Internet addresses should be stored for a while. The CDU wants to find offenders faster this way.

The CDU wants to drop the requirement for police officers to wear identification and justifies this with trust in the officers. Attacks on emergency personnel are to be prosecuted consistently and punished noticeably.

Police officers must wear an ID marking today. The CDU wants to end this rule. It says it trusts the officers. People who attack emergency workers should face clear punishment.

The CDU wants to speed up criminal proceedings considerably and give the justice system more staff and digital technology. Protecting victims is to take priority, with more prison places, victim support and funding for women's shelters.

Criminal cases should move faster. The CDU wants to hire more judges. Courts should work digitally. There should be more places in prison. Victims should get more help.

The CDU wants to act against extremism of every kind, link security agencies more closely and set up a state security council. Islamist threats are to be monitored and deported, the domestic intelligence service strengthened, and data matched automatically between agencies.

The CDU wants to fight extremism. This covers right-wing, left-wing and religious extremism. Dangerous Islamists should have to leave the country. The domestic intelligence service should get more staff. Agencies should be allowed to compare their data automatically.

The CDU wants to expand fire and disaster protection with more staff, more money for municipalities and a statewide warning system. State-specific rules for fire trucks would be dropped. Long-serving volunteer firefighters would receive cash bonuses.

The CDU wants stronger fire services and disaster protection. Towns and counties would get more money for this. There would be a warning system for floods and crises. People who serve a long time in the fire service would get a bonus.

The CDU wants to upgrade municipal enforcement officers with a uniform job profile and new training, so they are more visible in public and relieve the police. This would be combined with better lighting, AI-assisted video surveillance at crime hotspots and more officers on the streets.

The CDU wants stronger local enforcement officers in towns and cities. Their training should be the same across the state. Dangerous places would get cameras with AI. AI means artificial intelligence. More officers would be out on the streets.

The CDU wants offenders who commit violence against women, children or young people to be fitted with electronic ankle monitors, closely supervised and punished firmly. At the same time there are to be more places in women's shelters and faster help.

The CDU wants to protect women and children better from violence. Offenders will wear an ankle monitor. That is a device on the leg that reports where a person is. There will also be more places in women's shelters.

The CDU wants to use the Bundesrat to push for a mandatory year of community service. The program presents the plan in the context of the Bundeswehr and security preparedness.

The CDU wants a required year of service for the community. It plans to propose this in the Bundesrat. The Bundesrat is the body that represents the German states.

The CDU wants to appoint, for the first time, a state secretary for sports and volunteering in the State Chancellery. Both areas would thus be represented at the center of government and coordinated across ministries.

The CDU wants to create a new post in the government. A state secretary would look after sports and volunteering. A state secretary is a senior government official. This person would be the contact for clubs and towns.

The CDU wants to tackle red tape and digitalization together and have the administration act as a service provider. Rules are to be reviewed, scrapped or simplified, and responsibility for digital matters is to sit in one place within the state government.

The CDU wants fewer rules and less paperwork. Old rules should be checked and removed. People and firms can report annoying rules online. One single office in the government should handle digital matters. The state should trust people more.

The CDU plans a state acceleration law with fixed deadlines for all procedures. If an agency does not decide in time, the permit is to count as granted automatically.

The CDU wants permits to come faster. Agencies get fixed deadlines. If an agency decides too late, the request counts as approved. Everyone should see online how far their request is. Public contracts should also be awarded more simply.

The CDU wants to recruit and keep more staff for the public service through a skilled-worker campaign. Pay and working conditions are to improve so that applicants do not choose other states, the federal government or the private sector instead.

The state lacks skilled staff. So the CDU wants to make public service jobs better. Civil servants and employees should get better conditions. Pay should keep up with other states. A new office in the governor's office will look after staffing.

The CDU wants to set up a state-level digital Europe interface through which municipalities, schools, research institutions and businesses can use EU funding programs more easily. The aim is for European funds to be drawn down effectively in the state.

The EU gives money for projects. The applications are often hard. The CDU wants the state to build a website for this. Towns, schools and companies can apply for the money there easily. Every application should get an answer.

The CDU wants to use the state's representation in Brussels to push for less bureaucracy at the EU level. EU rules should promote the competitiveness of mid-sized firms, skilled trades and industry, and large infrastructure projects should get time-limited exemptions.

The CDU thinks the EU has too many complicated rules. The state should push in Brussels for less paperwork. Rules should help companies and not slow them down. Big building projects should get exceptions for a limited time.

The CDU wants to strengthen young people's mobility in Europe. Programs like Erasmus+ should also become routine at vocational schools and in apprenticeships.

Young people should be able to go to other European countries more easily. This should also apply to apprentices. The CDU wants more exchanges with France, Luxembourg and Belgium. Job qualifications should be easier to recognize in the EU.

The CDU wants to strengthen and permanently secure the bases of the Bundeswehr and US forces in Rhineland-Palatinate. Military construction would be sped up by exempting the Bundeswehr from special state rules. The party also wants a review of how the Bundeswehr could be deployed domestically in serious emergencies.

The CDU wants to keep the German army bases in the state. The same goes for the US army bases. The army should be able to build faster. The CDU wants a review of how the army can help inside Germany in big emergencies.

The CDU supports building up a European security and defense union that works closely with NATO. It justifies this with the geopolitical situation: peace needs strength, and security needs coordination.

The CDU wants Europe to work more closely together on defense. This should happen together with NATO. NATO is an alliance of countries for defense. The CDU says peace needs strength.

The CDU wants to make cultural funding reliable and predictable through a law and to simplify procedures. People under 21 are to visit state museums and monuments free of charge.

The CDU wants a law for funding culture. Cultural groups should be able to plan better. Applications should become simpler. Young people under 21 will not pay to enter state museums.

The CDU wants to sign a flat-rate agreement with GEMA (the music licensing society) so that nonprofit clubs and noncommercial events pay less in music license fees. It also wants to review and adjust the new rules for large events in the state's police and public order law.

Clubs must pay GEMA when they play music. GEMA collects money for musicians. The CDU wants the state to make a deal with GEMA. Then clubs pay less. The CDU also wants to check the rules for big festivals.

The CDU wants to keep and further develop the dual system of public and private broadcasting. The broadcasting fee is to stay stable, with increases avoided through reforms and cooperation among the broadcasters.

There are public and private broadcasters. The CDU wants to keep both. The broadcasting fee should not go up. Public broadcasters should spend money more carefully. Rhineland-Palatinate should stay an important place for media.

The CDU wants to keep modernizing gambling law, with youth and player protection as a fixed benchmark. Only providers that follow the rules would get permanent licenses. The program regards an attractive legal market as the best protection against illegal gambling.

The CDU wants clear rules for gambling. Protecting young people and players comes first. Providers only get a license if they follow the rules. Legal offers should stay attractive. That way, fewer people should gamble illegally.

The CDU wants to speed up reconstruction after the flood disaster in the Ahr Valley through temporary exemptions in several areas of law. The reconstruction unit in the interior ministry is to become the central contact point with fixed contacts. In the platform's view, the state has not supported the region enough so far.

There was a severe flood in the Ahr Valley. The CDU says rebuilding is too slow. It wants to relax building rules for a limited time. One office in the interior ministry will answer all questions quickly.

The CDU wants to expand state funding for sports and provide more money than before. A sports pact with municipalities, federations and clubs is meant to clear the renovation backlog for gyms, fields and pools within five years.

The CDU wants to spend more money on sports. Many gyms and swimming pools are in bad shape. The CDU wants to fix them within five years. Towns, sports groups and clubs should work together on this.

The CDU wants to relieve volunteers of paperwork, give them better protection and recognize their work more visibly. Funding applications would be simplified, and every tax office would get a fixed contact person for clubs.

Many people help for free in clubs. The CDU wants to make this work easier. There should be fewer forms. Every tax office should have one person for clubs. Helpers should have better insurance.

The CDU wants to structurally strengthen the role of religious communities as providers of social services and keep religious education as a regular school subject. Christian holidays and traditions are to remain a fixed part of cultural life.

Churches and other religions run daycare centers, schools and care homes. The CDU wants to support them. Religion should stay a normal school subject. Christian holidays should stay. Jewish sites should get special protection.

The CDU wants to improve quality of life in rural areas with meeting places, local shops, small schools and daycare centers, and flexible public transport. Rural housing would become more attractive through renovating vacant buildings, targeted new construction and simpler building law. The goal is equal living conditions in town and country.

The CDU wants to make village life better. There should be village shops and meeting places. Small schools and daycare centers should stay. On-call buses and taxis should run. Fast internet should be available everywhere.