CDU: program for the 2024 Saxony state election

The CDU wants to double the Meisterbonus (a state payment for new master craftspeople) and make low-interest loans available. A scholarship is to make training entirely free for the best master craftspeople. The aim is to make skilled trades and self-employment more attractive.

People who become master craftspeople in Saxony get money from the state. This is called the Meisterbonus. The CDU wants to double it. The best ones should pay nothing for their training. There should also be cheap loans.

The CDU wants no new bureaucratic burdens from state laws in 2025 and 2026 and plans to review existing rules during that time. This is meant to relieve small and mid-sized businesses; the platform cites the strained economic situation.

The CDU wants less red tape for businesses. Red tape means many rules and forms. In 2025 and 2026, state laws should add no new burdens. During that time, the CDU wants to check old rules and make them simpler.

The CDU wants to support new businesses, start-ups and the handover of companies to successors. Existing founder initiatives are to continue, and companies should be able to handle all dealings with authorities digitally.

The CDU wants to help people who start a business. It also wants to help when a business needs a new owner. Businesses should be able to do everything with state offices online. Young parents should find it easier to work for themselves.

The CDU wants to diversify Saxony's economy so that it can better withstand crises. This includes making it possible for security and defense companies to set up or expand in the state. It also wants to promote innovation, start-ups and new business sites in general.

The CDU wants Saxony to have many different kinds of companies. This should help the state get through crises. Companies for security and defense should also be able to come to Saxony. New companies and new technology should get good conditions.

The CDU wants to support large investments, such as chip plants and major research facilities, and link them with local businesses and research. The aim is to create new growth hubs and value chains.

The CDU wants to support big business projects in Saxony. One example is factories for computer chips. These projects should work with local companies and researchers. This should create new jobs and new ideas.

The CDU wants to focus Saxony's funding programs on core topics, make them easier to understand, and handle them digitally. Instead of non-repayable grants, the state would more often take temporary equity stakes in small and medium-sized companies and start-ups.

Saxony has many funding programs for companies. The CDU wants fewer and simpler programs. Applications should be digital. The state should give away money less often. Instead, it should own a share of companies for a limited time.

The CDU wants faster planning and permitting procedures. To get there, environmental requirements would be limited to the legal minimum, among other things to build roads more quickly.

Building projects often need permits that take a long time. The CDU wants to speed this up. Environmental rules should only go as far as the law requires. This should help roads get built faster, for example.

The CDU wants to push the exchange of knowledge and technology between universities and companies through target agreements with the universities. Existing transfer platforms and state-backed equity funds for founders and mid-sized firms would continue.

Universities and companies should share more knowledge. The CDU wants to agree on fixed goals with the universities. Saxony also has funds for young companies and mid-sized firms. These funds should stay.

The CDU wants to strengthen tourism as an economic factor in all regions of Saxony and carry out the tourism master plan. The hospitality sector would get its own state program, and the federal government is asked to set the value-added tax there permanently at 7 percent.

More guests should come to Saxony and stay longer. The CDU wants to carry out a plan for tourism. Restaurants and hotels should get support from the state. The federal government should lower the sales tax for restaurants to 7 percent for good.

The CDU wants equal living conditions in urban and rural areas, relying on local services, funding programs and attractive town centers. Existing rural programs are to continue, and rules for cashierless village shops are to be eased.

Life in a village should be as good as in a city. The CDU wants to support village shops and delivery services. Shops without a cashier should be easier to open. Funding programs for villages should continue. Empty buildings in town centers should get a new use.

The CDU wants to set up a state-owned development company that buys and prepares land for commerce and industry. At the same time, the 2013 State Development Plan is to be revised so that rural municipalities can grow more easily.

Saxony should get its own company for business land. It buys land and gets it ready for companies. The CDU also wants to change the state's development plan. Rural towns should then be able to grow more easily. Planning should go faster.

The CDU wants to steer the upheaval in the automotive, mechanical engineering and logistics sectors in southwestern Saxony with a master plan. The "Silicon Saxony" semiconductor hub is to grow, and the coal districts are to remain energy regions with the help of new technologies.

In southwestern Saxony, the car industry and machine building are changing a lot. The CDU wants to make a big plan together with the region. Saxony's microchip hub should grow. The coal regions should keep producing energy. They should get new technology for that.

The CDU wants to promote the circular economy as an industry and expand regional value chains, especially for timber. Mining and regional raw material extraction are to remain possible. Waste is to be treated as a resource and recovered as cheaply as possible, with no technology ruled out.

The CDU wants materials to be reused more often. This is called a circular economy. Wood from Saxony should be processed in Saxony. Mining should stay possible. Waste should be recovered cheaply, including by burning it.

The CDU wants to promote modern forms of work, especially outside the big cities, and to see co-working spaces set up across the state. Employees in rural areas are meant to save commuting time this way.

The CDU wants new places to work in rural areas. People can work there without driving to their company. This is called co-working. It saves people time on the way to work.

The CDU rejects measures that reduce working time, including five days of Bildungsurlaub (paid educational leave). It commits to a 40-hour week and points to the state of the labor market.

The CDU does not want people to work less. It supports 40 hours of work per week. It is against five days off for training. This is called educational leave. The CDU says there are already too few workers.

The CDU wants to push at the federal level for replacing Bürgergeld (citizen's income) with a new basic income support. It is to follow the principle of “Fordern und Fördern” (demand and support).

Bürgergeld is money from the state for people with no income. The CDU wants to replace it. There should be a new basic support instead. The state should help people but also ask something of them.

The CDU wants to increase the participation of people with disabilities in working life. To do so, the Integrationsamt (integration office) and specialist integration services are to carry more weight, and workplaces are to become easier to access.

The CDU wants more people with disabilities to be able to work. Certain offices and services help them with this. These offices should become more important. Workplaces and information should be easier to reach.

The CDU wants to strengthen youth work and youth welfare services, give older people more ways to take part in society and working life, and remove barriers for people with disabilities. It bases this on demographic change and cohesion between the generations.

The CDU wants to support young people better. For this there should be good youth work. Older people should be able to keep taking part, also at work. Obstacles for people with disabilities should go.

The CDU wants to create a "Service for Saxony" aimed at everyone who finishes school in Saxony. It is meant to let young people contribute to society while gaining first experience of working life.

The CDU wants to start a service for Saxony. It is meant for young people after school. They can do something for others there. They also get to know jobs.

The CDU wants to press the federal government for tax allowances so that retirees and retired civil servants can earn extra income more easily, and to advocate for stable pensions. In Saxony, older people are to be more involved and help for them is to be pooled at the municipal level.

The CDU wants retired people to earn extra money more easily. Tax breaks should help with that. Pensions should stay secure. Older people should have more of a say. Towns should offer help for them in one place.

The CDU wants to keep Saxony's ban on new state borrowing and the Generationenfonds (generations fund). It argues that today's budget decisions must not burden future generations.

The CDU wants no new debt for Saxony. The state should only spend money it has already taken in. The generations fund should stay too. This is a savings pot of the state for later costs. The CDU says this protects younger people.

The CDU wants to concentrate state funds on the core tasks of government and to review and, where possible, cut existing tasks, spending and standards. In the platform's view, public budgets have a spending problem, not a revenue problem.

The CDU wants the state to spend its money on the most important tasks. These include security, education, administration and money for towns. It wants to check other spending and cut it. The state should also be careful about hiring new staff.

The CDU wants to raise the Pendlerpauschale (commuter tax allowance) from 30 to 38 cents starting with the first kilometer. Commuters could then deduct more travel costs from their taxes.

Many people travel far to work. There is a commuter allowance for that. It lowers the taxes they pay. The CDU wants to raise it from 30 to 38 cents per kilometer.

The CDU wants the federal and state governments to hand new tasks to municipalities only together with the money needed. A matching compensation rule for extra burdens is to be written into the Basic Law (Germany's constitution). The party keeps the municipal fiscal equalization system and wants grants to be awarded more freely and as lump sums.

Towns often get new tasks from the federal government. The CDU says: whoever orders a task should pay for it. This rule should go into the constitution. Towns should be freer in how they spend grant money. Applying for grants should get simpler.

The CDU advocates requiring buildings throughout Germany to be insured against natural hazards. It cites climate change as the reason. It also intends to stay committed to flood preparedness and technical flood protection.

The CDU wants mandatory insurance for buildings. It should pay for damage from natural hazards such as floods. The rule should apply in all of Germany. The reason is climate change. Saxony should keep protecting itself from floods.

The CDU rejects rent caps, expropriations and other interference with property rights in the housing market. In its view, reliable conditions for investment and new construction are what keep rents affordable.

The CDU does not want a rent cap. A rent cap is a fixed upper limit for rents. It also does not want the state to take away property. It says builders need reliable rules. Then rents stay affordable.

The CDU wants to refund part of the real estate transfer tax to first-time buyers of a home they live in: 10,000 euros per buyer and 5,000 euros per child. The aim is for young families in particular to afford their own home and for Saxony's ownership rate to move closer to the national average.

The CDU wants to introduce a payment called Sachsengeld. People who buy their first home to live in get money back. They get 10,000 euros per buyer and 5,000 euros per child. This should mainly help young families.

The CDU wants to keep funding social housing for both new construction and renovation, and to tie the state housing benefit to an index so it is adjusted regularly. Cooperatives, the renovation of vacant apartments and barrier-free building are also to be supported.

The CDU wants to keep paying for social housing. This covers new buildings and renovations. The state housing benefit should rise regularly. Empty apartments should be renovated faster. The CDU also wants to support homes without barriers.

The CDU wants to make building permits simpler and faster and help municipalities set up fully digital building authorities. Building land is to be found mainly within existing built-up areas, and town centers are to be revitalized.

The CDU wants building permits to go faster. Building offices should work digitally. Empty lots and unused land should be built on. City centers should stay lively.

The CDU wants parents who ask for it to get a childcare place for their child from the first birthday through the end of primary school. After-school care, primary schools, and all-day programs would be linked more closely, and daycare staff would be kept on even as the number of children falls.

Every child should get a childcare place if the parents want one. This applies from the first birthday to the end of primary school. After-school care and primary schools should work together more closely. Daycare staff should stay, even if there are fewer children.

The CDU wants parents to decide for themselves whether their children are cared for at home, in daycare or by a childminder, and plans to further develop the Landeserziehungsgeld (state child-raising allowance) for this purpose. At the same time, family support and childcare are to be expanded and single parents given relief.

Parents should choose how their children are cared for. That can be at home or in daycare. The state child-raising allowance should continue for this. The CDU wants more support for families. Single parents should also get more help.

The CDU rejects loosening the criminal-law rules on abortion in Section 218 of the German Criminal Code. Couples who are unable to conceive are to keep receiving financial help.

Section 218 is the criminal-law rule on ending a pregnancy. The CDU does not want to loosen this rule. Couples who cannot have children should still get money for treatment.

The CDU wants to make the last year of daycare free of charge and compulsory. It would serve as a preschool year with a curriculum to prepare children for primary school, and early education overall would get more binding goals.

The last year of daycare should be free. All children would have to attend it. It should prepare children well for school. The CDU says it is very important that all children learn German well.

The CDU stands by the tiered school system and wants to strengthen the Oberschule (non-academic secondary school) as its central pillar. Grades, including grades for conduct and effort, would stay, because the party says diplomas should stand for proven achievement.

Saxony has different types of schools. The CDU wants to keep it that way. The Oberschule, a type of secondary school, should be strengthened. Grades should stay. This includes grades for behavior and effort.

The CDU calls recruiting new teachers the main task of education policy for the next five years. Teachers would continue to be hired as civil servants so that Saxony can compete with other German states.

Saxony needs more teachers. The CDU says this is the most important task in education. Teachers should still be able to become civil servants. This should keep Saxony attractive for teachers. All regions should have enough teachers.

The CDU wants inclusion wherever it is possible while keeping and developing special-needs schools (Förderschulen). Additional staff such as school assistants and school psychologists would relieve teachers.

Children with and without disabilities should learn together where possible. But special schools should stay. More helpers should work in schools. These include school assistants and school psychologists. They should take some work off teachers.

The CDU wants to leave more educational and financial decisions to the schools themselves. Each school would get a single lump-sum budget that combines the funds it receives today.

Schools should decide more things on their own. Each school should get one overall budget. This is one pot of money that the school controls itself. The CDU says people on site know best what is needed.

The CDU wants digital teaching and learning materials to be a normal part of school life, alongside analog methods. Schools would receive learning apps and intelligent tutoring systems, backed by media education.

Digital learning tools should be normal in class. Schools should get learning apps for this. There should also be programs that adapt to each child. Children should also learn how to use media well.

The CDU wants career guidance to start earlier and be more intensive at all types of schools. Schools would work more closely with trades, industry, and the employment agency and offer more practical learning.

Students should get to know jobs early. This should happen at all types of schools. Schools should work with companies and the employment agency. There should be more practice days in companies.

The CDU wants to keep supporting cities and towns with state funding to build and modernize schools. The platform treats modern, well-equipped buildings as a precondition for good education.

The CDU wants to keep giving towns money for school buildings. Towns are in charge of school buildings. Schools in rural areas should get the most help. Vocational schools also matter to the CDU here.

The CDU wants to support recognized adult-education providers so that their courses match demand. By the end of the decade, Saxony is to reach the average of all German states in the density of continuing education.

Adults should be able to keep learning too. The CDU wants to support the groups that offer courses. Saxony should have as many courses as the rest of Germany. This should happen by 2030.

The CDU wants to draw up a strategy for dual vocational training together with businesses and to equip vocational schools better. Training is to be tailored more closely to young people's abilities so that no one is left without a qualification and the demand for skilled workers is met.

The CDU wants to strengthen job training. It will make a plan together with companies. Vocational schools should get better equipment. Strong trainees should be able to finish faster. Weaker trainees should be able to do a shorter training that fits them.

The CDU wants to align teacher training more closely with what each school type and subject needs. Training is to move further into the regions, and new groups are to gain access to teaching degrees.

Saxony needs teachers for all schools and subjects. The CDU wants to guide teacher training better. Teachers should also be trained outside the big cities. People who went to an Oberschule should be able to become Oberschule teachers. A prep course can help with that.

The CDU plans a science innovation law that gives the two new large-scale research centers, DZA and CTC, more leeway. Research results are to reach Saxon companies more readily, and microelectronics research becomes a priority.

The CDU wants a new law for research. Two big research centers should be able to work more freely. Ideas from research should reach companies in Saxony. The CDU also wants to support start-ups from universities. Research on computer chips is especially important to it.

The CDU wants to amend the higher education law: student councils are to become student parliaments and general student committees. Students are also to regain the right to leave the Verfasste Studentenschaft (statutory student body).

The CDU wants to change how students are represented. There should be student parliaments. Students should be able to leave the student body again. The student body is the shared voice of all students at a university. Student groups should get clear rules in the law.

The CDU wants to expand the training of physicians and pharmacists, mainly to improve care in rural regions. To that end, the medical program in Pécs, Hungary, is to continue, the MEDiC program in Chemnitz is to be strengthened, and pharmacy training in Leipzig is to be expanded.

Rural areas do not have enough doctors. So the CDU wants to train more doctors. Young people from Saxony should keep studying medicine in Hungary. Medical studies in Chemnitz should also get better. More pharmacists should be trained in Leipzig.

The CDU wants to train more medical professionals and encourage them to open their own practices, including in rural areas. It plans more university places, quotas and residency networks, and faster recognition of professional qualifications.

The CDU wants more doctors in Saxony. There should be more places to study medicine. More places should go to future country doctors. Skilled workers from abroad should be allowed to work sooner.

The CDU wants to keep all hospital sites in the state and treats investment funding as a duty of the state government. It demands a say in the federal hospital reform and says Saxony will pass its own reform if necessary.

The CDU wants to keep all hospitals in Saxony. The state should pay for buildings and equipment. Saxony wants a say in the federal reform. Health centers should help in rural areas.

The CDU wants to keep local pharmacies throughout the state and give them more tasks. It also wants Saxony to remain a location for the pharmaceutical industry.

The CDU wants to keep pharmacies all over Saxony. Pharmacies should give more vaccinations. They should also offer more other services. More medicines should be made in central Germany.

The CDU wants to expand prevention, health education and the public health service. According to the program, illnesses should be prevented or detected earlier, before they become a problem.

The CDU wants to do more for prevention. People should learn more about healthy food and exercise. All children should get dental check-ups in groups. The public health offices should become stronger.

The CDU wants fast help to be available everywhere in Saxony in an emergency. To that end, the emergency number 112 and the on-call doctor service 116 117 are to be handled by one joint dispatch center.

The CDU wants fast help in an emergency. The emergency number 112 and the number 116 117 should work together. There should be one shared call center. School students should learn how to revive a person.

The CDU regards the legalization of cannabis as a major health risk and wants it corrected as quickly as possible. It intends to push for this at the federal level while strengthening addiction services.

Since 2024, cannabis has been partly legal in Germany. The CDU thinks this is dangerous. It wants to change the law back quickly. It also wants more help for people with addiction.

The CDU wants to press at the federal level for a fundamental reform of long-term care insurance and to break down the divide between care sectors. In Saxony, families who care for relatives are to get relief, for example through more day-care and short-term care places.

The CDU wants to rebuild long-term care insurance. It will push for this at the federal level. Families care for many people at home. They should get more help, such as more short-term care places.

The CDU wants people at the end of life to receive good medical and nursing care. Home hospice services and palliative teams are to be strengthened, and inpatient hospices are to be evenly spread between cities and rural areas.

The CDU wants good help for dying people. Hospice services should get more support. A hospice cares for people at the end of life. Families who lose a child should also get support.

The CDU wants to attract skilled workers from abroad to Saxony and use recruitment centers in selected countries to do so. Small and mid-sized companies should find it easier to make use of this immigration, for example through temporary agency work. The party sees this as a response to the demand for workers.

Saxony lacks skilled workers. So the CDU wants to bring well-trained people from other countries. There should be offices in some countries for this. Small companies should get help with it. People who studied in Saxony should also stay.

The CDU wants to push at the federal level for a flexible cap on asylum seekers, set at no more than 60,000 people in the coming years. It argues that housing, schools and German courses are reaching their limits. Family reunification would also be restricted to the nuclear family.

The CDU wants fewer refugees in Germany. At most 60,000 asylum seekers should come each year. Only the closest family should be allowed to follow. The CDU says there are not enough homes, school places and German classes.

The CDU calls for fixed border checks that allow people to be turned back, plus random police checks near the border. This is to apply until, in its view, the Schengen system works again. The aim is to permanently reduce irregular migration into Germany.

The CDU wants fixed checks at the borders. Police should be able to send people back there. This should last until Europe's rules work again. Saxony's police should patrol together with Poland and Czechia.

The CDU advocates holding asylum and protection-status procedures in countries outside the EU. Rule-of-law principles are to be upheld in the process. Within Saxony, asylum procedures are to be sped up.

The CDU wants asylum cases handled in countries outside the EU. Officials there would check who gets protection. The rules of the rule of law should apply. In Saxony, cases should go faster.

The CDU wants rejected asylum seekers without a right to stay returned quickly to their home countries. A police unit that assists with deportations is to be expanded. From the federal government it demands more safe countries of origin and departure centers at major airports.

The CDU wants to send rejected asylum seekers back quickly. A police unit should help more with this. Offenders and people seen as dangerous should go first. The federal government should build departure centers at big airports.

The CDU opposes lowering the requirements for German citizenship. Anyone who wants to live in Germany should follow the rules and contribute to society.

The CDU does not want to make it easier to become a citizen. The conditions for a German passport should not be lowered. People who live here should follow the rules.

The CDU wants to integrate people with a right to stay and get them into work faster, with language learning seen as the most important key. At the same time it expects newcomers to follow the rules and wants to remove what it sees as false incentives, for example through the payment card.

The CDU wants to help people who are allowed to stay. They should learn German quickly and work. They should live in normal housing. In return, they should follow the rules. Asylum seekers get a payment card instead of cash.

The CDU wants to support Spätaussiedler (ethnic German resettlers from Eastern Europe) in education, work and social participation. Their life achievements are to be recognized more strongly, especially when pensions are calculated.

Spätaussiedler are people of German descent who moved to Germany from Eastern Europe. The CDU wants to help them in school and at work. Their life's work should count for more. This matters most for pensions. Young resettlers should find it easier to learn German.

The CDU wants to implement Saxony's action plan on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and expand accessibility. Medical and nursing care for people with disabilities is also to receive more attention.

The CDU wants to support people with disabilities better. State buildings should be easier to enter. Information should come in easy language. Health care and nursing care should also get better.

The CDU wants more women in STEM fields and leadership positions, and more men in nursing and childcare professions. Pay gaps are to be eliminated, and the party wants to require immigrants to respect gender equality.

The CDU wants equal chances for women and men. More women should work in tech jobs and as bosses. More men should work in nursing and childcare. Women and men should get equal pay. Immigrants should respect equal rights too.

The CDU wants to keep the agreed coal phase-out date of 2038 and make security of supply the top priority. Baseload power plants should only be shut down once storage and backup plants are in place.

The CDU wants to allow coal power until 2038. That is what the coal compromise says. Electricity should always be available. First there must be a replacement, then plants can shut down.

The CDU wants to advance the expansion of renewable energy without favoring particular technologies and to speed up permitting. Citizens should find it easier to use the power they generate themselves, and Saxony is to be connected to the hydrogen grid.

The CDU wants more power from sun, wind and heat from the ground. Permits should come faster. People should find it easier to use their own power. Saxony should be linked to the hydrogen network.

The CDU wants to keep supporting animal shelters and welfare groups and to regulate the trade in animals, especially puppies, more strictly. It points to a rise in problematic, dangerous or sick animals. Pet owners are to bear more responsibility and have the necessary knowledge.

The CDU wants to keep helping animal shelters. The trade in animals should get stricter rules, especially for puppies. More dogs and cats should have a chip. Pet owners should know how to care for their animals.

The CDU wants wolves to be hunted on a regular basis and to open up to one third of the population to hunting each year. Culling is to be allowed at a lower damage threshold and more quickly after an attack on livestock. The protected status of beavers, cormorants and otters is also to be reviewed.

The CDU wants hunters to be allowed to shoot wolves. Each year this could apply to up to one third of the wolves. After a farm animal is killed, shooting should be allowed faster. Animal owners keep getting money for damage and protection. The CDU also wants to review protection for beavers, cormorants and otters.

The CDU wants local communities and counties to decide on protected areas, which should have concrete conservation goals. It rejects taking land in the cultivated landscape out of use except within research programs. The ordinance for the Saxon Switzerland National Park is to be revised.

The CDU wants nature protection to be decided more locally. Towns and counties should decide on protected areas. Land that is in use should not simply be left idle. The rules for the Saxon Switzerland National Park should be rewritten. The towns there should be able to develop.

The CDU wants a statewide drinking water supply at stable prices. Villages that still depend on private wells are to be connected to the public network in the next legislative term. Wastewater treatment is also to be developed and funded in a planned way.

Some villages in Saxony only have their own wells. The CDU wants to connect them to the public water network. This should happen in the next five years. The funding should be affordable for everyone. Sewer lines should also be built again.

The CDU wants to continue funding regional and local flood protection and update the related plans. Measures should fit the cultivated landscape. The state forestry administration is to be responsible for flood protection on the land it manages.

The CDU wants to protect towns better against floods. The state keeps paying for this. The plans for it get updated. The protection should fit the landscape. The state forestry office must provide protection on its own land.

The CDU wants to stop further bureaucratization of environmental administration. State law should not narrow the leeway left by EU and federal law. For vehicles, climate-neutral fuels are to be treated on equal terms with electric drives.

The CDU wants less paperwork in environmental matters. Saxony should not make EU and federal rules even stricter. Local offices should be able to decide for themselves. For cars, not only electric motors count. Climate-neutral fuels should be treated the same.

The CDU wants the federal government to transpose EU law without additional national requirements so that Saxon farms face no competitive disadvantage. Farmers and foresters are to get less paperwork and more entrepreneurial freedom. Farmland is to be preserved.

The CDU wants to make work easier for farmers and foresters. Germany should not make EU rules stricter than needed. There should be less paperwork. Farmland should stay farmland. Farmers' groups should have a say early on.

The CDU wants to preserve livestock farming in Saxony and rejects tighter requirements for livestock farms. Fees related to slaughter are to fall, and regional slaughter capacity is to be supported.

The CDU wants farmers in Saxony to keep raising animals. The rules for this should not get stricter. Slaughter fees should go down. There should be more small local slaughterhouses.

The CDU wants to support forest owners in converting and replanting forests and to make the climate benefit of managed forests the basis of forestry policy. It considers certifications such as FSC in state-owned forests excessive and intends to withdraw them.

The CDU wants to help forest owners plant new trees. It says a managed forest is good for the climate. The FSC label in state-owned forests should go. FSC is a label for wood with strict rules. The CDU thinks these rules go too far.

The CDU wants to widen the A 4 autobahn east of Dresden to six lanes and complete the A 72. State roads are to get more money for repair and new construction.

The CDU wants to widen the A 4 highway. It should have six lanes all the way to Poland. The A 72 should be finished. State roads should get more money.

The CDU rejects a ban on combustion engines as well as wider speed limits on autobahns and 30 km/h limits on through roads in towns. Low-emission zones it considers outdated are to be lifted. In the party's view, the car remains an important mode of transport in Saxony.

The CDU is against a ban on gasoline and diesel cars. It does not want new speed limits on highways. It also rejects more 30 km/h zones in towns. Low-emission zones in cities should go.

The CDU wants to electrify key rail lines in Saxony and improve connections to Poland and the Czech Republic. This is meant to speed up regional service and allow more long-distance trains.

The CDU wants to put electric lines on more rail routes. Trains to Poland and the Czech Republic should be faster. A tunnel under the Ore Mountains should be planned. Southwest Saxony should also get long-distance trains.

The CDU wants to bring disused rail lines back into service for local passenger transport and to expand the PlusBus and TaktBus networks alongside them. In freight, more goods are to move by combined rail and road transport.

The CDU wants to use old rail lines again. Local trains should run there again. There should also be more buses on a fixed schedule. More goods should travel by train.

The CDU wants to strengthen Saxony's two airports because it considers them indispensable for the state's economic development. It plans to lobby airlines for better connections and to get regular ICE high-speed train stops at Leipzig/Halle Airport.

The CDU wants to strengthen the airports in Dresden and Leipzig. It says the airports matter for the economy. There should be more flight connections. ICE fast trains should also stop at Leipzig/Halle Airport.

The CDU wants to connect cars, bikes, buses and trains more closely and bring four out of five people in Saxony within reach of regular-interval scheduled services. In its view the car remains indispensable in rural areas because public transport cannot fully replace it there.

The CDU wants to link buses, trains, cars and bikes better. 80 percent of people should have buses or trains on a fixed schedule nearby. Timetables and tickets should be simple. In the countryside the car stays important, the CDU says.

The CDU wants to make Saxony's judiciary the most digital in Germany and use artificial intelligence to do so. In prisons, AI-supported cameras and video conferencing are meant to relieve and protect staff. The final decision is to remain with qualified people.

The CDU wants courts and prisons to be more digital. Computer programs should sort documents and black out names in rulings. Smart cameras should spot dangers in prisons. A person always makes the final decision.

The CDU wants to digitize the key administrative processes of the state and municipalities by the end of the next legislative term. Citizens and businesses should have to submit data only once, and regulations are to be reviewed continuously for simplification.

Government offices in Saxony should work digitally. This should happen within the next five years. Citizens should have to give their data only once. The CDU wants to make rules simpler. Anyone with an idea should be able to try it out.

The CDU wants fiber-optic coverage across 99 percent of Saxony and a very good mobile network by 2030. Priority goes to rollout financed by telecom companies themselves; where that does not happen, public money is to step in.

The CDU wants fast internet almost everywhere in Saxony. This should happen by 2030. Companies should build the lines themselves first. Where no company builds, the state adds money. The mobile phone network should also become very good.

The CDU wants to raise IT security because it sees the threat level rising. Expertise is to be pooled, investment increased, and public administrations supported. At the same time, existing data is to be made more available and registers linked.

The CDU wants to protect computers and networks better. It says the danger of attacks is growing. Experts should work together more closely. State and local offices get help. Data should be used better, but with data protection.

The CDU wants the police to be more visible across the whole state and aims to double the number of Bürgerpolizisten (community police officers). An investment drive is to improve police buildings, training sites and equipment.

The CDU wants more police in all parts of Saxony. There should be twice as many community officers. These are officers who are assigned to one local area. The police should get better buildings and good equipment. Officers should be better protected.

The CDU demands that Saxony's police and domestic intelligence service be allowed to intercept encrypted communication at the source and to covertly search devices. It argues that the state must be technically on par with criminal networks and enemies of the constitution.

The CDU wants to give the police new powers. Police should be allowed to read messages on phones. They should also be allowed to search computers in secret. The same should apply to the domestic intelligence service. The CDU says this helps the state fight criminals.

The CDU wants to expand the Fahndungspolizei (police search and interdiction units) to push back drug crime, irregular entry and human smuggling. Near the border, joint search operations with neighboring countries are to be stepped up.

The CDU wants to strengthen the search police. These officers look for offenders in a targeted way. They should act against drug dealing. They should also act against smugglers and unauthorized entry. At the border, Saxony should work more closely with its neighbors.

The CDU wants to act against every form of extremism and expand the state's domestic intelligence office for that purpose. The strategy against right-wing extremism is to be applied to left-wing extremism as well, and municipalities get support, especially in dealing with the Reichsbürger scene.

The CDU wants to act against all extremists. The domestic intelligence service should get stronger for this. It should spot dangers early. The CDU wants to use the plan against right-wing extremism against left-wing extremism too. Towns should get help. Police and the intelligence service should also deal with attacks from the internet.

The CDU wants convicted foreign nationals to serve their prison sentences in their home countries more often. For EU prisoners, existing European law is to be applied consistently; for other countries, the federal government is to conclude agreements.

The CDU wants foreign offenders to serve prison time in their home country more often. There are already rules for EU citizens. These rules should be used. The federal government should make deals with other countries.

The CDU wants to make civil protection and disaster response more effective and equip it for current challenges. It points to wars, pandemics and disasters that it says require greater resilience from the state and the public. Plans include a resilience strategy and continued support for fire departments.

The CDU wants Saxony to be better prepared for crises and disasters. There should be a plan for dangers across the whole state. Fire departments should get good equipment and training. People should learn more about preparing for crises.

The CDU wants to push for harsher penalties for rape and domestic violence. It argues that many women in Saxony experience various forms of violence and wants to make implementing the Istanbul Convention a top priority.

The CDU wants harder punishments for rape. The same goes for violence at home. Many women in Saxony suffer violence. Women should feel safe everywhere.

The CDU wants insults, threats and other crimes on social networks to be prosecuted consistently. It also wants to better protect journalists in Saxony and guarantee reporting at rallies and major events.

Laws apply on the internet too. People who insult or threaten others there should be punished. The CDU also wants to protect journalists. They should be able to report safely from demonstrations.

The CDU wants to found a research institute in Saxony that studies what holds a pluralistic democracy together. Its findings are meant to strengthen democratic resilience and give policymakers options for action.

The CDU wants to found a new institute. Researchers there will study what holds society together. They will also look at eastern Germany since 1989. Politicians should learn from the results. This should make democracy stronger.

The CDU wants to create additional positions at courts, prosecutors' offices and in the prison service, especially in rural areas. It justifies this with the goal of consistent prosecution and fast proceedings. It keeps closed confinement as the standard and retains fast-track proceedings.

The CDU wants more staff for courts and prisons. Young lawyers should find it easier to start. Punishment should follow quickly after a crime. Prisoners should normally stay in closed prisons.

The CDU wants to ease the burden on volunteers: through a flat-rate contract, the state is to cover GEMA (music licensing) fees for club events, the monthly volunteer allowance is to rise, and reporting duties are to shrink. Volunteers are thus to have more time for their actual work.

The CDU wants to help volunteers. Volunteers work freely and without pay. Saxony should pay music fees for club events. The allowance for volunteers should go up. Clubs should have less paperwork.

The CDU wants a "municipal freedom act" to give cities, towns and counties more room to act. They would be allowed to deviate from state rules in individual cases. The platform justifies this with the aim of rolling back regulation and what it sees as excessive standards.

The CDU wants a new law for towns and cities. It would let them decide more things themselves. In some cases they could set aside state rules. The CDU says there are too many rules.

The CDU rejects a territorial reform imposed by law. Instead it wants to support voluntary mergers of municipalities and new forms of cooperation.

The CDU does not want to merge towns by law. Towns should only merge if they choose to. The CDU wants to help them with that. Towns should also be able to work together more.

The CDU wants to expand citizens' ability to take part directly in decisions, especially at the municipal level. To that end, the laws on popular petitions, initiatives and referendums are to be reviewed and developed further.

Citizens should have more direct say. This applies mainly to towns and cities. The CDU wants to review the laws on referendums. Then it wants to improve these laws.

The CDU sees Saxony as a bridge between Western, Central and Eastern Europe and wants to strengthen ties with neighboring Poland and Czechia. This includes better transport and digital links and more exchange in culture, science and business.

Saxony is next to Poland and Czechia. The CDU wants to work more closely with these neighbors. There should be better train links to them. Culture, research and companies should exchange more too. Saxony should keep getting funding from Europe.

The CDU wants to back projects that it believes will make the EU fit for the future, including a European defense union, protected external borders and a secure energy supply. At the same time it commits to subsidiarity and rejects excessive bureaucracy.

The CDU wants to help shape the European Union. Europe should be able to defend itself together. The outer borders should be protected. The energy supply should be secure. But the CDU does not want too much red tape from Europe.

The CDU wants to strengthen the culture of remembrance in Saxony and continue examining the GDR, which it calls a state of injustice, including through a dedicated university chair. It also plans a permanent "Zukunftsdialog Heimat.Sachsen" forum and an exchange program between eastern and western German municipalities.

The CDU wants Saxony to remember its history. The time of East Germany should be studied further. A special professorship should be created for that. Towns in East and West should exchange more.

The CDU wants to permanently guarantee the existing institutions for expellees and Spätaussiedler (ethnic German resettlers from Eastern Europe) and keep their culture and history alive as part of German history. Resettlers are to be fully integrated socially and into society.

The CDU wants to keep the institutions for expellees and resettlers. Resettlers are people of German descent from Eastern Europe. Their culture and history should stay alive. They should settle in well in Saxony.

The CDU wants to write protection of Saxony's World Heritage sites explicitly into the state's heritage protection act. This is meant to prevent individual measures from jointly endangering a World Heritage title.

Saxony has places that are World Heritage sites. The CDU wants to protect them by law. The protection should be written into the heritage protection act. That way no place should lose its World Heritage title.

The CDU wants to preserve Saxony's cultural landscape and reliably secure its funding in cities and rural areas. To that end, the Kulturraumgesetz (Cultural Areas Act) is to be rewritten and a future plan for culture drawn up with the municipalities. The focus is on orchestras, theaters, museums and libraries.

The CDU wants to keep culture alive across Saxony. Theaters, orchestras, museums and libraries should get enough money. This applies to cities and villages. An important law on this will be rewritten. The state makes a plan for the future with the towns.

The CDU wants to continue and expand broad cultural funding in Saxony, from the state cultural foundation to music schools, festivals and clubs. Culture should be accessible and barrier-free in every region, and cultural heritage should be preserved and protected.

The CDU wants to keep funding culture all over Saxony. This includes music schools, festivals, libraries and clubs. Rural areas should have cultural events too. Everyone should be able to take part. Art treasures should be well protected.

The CDU wants to implement the development plan of the Saxon Memorials Foundation and fund the foundation adequately. It also plans a "Year of Jewish Culture in Saxony" and a state exhibition marking 1,100 years of Saxony.

The CDU wants to strengthen memorial sites in Saxony. Memorial sites remember victims of political violence. The foundation that runs them should get enough money. There will be a Year of Jewish Culture. In 2029 there will be a big exhibition about Saxony.

The CDU supports public broadcasting but sees a need for far-reaching reform of its remit and structures. The license fee should stay stable, and the remit should focus on information, education, advice and culture. The party rejects an index model, meaning automatic adjustment of the fee.

The CDU thinks the public broadcasters ARD, ZDF and Deutschlandradio are important. But it wants to change them. The license fee should not go up. The broadcasters should mainly inform and educate. They should spend less on sports and entertainment. Parliaments should decide on the fee.

The CDU wants local journalism such as daily newspapers, free weeklies and local broadcasting to be available everywhere in Saxony. It wants to keep the local journalism funding that is paid out at arm's length from the state, and at the federal level it backs a delivery subsidy and lower VAT on press products.

The CDU wants to keep local newspapers and local stations. People everywhere in Saxony should get news from their own area. Funding for this should continue. The state should not decide on the content. Newspapers should pay less sales tax.

The CDU wants to bring the differing rules for press, broadcasting and online services closer together. Private broadcasters and local TV should have fair conditions when competing with non-European platforms. To that end, the advertising rules in the Interstate Media Treaty are to be revised.

Newspapers, broadcasters and internet platforms follow different rules today. The CDU wants to make these rules more alike. Private stations should have a fair chance against big platforms. The rules for advertising should be checked again.

The CDU wants to keep strengthening media literacy in Saxony's school curricula and expand media education for all age groups. It cites complex news situations, false reports and AI-generated fake images, audio and video as the reason.

People should learn how to handle media well. This should stay important in school. Adults and older people should get offers too. The reason is false news and fake pictures and videos.

The CDU wants to establish Saxony firmly as an international media and film location and strengthen training for skilled workers in the sector. Movie theaters should be preserved, and the creative industries, esports and gaming should get more weight in economic policy.

The CDU wants more films and media to be made in Saxony. There should be good training for this. Movie theaters should stay, also in rural areas. The CDU sees video games and esports as important industries for the future.

The CDU wants to preserve and further develop the Sorbian language and culture, pointing to the mandate in the state constitution. Language programs in daycare and schools, teacher training and bilingualism in public spaces are to be expanded.

The Sorbs are a minority in Saxony with their own language. The CDU wants to keep this language and culture alive. Children should be able to learn Sorbian in daycare and school. This needs more Sorbian teachers. Signs and services should be bilingual more often.

The CDU wants to develop consumer advice services throughout Saxony and fund them reliably. Consumers are to be protected from fraud, unfair contracts and health risks and be able to make informed choices. Priorities are health, debt, digitalization and energy.

The CDU wants better advice for consumers. The consumer advice center in Saxony should get more sites and mobile advice. There should be help with debt, care and data protection. The money for this should be secure.

The CDU wants to launch a long-term investment program for municipal and club sports facilities, covering both recreational and competitive sports. Sports funding is to become simpler and allow more local decision-making.

The CDU wants to put a lot of money into sports. Towns and clubs should get help for their fields and gyms. Getting funding should be easier. Saxony should train more good coaches.

The CDU wants to keep the state's treaties with the churches and its agreements with the Jewish communities. Religion is to count as a mandatory two-hour school subject, and religious education is to be firmly anchored in the education plan for nurseries, kindergartens and after-school care.

The CDU wants to keep the agreements with the churches. The same goes for the Jewish communities. Religion should be a fixed school subject with two hours. Daycare centers should also teach about religion. Church buildings should be preserved.