CDU on democracy and the state

The CDU wants to give municipalities more leeway: funding procedures are to become simpler and more money is to flow as lump sums. State laws are to include experimentation clauses more often, and cooperation between municipalities is to be promoted.

Towns and cities should decide more for themselves. Applying for state funding should get easier. Towns should get more money without fixed rules attached. They should also be allowed to try out new approaches. The state and the towns should talk to each other regularly.

The platform justifies the plan by saying people feel political decisions most directly in their municipality. Experimentation clauses allow local authorities to deviate from requirements when carrying out laws and to test new approaches. As an example of its municipality-friendly line, the CDU cites the distribution of the special infrastructure fund, 60 percent of which went to the local level. A regular exchange between the state and municipalities is also planned.

The CDU wants to expand civic education in the state and give it a different focus. It is meant to inform factually instead of lecturing and to convey basic knowledge about the state, society and political processes.

The CDU wants more civic education. People should learn how the state and politics work. The programs should give facts and not lecture people. This should start in primary school.

The platform justifies the plan with growing challenges to the democratic system. Programs are to be independent, easy to reach and more present in people's everyday lives. From primary school on, partners from outside politics are to be involved, and local history projects receive support. The Landeszentrale für politische Bildung (state agency for civic education) is seen as the central partner and is to be developed further so that it reaches more people and encourages participation.

The CDU wants to bundle administrative modernization in one central unit of the state administration. Permitting and public procurement procedures would run fully digitally, and applications would count as approved if the agency does not decide in time (deemed approval).

The CDU wants to modernize public administration. One central office in the state will steer this. Permits and public contracts should be handled fully online. If the office does not answer in time, the application counts as approved. This is called deemed approval. Offices should more often check only samples.

The platform justifies the bundling by saying that meaningful digitization also requires changes to procedures and responsibilities. In audits, spot checks would increasingly replace the review of proof-of-use documentation, and artificial intelligence would assist with preliminary review. Administrative law is to be further adapted to digital communication channels. Overall, the administration should be understandable, reachable and service-oriented, with clear responsibilities and transparent procedures.

After a review of government tasks, the CDU plans a far-reaching administrative reform that also examines the mid-level agencies. Oversight and reporting duties would be cut to a minimum, overlapping responsibilities removed and municipalities given more responsibility of their own.

The CDU wants to make the state administration smaller. First it checks which tasks are needed. Double responsibilities should end. Cities and towns should decide more on their own. There should be fewer reporting duties. In future, each reporting duty needs a reason and a time limit.

The reform is meant to help meet agreed staffing targets. The CDU wants to limit legal and technical oversight as well as reporting duties to what is strictly necessary. It plans a comprehensive reporting moratorium: every reporting duty would need a fresh justification and an expiration date. For municipalities, shared digital platforms and standardized basic services are meant to speed up procurement and save costs. Tasks that municipalities carry out on behalf of the state would be handled more centrally.

The CDU wants faster court proceedings and swift punishment of crimes through accelerated procedures. It plans target times for key types of proceedings, intends to keep all court and prosecutor locations, and wants to recruit more young talent for the justice system.

The CDU wants courts to work faster. Important kinds of cases will get target times. Crimes should be punished quickly. All courts in the state will stay, also in rural areas. The justice system should attract more young people. Work there should become more attractive.

Proceedings are to be swift, fair and fully in line with the rule of law; besides target times, digital technology and digital communication are meant to help. According to the platform, access to justice should not depend on where someone lives, so existing locations in cities and rural areas remain. For recruitment, the CDU also wants to use social media, improve training and equipment, and build staff development with clear career and specialization paths. Work and family should be easier to combine, and experienced legal practitioners should find it easier to switch to the bench. It also wants to expand victim protection and counseling for those affected.

The CDU wants to counter the decline in the availability of lawyers, especially in rural areas. Anyone who founds a law firm in a county with below-average coverage would receive a start-up grant and in return commit to the location for five years.

There are fewer and fewer lawyers in rural areas. The CDU wants to change that. Anyone who opens a new law firm there gets money from the state. This applies in counties with few lawyers. The firm must stay in place for five years.

The platform justifies the measure by saying that access to justice must not depend on where a person lives. The grant applies to newly founded firms in counties where legal services are below average. The condition is a five-year commitment to the location.

The CDU wants to digitize the justice system throughout, with electronic case files and electronic access to them. Artificial intelligence would serve as a supporting tool to make proceedings more efficient and faster.

The CDU wants to make the justice system digital. Files should be kept only electronically. People should also be able to view files electronically. Artificial intelligence should help with the work. This should make cases go faster. Unneeded rules should be dropped.

Digitization is to apply within the justice system and in dealings with third parties, allowing workflows without switching between paper and digital formats. The bureaucratic burden for applicants and agencies is meant to fall. The CDU wants to remove superfluous rules and adopt new ones only where truly needed. Artificial intelligence would be used in the justice system only in a supporting role. Law should be easy for citizens and businesses to access and understand.

The CDU wants to give more support to lay arbitrators and mediation, which the platform says resolve conflicts quickly, close to citizens and at low cost. It also wants an arbitration system to emerge that has a reach beyond Saxony-Anhalt.

Some disputes can be solved without a court. Lay arbitrators and mediators help with that. The CDU wants to strengthen this help. It should be fast and cheap. Saxony-Anhalt should become known for it.

The platform calls lay arbitrators and out-of-court mediators a key part of the rule of law. The CDU wants to turn these procedures into a trademark of the state. It wants to encourage a cross-regional arbitration system. A central German or "Magdeburg Law" is meant to build on historical models and become a long-term locational advantage for business.

The CDU wants to relieve volunteers of bureaucracy and check every new law for its effects on volunteering. A state program called "Ehrenamt" (volunteering) is to bundle funding into one central line. At the federal level, it advocates raising the tax-free allowances for trainers and volunteers.

Many people help in clubs without pay. The CDU wants to give them less paperwork. Every new law should be checked: does it hurt volunteering? There should be one funding program for all volunteers.

Requirements for criminal record certificates, statistics and labeling at club events are to be cut to what is necessary, and data protection rules are to become workable for small clubs. The CDU prefers advice to penalties. Funding applications and proof of use are to become leaner, more digital and more uniform. The state program is to fund projects, events, training, recruiting young people, compensation for lost earnings and discounts. Volunteer agencies and volunteer-run contact points in rural areas are to get reliable funding. The CDU wants to support training through leave arrangements, digital offerings and partnerships between clubs, schools and daycare centers; awards are to be expanded.

The CDU wants to transpose European and federal requirements into state law as leanly as possible and roll back additional state rules. Funding procedures are to become noticeably simpler.

The EU and the federal government make rules. The state should not add its own rules on top. The CDU wants to cut such extra rules. Applying for funding should become easier.

The platform uses the term gold-plating for cases where a state requires more than European standards demand. Instead, the higher-level rules are to apply without state-law additions. Saxony-Anhalt is also to back initiatives to cut red tape at the EU and federal levels.

The CDU wants Saxony-Anhalt to get fair treatment in federal funding, powers, and the siting of federal agencies. It stands for strong states within the federal system and for equivalent living conditions across Germany.

The CDU wants the federal government to treat Saxony-Anhalt fairly. The state should get enough federal money. New federal agencies should also come to Saxony-Anhalt. That brings jobs. The states should stay strong.

The platform calls for fair conditions in funding, structural support, and education policy, and demands that the federal government take the states' burdens into account. The state's positions are to feed into federal decision-making early, especially on cohesion policy from 2028 and on the distribution of funds. For this, the CDU wants to use its networks and its cooperation with its members of the Bundestag. As examples of institutions already located in the state, it names the Federal Office of Administration in Magdeburg, the cybersecurity innovation agency, and the future center now being set up in Halle.