CDU on the economy

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 planned scholarship program is called “Talentschmiede Sachsen.” It is aimed at the best master craftspeople in the state, whose master training would then cost them nothing. Low-interest loans are also to be made possible. The platform names greater appreciation for skilled trades, self-employment and entrepreneurship as the goal.

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.

Existing rules are to be checked for whether they can be simplified and handled digitally. For new laws and regulations, an assessment of the impact on small businesses is to become mandatory. The Sächsischer Normenkontrollrat (Saxony's regulatory review council) is to be upgraded. Where possible, a notification should replace a permit, combined with cutoff dates and deemed approvals, under which an application counts as granted once a deadline passes. Public procurement is also to involve less paperwork to relieve municipalities and businesses.

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.

Initiatives such as dresden|exists, SAXEED, SMILE and the Gründerakademie are to be continued. The CDU wants to back mergers and takeovers between companies within Saxony, especially when they solve succession problems. Businesses should be able to handle administrative matters purely digitally through their organization accounts. Mid-sized companies are to keep getting help with digital transformation. The party wants to identify obstacles that keep young parents, and young women in particular, from self-employment or leadership roles, such as a lack of protection during pregnancy, and address them at the federal level.

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 create the conditions for new sites, for expansions by existing firms and for investments tied to the special fund for the Bundeswehr, Germany's armed forces. For business sites of any size, infrastructure, education and the supply of skilled workers are to be improved. Saxony's science and technology base is to be geared more closely to the needs of business, and small firms and skilled trades are to work more closely with researchers. Start-ups and university spin-offs are to get the best possible conditions. The party also wants to build up Saxony's expertise in the circular economy.

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 platform names semiconductor production and large research facilities as examples. These projects are to be tied into the regional economy, trades, and science. The Saxon innovation strategy and its tools are to be developed further. The CDU also wants to help Saxon researchers and companies build networks across Europe and worldwide.

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 changes are to build on the findings of two funding commissions and an expert panel on cutting red tape. Very small programs would be merged and overlaps with federal programs avoided. The plan includes more budgets and flat rates and fully digital procedures. Budgets would be set up to pre-finance EU and federal funds. Part of the funding for companies and clusters would depend on results, and the CDU wants to create the legal basis for pilot projects that are fully results-based.

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 core of the proposal is to reduce environmental requirements to what the law requires as a minimum. The platform explicitly names road construction as one use case. The demand is tied to the broader goal of simplifying funding and administration.

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 state would agree on goals and requirements for transfer with the universities. The platform names futureSAX, the simul+ InnovationHUB, and the European Digital Innovation Hub Saxony as model platforms. The growth fund for mid-sized firms, the technology founders' fund, the Saxon and mid-sized business equity companies, and the savings banks' equity companies would all continue. Companies are encouraged to do more for programs such as "Kinder forschen" and "Jugend forscht" (youth science programs), and skills for the circular economy are to grow.

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 year-round tourism program would continue, and Saxony is to establish itself as the leading destination for cultural travel. Cycling and water tourism, spa and recreation towns, and youth accommodations would be strengthened, and trends such as hiking, pilgrimage, camping, and caravanning put to use; wing foiling should be allowed in approved areas. The CDU backs efficient snowmaking systems, the use of mountain huts, and offers that do not depend on the season. It also plans tourism ambassadors, shared strategies for cities and counties, and closer cooperation with Lower Silesia and Bohemia.

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 platform cites village shops, pick-up and delivery services, mobile or autonomous sales points, digital lockers, co-working spaces and telemedicine as examples. Building law and shop-hours law are to be adjusted for small cashierless stores. Municipalities are to make downtowns and village centers attractive and climate-adapted, for example by converting vacant commercial space into housing, and will get support for land-saving planning. Funding through LEADER, the "Vital Village Cores and Town Centers" program and the regional budget will continue. Rural and urban areas are to be better connected.

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 new company is to purchase land and develop selected sites for large business settlements and for expansions of existing firms where this serves the state's interest. The revision of the State Development Plan is to be guided by more flexibility and subsidiarity; experimental clauses will be examined. Planning at state, regional, county and local level is to be linked more closely to speed up projects. Opening and flexibility clauses are planned in state planning law, particularly regarding environment and nature. Municipalities will get help with land-use planning for commercial and industrial zones.

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 master plan for southwestern Saxony is to be drawn up together with local leaders. The platform justifies expanding the semiconductor hub with German and European technological sovereignty and more resilient supply chains. The Lusatian and Central German coal districts are to be supported in researching and deploying new technologies; the so-called Section 4 measures in the lignite regions continue at the current level. The logistics sector is to gain international visibility through stronger networks. The CDU also backs Bundeswehr bases locating in Saxony, such as in Bernsdorf, and wants to promote innovative, low-cost construction.

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.

Mid-sized sawmills are to be supported so that local demand grows and private forests are easier to manage; the state forestry administration is to supply regional buyers with timber. Places burdened by new raw material extraction are to be compensated. The CDU wants to use more recycled and innovative building materials, support young companies and continue the timber construction initiative. It backs thermal use of waste and wants chemical recycling to count toward quotas. It rejects waste self-sufficiency for individual states, citing costs for ratepayers.