CDU: program for the 2024 Thuringia state election

The CDU declares innovation funding the top priority of its economic policy. State funding is to continue in a more targeted way with less red tape, and universities, research institutions, and companies are to work together more closely.

The CDU wants to support new ideas in business more strongly. Funding should become simpler. Universities and companies should work together more. There should be new professorships, for example for artificial intelligence. Starting a company should become easier.

The CDU wants to support industry networks and thematic clusters, especially in key technologies. Where federal funding expires in areas important to Thuringia, the state is to step in with its own money.

The CDU wants to support networks of companies in the same industry. This applies above all to important technologies, like optics or medical technology. When federal funding ends, the state should keep paying. This applies to areas that matter for Thuringia.

The CDU wants to make greater use of raw materials from Thuringia, especially timber but also gypsum, gravel, sand and salts, in regional value chains. Timber construction is to be made easier under building law, and a timber innovation center is to be set up.

The CDU wants to use more raw materials from Thuringia. Wood is the most important one. Building with wood should become easier. A new center should do research on wood.

The CDU wants technology neutrality and competition to guide the transformation of the automotive and supplier industry and the energy sector. It rejects the federal heating law and the EU-wide ban on combustion engines and instead wants companies to do more research and development.

The CDU is against the federal heating law. It is also against the EU ban on combustion engines. Companies should decide for themselves which technology they use. Companies in Thuringia should do more research.

The CDU wants to secure tourism in all regions of Thuringia and fund tourism infrastructure reliably. Funding is to become simpler, and Thuringia is to advertise with the lead brand "Das Grüne Herz Deutschlands" (Germany's green heart).

The CDU wants to strengthen tourism all over Thuringia. Towns with many tourists should be able to pay for their offers reliably. Funding should become simpler. Thuringia should advertise itself as "Germany's green heart."

The CDU wants to fund city centers through lump-sum downtown budgets instead of individually approved projects. Funding for city management is to continue, and municipalities are to receive money to tackle vacant storefronts.

The CDU wants to bring life to city centers. Towns should get a fixed budget for this. Then they do not have to apply for every small measure. Towns should also get money to deal with empty shops.

The CDU wants to abolish Bürgergeld (citizen's income) in its current form and replace it with a new basic income support that focuses more on placing people in jobs. According to the platform, people who work should have more than people who do not. The party also backs making overtime pay tax-free.

The CDU wants to end Bürgergeld in its current form. Bürgergeld is money the state pays to people without work. A new basic support should replace it. It should get people into jobs faster. People who work should have more money than people who do not. Overtime pay should be tax-free.

The CDU wants continuing education to be geared more closely to the needs of employees and companies. In the party's view, Thuringia's educational leave law does not meet that standard. At the same time, funding for continuing education is to become less bureaucratic.

The CDU wants to change the rules for continuing education. It should fit what companies and workers need. The CDU does not like today's law on paid leave for education. Funding should become simpler. Parents should get help with child care.

The CDU wants people with disabilities to be free to choose between supported work in the regular labor market and work in a sheltered workshop. It also wants to remove digital barriers and promote German Sign Language in schools.

People with disabilities should decide for themselves where they work. They can work in a regular company or in a sheltered workshop. The CDU wants to keep these workshops. Government websites should be easier to use. Schools should offer sign language classes.

The CDU wants older people to be able to live at home as long as possible, stay mobile, and take part in community life. Its plans include a senior transit ticket, a funding program for barrier-free home conversions, and measures against loneliness.

Older people should be able to stay in their homes for a long time. The CDU wants to give money for making homes barrier-free. There should be a senior ticket for buses and trains. The CDU also wants to do something about loneliness. Once a year there should be a Grandparents' Day.

The CDU holds that anyone who has worked and paid contributions all their life should be better off in old age than those who have not. Child-rearing and caregiving periods should count appropriately when pensions are calculated.

Pensions should be enough to live on. People who worked for a long time should have more money in old age than others. Raising children should also count toward a pension. The same goes for caring for relatives.

The CDU calls for targeted incentives for investment in research, development, and sustainability. Profits kept in the company are to be taxed less, and certain investments are to be written off faster. The party also wants to bring large-scale research institutions to Thuringia.

The CDU wants companies to invest more in research. To help, they should pay less tax on profits they keep in the company. Companies should be able to deduct investments from their taxes faster. Large research centers should come to Thuringia.

The CDU wants to push at the federal level for VAT on restaurant meals to return permanently to 7 percent. In addition, working hours in tourism are to become more flexible, and a special anti-discrimination rule in Thuringia's restaurant law is to be dropped.

The CDU wants to help restaurants. The tax on meals eaten in restaurants should go back to 7 percent. Working hours in tourism should become more flexible. A special rule against discrimination in the restaurant law should be removed.

The CDU wants to lower the real estate transfer tax in Thuringia from 5 to 3.5 percent. At the federal level, it wants states to be allowed to introduce their own exemptions. Families would then no longer have to pay the tax at all.

People who buy a house or land pay a tax. The CDU wants to lower this tax. Later, families should not pay it at all. For that, the federal government must change a law.

The CDU wants to make the municipal fiscal equalization system (KFA) simpler and more predictable and to favor small municipalities. When the state hands down tasks, it should also pay for them. Municipalities would get more freedom over the local business tax rate and an investment fund.

The state gives money to towns and villages. The CDU wants to change how this money is shared. Small villages should get more. If the state hands over tasks, it should pay for them. Towns should find it easier to lower the business tax. A new fund should give cheap loans for investments.

The CDU wants state budgets without new debt and wants to repay crisis-era debt quickly. A budget structure commission is to review the state's tasks, spending and revenue.

The CDU wants no new debt for Thuringia. It wants to pay back debt from the Covid and energy crises quickly. A commission should check what the state spends money on. Unneeded spending should end.

The CDU rejects higher taxes and favors tax cuts for citizens, small and mid-sized businesses and industry. Government fees are not to rise for two years.

The CDU does not want higher taxes. It wants to lower taxes. Government fees should stay the same for two years. People and companies should pay less this way.

The CDU wants to keep housing construction from becoming more expensive or more bureaucratic. The building code is to be simplified, and until at least the end of 2027 there are to be no new rules that make building more costly or slower.

The CDU wants more building. The rules for building should become simpler. Until the end of 2027 there should be no new rules that make building more expensive.

The CDU wants to pay families a grant when they first buy a home to live in. In addition, there are to be reduced-interest loans through the Thüringer Aufbaubank (state development bank). This is meant to let families with lower incomes buy property as well.

The CDU wants to help families buy a home. Families should get money from the state for their first purchase. There should also be cheap loans. Families with many children should get more help.

The CDU wants to put more money into subsidized housing so that rents stay affordable despite high construction and renovation costs. It also wants better tax depreciation rules and a program to help young families buy older homes.

The CDU wants to give more money for building homes. Rents should stay affordable. People who build rental homes should be able to save on taxes. Young families should get help when they buy and renovate an old house.

The CDU stands by the existing fee exemption for kindergarten and aims to abolish fees entirely once quality and staffing have improved. It also wants kindergarten meals to become cheaper.

Part of kindergarten is already free today. That should stay. Later, kindergarten should be fully free. But first the CDU wants more staff and better quality. Meals should also get cheaper.

The CDU wants to develop Thuringia's parent-child centers into a statewide network of family centers. In addition, state programs for language support and diversity are to continue, and home-based daycare is to be strengthened.

Kindergartens should also advise and help families. There should be such family centers all over Thuringia. Programs for language support should continue. Home daycare providers should get fair pay.

The CDU wants to keep Ehegattensplitting (joint tax filing for married couples) and expand it into family splitting, where each child lowers the tax burden. Child care costs are to be deductible up to 6,000 euros per child per year. Single parents are to get a higher tax relief amount.

The CDU wants families to pay less tax. With each child, the tax should go down. Parents should be able to deduct child care costs from their taxes. People raising children alone should get more relief.

The CDU wants to inform families better about available benefits, give them more say vis-à-vis the state government, and offer them regular free admission to cultural institutions. It argues that many families do not know what support exists.

Many families do not know what help is available. The CDU wants to put all the information in one app. Families should have more say in politics. Four times a year, families should get into museums and theaters for free.

The CDU wants to keep maternity clinics open in rural areas as well, support family midwives, and reliably fund pregnancy conflict counseling centers. The party sees this counseling as part of protecting life and helping women with unwanted pregnancies.

The CDU wants maternity clinics in rural areas too. Midwives should support families after a birth. There should be enough money for this. Counseling centers for women with unwanted pregnancies should also get secure funding.

The CDU plans a child protection drive with a dedicated child protection act to better shield children from violence, neglect and abuse. This includes new police powers, more counseling for parents, and expanded medical protection structures.

The CDU wants to protect children better from violence. There should be a new law for this. Police should be able to ban dangerous people from coming near children. They should be able to check this with an electronic ankle monitor. Parents in trouble should get help more easily.

The CDU wants young people to leave school with a qualification that prepares them for vocational training. To get there, fewer lessons should be canceled, hands-on learning should be established in all types of schools, and career guidance should be expanded.

The CDU wants all young people to finish school with a diploma. With it, they should be ready for job training. Schools should offer more hands-on learning. Students should also learn everyday skills, like handling money. They should get to know different jobs better.

The CDU wants to keep vocational schools across the whole state so that young people can train near where they live and do not move away. To this end, the schools are to be digitized and cross-regional school networks set up.

The CDU wants to keep vocational schools everywhere in the state. Young people should be able to train close to home. That way they should stay in Thuringia. The schools should get more digital technology. There should also be a digital vocational school.

The CDU wants to treat vocational training and university study as equal in value. Trainees are to receive the same offers as students, such as a youth transit ticket and dormitory places, and moving between vocational and academic paths should become easier.

The CDU says job training is worth as much as a university degree. Trainees should get the same offers as students. These include a cheap transit ticket and places in dorms. High schools should also promote job training.

The CDU wants to turn Thuringia into a "land of master craftsmen" and make master craftsman training free. The existing Meisterbonus (a bonus for completed master qualifications) is also to be extended to other advanced vocational qualifications such as technician.

The CDU wants training to become a master craftsman to cost nothing. Today there is already a bonus for new masters. Others should get this bonus too, for example technicians. This should make moving up in a job more attractive.

The CDU wants to improve staffing in kindergartens: one educator is to be responsible for six children aged one to three and for twelve older children. To meet staffing needs, more training places are to be created and the profession made more attractive.

Kindergartens should have more staff. One educator should care for six small children. For older children, it should be twelve children. Training should be shorter. Educators should have less paperwork.

The CDU wants to keep the school system with several types of schools and give all of them, including independent schools, equal opportunities to develop. Instead of debates about structure, transitions between school types are to be made easier and schools given more autonomy.

There should still be different types of schools. All types should get equally good chances. Small elementary schools in rural areas should stay. Switching between school types should get easier. Schools should decide more for themselves.

The CDU wants to keep special-needs schools across the state and end what it sees as their gradual phase-out. Parents alone are to decide whether their child attends a special-needs school or inclusive classes at a mainstream school.

Special-needs schools are for children who need extra support. The CDU wants to keep these schools everywhere. Parents should choose for themselves. Their child can go to a special-needs school or a regular school. Both should get enough staff and materials.

The CDU wants to abolish fees for after-school care (Hort) at schools and give every child starting school 250 euros for school supplies. This is meant to relieve families and make all-day programs accessible to all children.

After-school care at schools should be free. Then all children can be cared for in the afternoon. Every child gets 250 euros when starting school. The money is for school supplies. The CDU wants to ease the burden on families.

The CDU wants to invest in schools' digital equipment through a special funding program. From fifth grade on, every student is to have a digital device, either their own or a loaned one.

Schools should get modern technology. The CDU plans a special funding program for this. From grade 5, every student should have a device. Those without one get a loaned device. Classroom teaching and handwriting stay important.

The CDU wants to introduce mandatory language tests at school enrollment and initially teach children with insufficient German in separate support classes. The platform treats good German skills as a prerequisite for education and integration.

Before school, every child should take a language test. The test is required. Children who know too little German first go to a German support class. There they learn better German. The CDU says German is important for school and integration.

The CDU wants to reintroduce school grades from second grade, conduct grades for behavior and work habits, and promotion decisions at every grade level. In elementary school, the focus is to be on reading, writing, and arithmetic.

Children should get grades again from grade 2. There should also be grades for behavior and effort. At the end of each school year, it is decided whether a child moves up. Elementary school should teach more German and math.

The CDU wants to keep the Besondere Leistungsfeststellung (BLF), a special exam in 10th grade at Gymnasium schools. At the same time, its design and effectiveness are to be reviewed. The guiding rule is that no school certificate should be awarded without an exam.

Students at Gymnasium schools take a special exam in 10th grade. The CDU wants to keep this exam. But it wants to check whether the exam works well. It says: no certificate without an exam.

The CDU wants to promote interest in math, computer science, natural sciences and technology and allow more practical phases in all types of schools. A statewide "Tag in der Praxis" (day of practical experience) is meant to improve career orientation. Media and digital skills are also to be taught more.

The CDU wants to strengthen subjects like math, computer science and technology. Students should learn more by doing. There should be a practice day everywhere in the state. On that day, students get to know jobs. Students should also learn how to use media well.

The CDU wants to secure denominational religious education as a required elective. Schools are also to teach democracy and values more strongly. An overall concept for the culture of remembrance is meant to promote engagement with history.

The CDU wants to keep religion classes in schools. Schools should also teach values and democracy. Students should learn more about history. There will be a plan for that. The CDU wants to support visits to historic places.

The CDU wants to end class cancellations by staffing every school with 105 percent of the teachers it needs. Teachers are to be relieved of red tape. Additional professionals are to work at schools in multi-professional teams.

The CDU wants no more canceled classes. Every school should get a few more teachers than it needs on paper. Teachers should have less paperwork. Other trained staff should help at schools.

The CDU wants to refill every teaching position that becomes vacant and simplify hiring. A system of career advancement, bonuses and promotions is meant to reward performance. Trainee teachers are to get an early job guarantee, and career changers are to be better prepared.

The CDU wants to fill all open teacher jobs again. Schools should be able to hire teachers faster. Good work should pay off for teachers. Young teachers should get a firm job offer early. People from other jobs should become teachers more easily.

The CDU wants to abolish admission limits for teacher training degrees and reduce the number of dropouts. Universities of applied sciences are to take part in teacher training in the future. Training is to remain separated by type of school.

The CDU wants to change how teachers are trained. Everyone should be able to study teaching without entry limits. Fewer students should drop out. Universities of applied sciences should also train teachers. Teachers should still train for one type of school.

The CDU wants to change the higher education act to secure autonomy and academic freedom. The civil clause, which commits research to civilian purposes, is to be dropped again. Rules on co-determination are to be based solely on the university's tasks and academic freedom.

The CDU wants to change the law for universities. Universities should decide for themselves. The civil clause should go. This rule says research should serve only civilian purposes. Researchers should work freely and without fear.

The CDU wants to continue the current funding system for universities, with a fixed annual increase and a strategy and innovation budget, in framework agreement VI. Major cost changes are to be taken into account more easily. At the same time, universities are to tap additional sources of income.

Universities get money from the state. The money rises by a fixed share each year. The CDU wants to keep it that way. If costs rise sharply, more money should come more easily. Universities should also raise more money themselves.

The CDU wants at least half of the non-professorial academic staff positions at universities to be permanent. For professors, hurdles in appointment procedures are to fall and pay is to become competitive compared with other states.

Many staff at universities only have temporary contracts. The CDU wants to change that. At least half should have permanent jobs. Professors should be paid better. Hiring them should become easier.

The CDU wants to attract more students with a "Campus Thüringen," more marketing and practice-oriented degree formats. Universities of applied sciences are to get their own right to award doctorates. BAföG student aid applications and the Thoska student card are to go digital, and exchange with Europe is to grow.

Fewer people are studying in Thuringia. The CDU wants to change that. Universities should work together more closely. Universities of applied sciences should be allowed to award doctorates. Student aid forms should be fully digital. More young people should be able to go abroad.

The CDU wants to secure basic medical care in rural areas: family doctors, pediatricians, gynecologists, dentists and pharmacies should be no more than 20 minutes away. To that end, one fifth of university places would go to future rural doctors and pharmacists, and new practices would get more support.

Everyone should reach a doctor or pharmacy within 20 minutes. This should also be true in rural areas. The CDU wants to reserve university places for people who will later work in the countryside. Suitability should matter more than school grades. People who open a practice should get more help.

The CDU wants to establish rural nurses (Landschwestern) in villages to provide basic medical care for less mobile people, supplemented by community care workers. Public transit would also be expanded with flexible rides to doctors and hospitals.

Rural areas should get rural nurses. These are medical assistants with extra training. They make home visits and check in digitally with the family doctor. Community care workers would join them. Buses should get people to the doctor more easily.

The CDU wants to tackle hospital planning immediately and give every site a future as a place of medical care. A transformation fund and higher state investment funding are to pay for restructuring the clinics.

No hospital site in Thuringia should disappear. Every site should keep providing medical care. The CDU wants to give clinics more money for rebuilding and equipment. Difficult planned operations should take place in large, specialized hospitals.

The CDU wants to develop a master plan for ground ambulance services, air rescue and intensive care transfers, and provide more money and staff. New vehicle types, additional helicopter bases and more first responders are meant to close gaps in emergency care.

The CDU wants to improve emergency medical services. There should be more money and more staff. Rescue helicopters should be able to fly at night too. Not every call should have to end at a hospital. Every town should have defibrillators. These are devices that help when a heart stops.

The CDU wants to create more training and university places in the health professions to keep young people in Thuringia. Training in allied health professions is to remain free of tuition fees, and documentation duties are to be cut so that more time is left for patients.

The CDU wants more places for training and study in health jobs. Young people should stay in Thuringia. Training should still cost no school fees. Doctors and nurses should have less paperwork.

The CDU wants to make nursing care work more attractive through more authority for skilled staff, fewer documentation duties and better working conditions. Caregivers who left the profession are to be won back, overtime in care is to be tax-free, and a voluntary "Thuringia Year" is to introduce young people to social professions.

The CDU wants to make care jobs more attractive. Skilled care workers should decide more on their own. They should have less paperwork. They should pay no tax on overtime. Young people should be able to do a voluntary year in Thuringia.

The CDU wants to recruit care workers from abroad for Thuringia in a targeted way. Foreign qualifications are to be recognized more simply and much faster, because the party sees no other way to meet the demand for staff in care.

The CDU wants to bring care workers from other countries. Their qualifications should be accepted faster. This should also become easier. The CDU says Thuringia needs these workers for care.

The CDU wants to plan and fund care infrastructure in a coordinated way through a state care plan. Gaps in provision are to be identified and care staff steered to underserved regions; tele-care and digital aids are to receive state money.

The CDU wants to plan care better across the state. The state should see where care workers are missing. More care workers should go there. The state should also fund care by phone and internet.

The CDU wants to make care cheaper for those affected and to press for a care reform at the federal level. The state is to co-finance investments by care facilities, and owner-occupied homes and retirement savings are no longer to be drawn on for care costs.

The CDU wants care to cost less. The state should give care homes money for investments. Then residents pay less. Nobody should have to sell their own home to pay for care. The CDU also wants a federal care reform.

The CDU wants to introduce a state care allowance (Landespflegegeld) for people needing care from care grade II. The money is meant to let them treat themselves or give financial recognition to the people who care for them.

The CDU wants a state care allowance. This is money from the state for people who need care. People get it from care grade 2. They can use the money for themselves. Or they can give it to their helpers.

The CDU wants to ease the burden on people who care for relatives. Time spent caring is to count more toward working life, care insurance contributions and pensions; working hours are to become more flexible, and advice and short-term care services are to be expanded.

The CDU wants to help people who care for relatives. Time spent caring should count more for the pension. People who cared should later pay less for care insurance. A website should show free places in care homes. There should be more short-term care.

Together with chambers and trade associations, the CDU wants to recruit skilled workers from outside the EU in a targeted way. Skilled immigration is to be separated organizationally from asylum migration, and a Central Immigration Office is to serve as a single point of contact.

The CDU wants to bring skilled workers from other countries to Thuringia. The state should help more with this. Procedures for skilled workers should be faster. They should run separately from asylum procedures. One central office should serve companies and skilled workers.

The CDU sees successful integration as integration into the labor market. Foreign vocational and university qualifications are to be recognized faster and with less red tape, and immigrants should be able to work while still attending a language course.

The CDU wants immigrants to be able to work sooner. Diplomas from other countries should be recognized faster. There should be more German courses. People should be allowed to work while they take a language course.

The CDU wants a strict distinction between asylum and immigration. Those entitled to protection are to receive help, but protection is to be temporary and normally end with a return home. Anyone without grounds for protection or who breaks the rules is to leave the country immediately.

The CDU wants to separate asylum from immigration. People who need protection should get help. But protection should only last for a time. After that, people should return to their home country. Anyone with no reason for protection should leave right away.

The CDU wants to create a central immigration authority within the state administration office to manage reception and returns and relieve municipalities. People with no prospect of staying are to be housed in central facilities and deported directly from there, instead of being distributed to counties and towns.

The CDU wants to create one central office for foreigners. It should organize reception and deportation. People who may not stay should go to a central facility. They should be deported directly from there. Towns should have less work this way.

The CDU wants to push at the federal level for countries of origin to receive money and visas only if they take back their citizens. In addition, more countries are to be classified as safe countries of origin, and asylum cases with little chance of success are to be processed faster.

Some countries do not take back their citizens after a deportation. The CDU wants these countries to get no money and no visas then. More countries should count as safe. Asylum cases with little chance of success should go faster.

The CDU wants to reduce incentives for irregular entry. Newly arriving Ukrainians would no longer receive Bürgergeld (citizen's income) but would first get the lower asylum-seeker benefits. Thuringia would no longer run its own admission programs.

The CDU wants fewer incentives to come to Germany. New refugees from Ukraine should not get Bürgergeld anymore. Bürgergeld is the basic income support in Germany. They should get the same benefits as asylum seekers. Thuringia should have no admission programs of its own.

The CDU wants asylum seekers in reception centers and shared accommodation to receive only in-kind benefits. In addition, a payment card would be introduced across Thuringia. The party says this is meant to stop social benefits from being sent to countries of origin.

Asylum seekers in shelters should no longer get cash. They should get things like food and clothes directly. There should also be a payment card in all of Thuringia. People can shop with the card but cannot take out cash.

The CDU wants to promote the integration of people with a migration background who live lawfully in Thuringia, while making it more binding. Anyone receiving benefits would have to sign a personal integration agreement. Community work placements for asylum seekers would be expanded.

The CDU wants to support integration and set firm rules for it. People who get money from the state should sign an integration agreement. Asylum seekers should do more community work. The offers should focus on language, education, work and everyday life.

The CDU wants immigrants to have to live in Germany longer again before they can become citizens. In the party's view, naturalization comes at the end of successful integration, not at its beginning.

The CDU wants stricter rules for the German passport. People should live in Germany longer again before they get it. The CDU says: integration comes first, then the passport.

The CDU wants asylum procedures to be completed entirely in central facilities at the EU's external borders or in countries neighboring Europe. Frontex is to become a border police and coast guard with sovereign powers.

The CDU wants asylum claims checked at the EU's outer border. Only people who are accepted should then come to Germany. All others should be turned back at the border. The EU agency Frontex should get more staff and more powers.

The CDU wants to secure support services for women affected by violence and expand them where needed. Existing disadvantages for women are to be reduced because, in the platform's view, equality has not yet been achieved in many areas.

The CDU wants to protect women from violence. This applies especially to violence at home. Women's shelters and counseling centers should stay. Where needed, there should be more of them. Women should have equal rights everywhere.

The CDU opposes compulsory gender-inclusive language as well as what it calls cancel culture and wokeness. Everyone should be able to speak, eat, love and live as they wish. The platform also commits to an open-minded patriotism and to opposing discrimination.

The CDU does not want anyone forced to use gender-inclusive language. That means speaking so that all genders are named. Everyone should talk and live as they like. The CDU is against bans in daily life. It is also against treating people unfairly.

The CDU wants a binding rule that government offices and schools do not use special characters for gender-inclusive language, such as the asterisk, colon or underscore. The official rulebook of the Council for German Orthography is to be the standard.

The CDU wants to stop gender symbols inside words. This applies to government offices and schools. Examples are the star or the colon inside a word. The official spelling rules should apply there.

The CDU wants to slow the rise of the carbon price and cut the electricity tax to the European minimum. At the federal level it backs the introduction of the Klimageld (climate dividend) so that carbon pricing revenue flows back to households.

The CDU wants energy to stay affordable. The price on CO₂ should rise more slowly. The tax on electricity should fall sharply. People should get a climate payment. This is money from the CO₂ price that the state gives back.

The CDU wants to reform grid fees and make the fees for regional distribution grids uniform nationwide. At the same time, local grids are to be upgraded, storage is to be researched and promoted, and generating one's own electricity is to become easier.

The CDU wants to share the costs of power grids equally across Germany. Local power grids should become stronger. The CDU wants to support power storage. Companies and people should find it easier to make and share their own power.

The CDU sees hydrogen as a key part of the energy transition in Thuringia and wants to support research and application. The gas network is to be kept and made usable for hydrogen; biogas and hydropower plants are to remain and in part be expanded.

The CDU wants to use more hydrogen. The gas network should stay and later carry hydrogen. Biogas plants should stay and there should be more of them. Hydropower plants should also be kept.

The CDU wants Thuringia to generate as much electricity from renewable sources as it consumes, on balance. Instead of land-area requirements, it calls for generation targets, and all emission-free forms of energy are to receive equal support.

Thuringia should make as much power as it uses. The power should come from renewable sources. The CDU does not want fixed rules for land area. It wants goals for the amount of power. All clean forms of energy should get the same support.

The CDU wants to make greater use of existing wind and solar sites with modern equipment before opening up new land. Wind power is to be expanded only with local residents' support and avoided in forest areas.

Old wind turbines and solar plants should be replaced with new ones. This is called repowering. New plants make more power on the same land. Only after that should new land be used. The CDU wants to avoid wind turbines in forests.

The CDU wants to make energy efficiency in buildings and grids the guiding principle of the relevant rules. Businesses and households are to get incentives to cut their energy costs through retrofits and energy savings.

Buildings and grids should use less energy. The CDU wants to help companies and households with upgrades. There should be cheap loans for this. People who renovate their home should get a bigger tax break.

The CDU wants more citizen energy cooperatives and a legal requirement that municipalities share in the revenues of local wind farms and ground-mounted solar plants. The aim is to keep the value created by energy generation in Thuringia.

Citizens should be able to take part in making power. There are cooperatives for this. The CDU wants more of them. Towns should get money from wind farms and solar plants. A law should require this.

The CDU wants to expand solar power mainly on roofs and land already in use, including through a loan program for 50,000 roofs. The state is to lead with its own buildings and make its administration fully carbon-neutral.

The CDU wants more solar panels on roofs. There should be cheap loans for this. Parking lots and land along highways should also make power. The state should put solar panels on its own buildings. The state administration should stop emitting CO₂.

The CDU wants to push for restarting all nuclear power plants that are still operable. It cites security of supply, stable prices, and securing baseload power as reasons.

The CDU wants to switch nuclear power plants back on. This applies to all that still work. It says this makes the power supply safe and prices stable. New kinds of nuclear plants should also be researched and used.

The CDU wants to keep converting Thuringia's forests into mixed forests with many tree species and to replant damaged areas. Private and municipal forest owners are to receive funding and advice. The platform argues that healthy forests bind large amounts of CO₂.

Many forests in Thuringia are sick. The CDU wants to turn them into mixed forests. Many kinds of trees grow there. People who own forest should get money and advice. One tree should be planted for every newborn child.

The CDU rejects taking more managed forests out of use and turning them into wilderness areas. In the platform's view, this does not help Thuringia's forests. Areas already set aside are to be reviewed to see whether they can be used again.

Some forests are no longer managed. Nobody may harvest wood there. This is called a set-aside. The CDU wants no more set-asides. It wants to check whether set-aside forests can be used again.

The CDU wants to create a legal basis for limiting the number of wolves in Thuringia. At the federal level it wants interventions to be allowed immediately, without a specific cause and without prior damage. Beavers are also to be regulated more closely.

The CDU wants to keep the number of wolves small. There should be new rules for this. Hunters should be allowed to drive away or shoot wolves. This should be allowed even without earlier damage. The number of beavers should also be managed better.

The CDU wants to leave Thuringia's hunting law unchanged and treat forest and game as a unit. Anglers, commercial fishers and pond farmers are to receive support. The platform presents hunting and fishing as contributions to nature and species protection.

The CDU does not want to change the hunting law in Thuringia. It thinks the law works well. For the CDU, forest and wild animals belong together. Anglers and fishers should get help.

The CDU wants to keep refuges for animals and plants, especially endangered species. Protected areas are not to be reduced for other purposes such as wind power. Animal shelters are to receive more funding.

The CDU wants to keep protected areas for animals and plants. No wind turbines should be built there. Insects should get more places to live. Animal shelters should get more money.

The CDU wants to guarantee a reliable water supply everywhere in the state and connect more households to wastewater systems. Rivers and streams are to get more room, and cities are to be supported in adapting to heat. Less new land is to be sealed.

The CDU wants safe water for every place in Thuringia. More homes should be connected to sewers. Rivers should get more space. Cities should get help against heat. Less ground should be built over.

The CDU wants to strengthen recycling and reuse and turn waste into part of closed material loops. It also aims for a cycle for CO₂: the gas is to be captured, used as a raw material or stored permanently. Domestic raw materials are to be extracted in a way compatible with nature.

The CDU wants less waste and more reuse. It wants to support repair cafés. People fix broken things there. CO₂ should be captured and then used or stored. Old mining sites should become nature again.

The CDU wants to push at the federal level for a full reversal of the cuts to the tax refund on agricultural diesel. Farms are also to be allowed to build tax-free reserves for climate-related swings in yields.

Farmers get less tax back on diesel than before. The CDU wants to fully undo this cut. Farmers should also be allowed to save money tax-free. This should help them get through years with bad harvests.

The CDU wants to continue the EU's common agricultural policy so that the incomes of farms and their workers stay secure. At the same time, red tape and rules it considers excessive are to be reduced.

The CDU wants farmers to keep getting money from the EU. This money is called direct payments. There should be fewer rules for farmers. This applies, for example, to rules on pesticides.

The CDU wants to introduce a youth ticket for local public transit and push for accompanied driving from age 16. It also wants to promote youth exchanges, leisure activities in municipalities, and young people's participation in democracy.

Young people should be able to ride buses and trains for one euro a day. The CDU also wants 16-year-olds to be allowed to drive with an adult. Every town should have activities for young people. More young people should be able to travel abroad.

The CDU considers the car indispensable, especially in rural areas, and wants to invest more in roads. It rejects a general speed limit on the autobahn. On propulsion it favors a technology-neutral approach with hydrogen filling stations and charging points.

The CDU says people in rural areas need cars. It wants to spend more money on roads. It does not want a speed limit on all highways. It wants to support hydrogen stations and charging points for electric cars.

The CDU wants to invest in modern, climate-friendly bus and rail service. Lines would run more often, a statewide bus network would be created, and flexible services such as on-call buses would supplement it. Rural train stations would be kept.

The CDU wants better buses and trains. Buses should run more often and all over the state. There should be more on-call buses and shared taxis. Train stations in rural areas should stay. Some old rail lines should run again.

The CDU wants to put more money into bike paths suited to everyday use and launch a municipal bike path construction program. Taking bicycles on local trains would become free. To improve road safety, planning of school routes would become mandatory.

The CDU wants to build more and better bike paths. People should be able to take bikes on local trains for free. Routes to school should become safer. For that, a plan for school routes should be required.

The CDU wants to make Thuringia the most digital German state and to pool responsibility for digitalization within the state administration. People and companies would only have to give their data to the state once, and building applications would be handled digitally through a virtual building authority.

The CDU wants Thuringia to catch up on digital services. People and companies should give their data to the state only once. Building applications should be possible online. Companies should get money for training.

The CDU wants data protection to prevent misuse without hindering what it considers legitimate use of data. At the same time, police and the judiciary are to get more staff and equipment to fight industrial espionage and cyberattacks.

The CDU wants to change data protection. Data should be safe from misuse. But authorities should be able to use data more easily if people agree. Police and courts should be better able to fight attacks from the internet.

The CDU wants to better protect the IT systems of public authorities and critical infrastructure and to set up new state bodies for this. The fight against online crime is also to get more staff. According to the platform, prevention, protection and prosecution should be as possible online as offline.

The CDU wants to better protect the computer systems of public offices. New bodies with experts should be set up for this. A rapid team should fend off attacks from the internet. Police should get more staff to fight online crime.

The CDU wants to bring high-speed internet to even the smallest villages and close gaps in mobile coverage. Build-out by companies themselves would take priority, with the state mainly coordinating. The party counts digital networks among essential public services.

The CDU wants fast internet in every village. Dead zones for cell phones should disappear too. Companies should build the networks themselves first. The state should coordinate the work. Where that is not enough, the state helps towns with funding.

The CDU wants to offer all administrative services digitally, from application to decision, and to present a digital and data strategy for this. Non-digital access is to remain, especially for older people.

The CDU wants government offices to go digital. People should be able to apply online at any time. There should be a Thuringia portal and an app. People who prefer to go to an office can still do so.

The CDU wants to hire 350 police trainees every year so that at least 300 new officers enter service annually. Police are to be present in rural areas too, and the job is to become more attractive through better pay and promotions.

The CDU wants to hire more police officers. Every year 350 young people should start training. There should be enough police in rural areas too. Police officers should get better pay.

The CDU wants to equip every police officer on duty with a body camera, citing rising violence against officers. Police are also to receive digital devices, be relieved of administrative work and non-police tasks, and spend more time on patrol.

The CDU wants to give every police officer on duty a body camera. This is a small camera worn on the body. It should protect officers from violence. All officers should also get smartphones or tablets. They should have less paperwork and be on the street more.

The CDU wants police to make far greater use of video surveillance in public squares and wants to make weapon-free zones easier to set up. Municipal public order offices are to get more powers and equipment. According to the platform, the aim is more safety in public spaces and action against knife attacks.

The CDU wants more cameras in public squares. It wants to make it easier to create zones where weapons are banned. In these zones, police may check people without suspicion. City public order offices should also get more powers.

The CDU wants to allow police to issue preventive no-contact and stay-away orders and to monitor them with electronic ankle tags. This is meant to better protect potential victims of domestic violence and stalking. It also wants to make it easier for crime victims to obtain compensation.

Police should be able to ban offenders from coming near a victim. An electronic ankle tag should monitor this. That is a device on the leg that reports the location. Victims of crime should get help and money more easily.

The CDU wants to expand Thuringia's Verfassungsschutz (domestic intelligence service) in staff and technology and give it new powers. It is to use informants again, carry out remote searches of computers and monitor organized crime. Extremism is to be fought in all its forms.

The CDU wants to strengthen the Verfassungsschutz. This is the state's domestic intelligence service. It should use informants from extremist groups again. It should also be allowed to secretly search computers. It should watch criminal gangs as well.

The CDU wants an investment program to fix equipment shortfalls in fire departments and to give volunteer brigades more financial support. The bonus for youth fire brigades is to quadruple. The platform argues that fire and disaster protection does not work without volunteers.

Fire departments should get new vehicles and better technology. The state should pay more for this. Youth fire brigades should get 100 euros per member instead of 25. Young firefighters should get money toward a driver's license.

The CDU wants to reorganize disaster protection together with counties and independent cities and to warn the public more effectively. This includes more sirens, a separate Thuringian warning day and a firefighting and disaster protection base at Erfurt-Weimar airport. Preparations are also to be made for civil protection in the event of war.

The CDU wants to warn people better when there is danger. Towns should get more sirens. Thuringia should have its own warning day. Firefighting helicopters and planes should be based at Erfurt-Weimar airport. The CDU wants to talk with the federal government about shelters.

The CDU wants to reward volunteers in fire brigades, mountain rescue, aid organizations and the THW (federal technical relief agency) with a statewide discount card. It also plans a service anniversary payment and an annual emergency services day meant to attract young people to volunteering.

Volunteer helpers should get a service card. It makes things like buses, swimming pools and museums cheaper. Long service should be rewarded with money. A yearly day in schools should get children interested in volunteering.

The CDU calls for mandatory retention of IP addresses and connection data for a minimum period in order to solve and prevent serious crimes. According to the platform, security should take priority over the individual's data protection. Artificial intelligence is also to support investigative work.

The CDU wants IP addresses to be stored by law. An IP address shows which connection was active on the internet. A judge must allow police to read the data. Police should also use artificial intelligence. Security should matter more than data protection.

The CDU rejects stricter rules for legal gun ownership, arguing that Germany already has very strict gun laws. Instead, it wants to step up action against illegal gun possession. In its view, hunters and traditional and sport shooters should no longer be put at a disadvantage.

The CDU does not want stricter gun laws. It says the laws are already very strict. Criminals do not follow laws anyway. The CDU wants to do more against illegal guns. Hunters and sport shooters should not be treated unfairly.

The CDU wants to preserve, support and protect Jewish life in Thuringia and its institutions. Against antisemitism it relies on more education and awareness work and on rigorous prosecution.

The CDU wants to protect Jewish life in Thuringia. It wants more education about hatred of Jews. People who spread this hatred should be punished hard. This also applies online.

The CDU acknowledges the contribution Muslims living in Thuringia make to the community. It rejects political Islamism and will not accept parallel societies with their own rules alongside the constitutional order.

The CDU says many Muslims contribute to Thuringia. But it rejects political Islamism. Nobody should live by their own laws outside the state's rules.

The CDU wants to reduce bureaucracy and shorten administrative and approval procedures. For every new bureaucratic burden, two existing ones are to be removed, and applications are to count as approved where possible if they have not been processed within eight weeks.

The CDU wants less red tape. For every new rule, two old rules should become simpler. Applications should count as approved after eight weeks if the office does not answer. Authorities should help people and companies.

The CDU wants to make the justice system a more attractive employer, with competitive pay, modern working conditions and a recruitment campaign. Prison staff and court bailiffs are also to be better paid and better protected.

The CDU wants more people to work in the justice system. To do this, pay should improve. Prison officers should get more money and tasers. A taser is a device that gives electric shocks. Court bailiffs should study for three years in the future.

The CDU opposes downgrading or decriminalizing offenses such as fare evasion or drug offenses. The legalization of cannabis is to be reversed and drug crime prosecuted consistently.

The CDU wants to ban cannabis again. Riding without a ticket should stay a crime. Drug crime should be prosecuted strictly. Investigations should not be dropped too quickly.

The CDU wants to shorten court proceedings by giving courts more staff, digitizing them and increasing specialization. Fast-track criminal proceedings are to be used more often, especially for young repeat offenders. All existing court locations are to be kept.

Courts should decide faster. They should get more staff and digital technology. Special panels should handle difficult areas of law. All courts in Thuringia should stay. For young offenders, punishment should come quickly.

The CDU rules out forced territorial reforms for municipalities and districts. Mergers would remain voluntary and receive financial support. All current district seats would keep their status.

The CDU does not want to force any town or district to merge. Towns may merge by choice and get money for it. All district seats should stay district seats. Small towns should work together more instead.

The CDU wants to anchor minimum qualification requirements for ministers in the state's ministers act. Top administrative posts are to be filled again on the principle of selecting the best candidate, and the party wants to investigate the previous government's "jobs affair."

Ministers should have finished job training or a university degree. The CDU wants to write this into a law. Top jobs in the administration should go to the best people. Ministers should also live in Thuringia.

The CDU wants to modernize public administration, focus it on core tasks and make digital processes the standard. A citizens' portal is to be set up in both digital and analog form, through which people can submit concerns to the administration and get a timely answer.

The CDU wants to make the administration more modern and simpler. Many things should work digitally. Citizens should be able to send questions to a citizens' portal. They should get a good answer quickly.

The CDU wants to review all tasks of the administration and how they are carried out, and to implement the results through a state organization law. It also calls for a new approach to mistakes, bolder use of discretion and an open data portal.

The CDU wants to review the state administration. It asks which tasks are needed. It asks how to do them better. A new law should put the results into practice. More government data should also be open online.

The CDU wants to retain and recruit staff for the administration through good pay, flexible working conditions and higher trainee pay, among other things. Collective pay deals are to apply to civil servants in full and at the same time.

The CDU wants more people to work in government offices. Trainees should get more money. Civil servants should get the same raises as other public employees. Hiring should take no more than three months.

The CDU wants to attract well-trained EU citizens to Thuringia's labor market and reduce barriers to worker mobility. Exchange programs for apprentices, university students and school students are to grow.

The CDU wants skilled workers from other EU countries to come to Thuringia. Working in another EU country should become easier. More young people should do part of their training abroad. There should be more money for this.

The CDU rejects any German liability for the debts of other EU states. Each member state is to be responsible for its own debt, and EU money is not to flow into national social programs.

The CDU wants no shared debt in the EU. Each country should pay its own debts. Germany should not be liable for other countries. EU money should not go into the social programs of single countries.

The CDU backs the mission of the Bundeswehr (German armed forces) to protect Germany and its partners and to deter adversaries within NATO and the EU. It wants to bring additional units to Thuringia and to approve and carry out Bundeswehr construction projects faster.

The CDU supports the Bundeswehr, Germany's armed forces. It wants new troops to be based in Thuringia. Buildings for the armed forces should be approved faster. The state's building authority should be well equipped for this.

The CDU wants to secure funding for palaces, heritage buildings, museums, theaters and music schools in Thuringia, in some cases increasing it. Cultural funding is to become more flexible and more performance-based. Customs, dialects and local heritage work are also to keep receiving support.

Thuringia has many palaces, theaters and museums. The CDU wants to keep them and give more money. People who restore an old protected building should get help. Music schools should be able to keep working safely. Dialects and customs should also be cared for.

The CDU wants to continue confronting both the Nazi dictatorship and the SED dictatorship and to keep funding memorial sites. It plans a central memorial in Thuringia for victims of the East German regime and wants better compensation at the federal level. Research on East German history is to receive more money.

The CDU wants to remember two dictatorships: the Nazi era and East Germany. Memorial sites should keep getting money. There should be a memorial for the victims of East Germany. The victims should get more help. Researchers should find out more about East Germany.

The CDU wants to introduce a remembrance day in Thuringia for the victims of flight, expulsion and forced resettlement. The state government is to have a high-level contact person for German expellees and Spätaussiedler (ethnic German resettlers). Their cultural heritage and associations are to keep receiving funding.

Many Germans had to leave their homes after the war. The CDU wants a remembrance day for them. The government should have a fixed contact person. The expellee groups should keep getting money. Degrees of ethnic German resettlers should be recognized faster.

The CDU calls for a reform treaty among the states that redefines the remit and offerings of the public broadcasters. It rejects an increase in the broadcasting fee and relies on savings instead. Oversight of the broadcasters is to be strengthened.

The CDU wants to reform the public broadcasters. The broadcasting fee should not go up. The broadcasters should save money. They should also be checked more strictly.

The CDU wants to liberalize and simplify Thuringia's state media law to give media companies more room to operate. At the same time, young media firms, community and local media, digital radio and rural movie theaters are to receive support.

The CDU wants to loosen the media law in Thuringia. Media companies should get more freedom. Small and local broadcasters should get help. Movie theaters in rural areas should stay.

The CDU promises that key essential services will be reachable within 20 minutes anywhere in Thuringia. To that end, village shops would be supported, state agencies located in rural areas and village churches renovated. Urban and rural areas should offer equal opportunities.

Important services should be reachable in 20 minutes. This includes buying groceries, for example. The CDU wants to support village shops. More state offices should move to rural areas. Village churches should be repaired.

The CDU wants to keep supporting the work of the churches and their welfare organizations and to protect Sundays and the major Christian holidays. Church monuments are to be preserved and the village church program relaunched. The platform justifies this with the state's Christian heritage.

The CDU wants to keep supporting the churches. Sundays and Christian holidays should stay protected. Old churches should be preserved. A program for village churches should start again.

The CDU wants to relieve volunteers and clubs of bureaucracy and make this binding in a volunteering law, which it says would be the first in Germany. Funding applications and proof-of-use reports are to be simplified, as are data protection rules for clubs.

The CDU wants to reduce paperwork for clubs and volunteers. Applying for funding should become easier. Data protection rules should become easier for clubs too. All of this should be written into a volunteering law.

The CDU wants to create and fund a state program called "Ehrenamt" (volunteering) to support clubs, initiatives and volunteers. It also plans higher allocations to the volunteering foundation, the state sports federation and welfare associations, state coverage of GEMA music licensing fees, and tax incentives at the federal level.

The CDU wants to start a state program for volunteering. Clubs and volunteers should get more money and help. The state should pay GEMA fees at events with free entry. GEMA fees are fees for playing music in public. Volunteers should also pay less tax.

The CDU wants to put more money into building and renovating sports facilities and launch a special program called "Sportland Thüringen." Together with the state sports federation, sports funding is to be reassessed in a future plan; school sports, coaches and youth development are to be strengthened.

The CDU wants to spend more money on sports fields and gyms. A special program should keep sports facilities in good shape. Sports at school should be strengthened. Coaches should be paid better step by step.

The CDU wants every child in Thuringia to learn to swim. It plans a swimming instruction campaign, a 50-euro voucher for all first graders and a state program to preserve indoor and outdoor pools.

Every child in Thuringia should learn to swim. All first graders should get a voucher worth 50 euros. They can use it for a swimming course. The CDU also wants to keep swimming pools open.