CDU on democracy and the state

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 program cites the rule "one in, two out" and wants spot checks and random checks to replace full checks. Authorities are to see themselves as service providers, and staff are to get more responsibility. All funding programs will be reviewed for effectiveness; programs with disproportionate effort are to end, and lump-sum funding and simpler proof-of-use checks are to be added. Public procurement is to become simpler and more digital, with more uniform procurement rules across Germany. For EU funds, the CDU calls for high funding rates and minimum thresholds below which documentation duties do not apply.

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.

A staffing pool is to cover absences, a personnel development program is to respond to demographic change, and training and supervision are to be expanded. In the prison service, entry-level grades are to be raised, allowances are to count toward pensions, promotions are to improve, and tasers are to be introduced. Court bailiffs are to get a new promotion grade, a three-year bachelor's degree, police information about dangerous debtors and pepper spray. The CDU also wants to preserve the independent legal professions and their chambers, protect them from being weakened by European rules and adjust statutory attorney fees.

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.

According to the platform, everything the criminal code punishes today is to remain punishable. As examples of a softening it rejects, the CDU names fare evasion and drug abuse. It also opposes dropping investigations too quickly. It wants to undo the cannabis legalization that has already taken effect.

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.

Plans include online proceedings, video conferencing technology, digital offices for filing legal applications and online appointment booking. A pilot project is to test artificial intelligence for capturing incoming documents in electronic case files, with the decision always remaining with a human. Specialized panels are to be created in areas such as immigration and construction law, modeled on the Commercial Court in Baden-Württemberg. The CDU wants to set up more youth stations like those in Gera and Jena, where all authorities dealing with juvenile crime work together.

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.

Where structures are too small to handle tasks effectively, the CDU relies on cooperation between municipalities. The legal basis for this would be simplified and funding provided. Erfurt, Gera, Weimar, Jena and Suhl would remain independent cities for as long as they wish. The party argues that decisions should continue to be made locally.

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.

As a minimum requirement, the platform names completed vocational training or a university degree; so far Thuringia has no such rule. The CDU wants ministers and state secretaries to have roots in Thuringia and live there, because that way they know local problems. The party sees trust in government and administration as damaged by the previous coalition and wants to win it back.

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.

In the platform's view, the administration is currently too complicated, too bureaucratic and too slow. Unnecessary tasks and red tape are to be eliminated. The CDU speaks of a new culture of listening: inquiries are to receive a well-founded answer. The language used by the administration should be understandable to everyone and follow the rules of German spelling and grammar.

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 task review is meant to keep the administration fit for the period beyond 2035, with a focus on automation and digitalization. Agencies are to make full use of their discretion; the platform speaks of a start-up mindset. Managers are to be encouraged to find unbureaucratic solutions, and a bonus-based idea program is to reward staff suggestions. The existing transparency portal is to become an open data portal that businesses and researchers can also use.

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 plans include a staff development concept, a bike leasing option, workplace health management anchored in law and a leadership academy. Hiring is to run through a digital career portal and be completed within three months. Civil servants' pay is to be checked for constitutionality and adjusted if needed; bonuses are to help recruit and retain staff. Civil service law is to make promotion and movement between government and the private sector easier. Within 100 days, a future pact for the public service is to be drawn up with staff councils and unions.