CSU: program for the 2023 Bavaria state election

The CSU commits to skilled trades, family businesses and self-employment and wants to increase support for trade apprenticeships. In its view, mid-sized companies create most jobs and training positions.

The CSU wants to strengthen skilled trades and small firms. Training to become a master craftsperson is free in Bavaria. Schools should hold a trades day every year. Small firms get help with going digital.

Through its Hightech Agenda, the CSU wants to put more than five billion euros into research and technology by 2027. This is meant to make Bavaria Europe's leading high-tech location. Priorities include artificial intelligence, quantum computing, aerospace and biotechnology.

The CSU wants to spend a lot of money on research and new technology. By 2027 it will be more than 5 billion euros. This is about things like artificial intelligence and space travel. Companies in rural areas should benefit too.

The CSU rejects the federal government's Bürgergeld (citizen's income), which it considers unfair and a disincentive to work. Those who work should have more than those who do not. It wants sanctions for people who can work but refuse to.

The CSU is against Bürgergeld. That is state money for people without work. The CSU says people who work should have more money. People who can work but refuse should face penalties.

The CSU wants to expand seniors' involvement, the inclusion of people with disabilities and help for people in need. It commits to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and wants to strengthen Bavaria's social safety net.

The CSU wants everyone to be able to take part. Older people should have more say. People with disabilities should be better included at school and at work. Food banks should get more help.

The CSU wants to give equal pension treatment to parents of children born before 1992. They would be credited with three child-raising years, and thus three pension points, per child.

Parents get more pension for raising children. For older children, they get less than for younger ones. The CSU wants to change that. For each child born before 1992, three years should count.

The CSU wants Bavaria to stick permanently to a balanced budget, take on no new debt and pay down existing debt. It rejects tax increases. The platform justifies this with preserving financial leeway for future generations.

The CSU wants no new debt for Bavaria. The state should only spend what it takes in. The CSU wants to pay back old debt. It says no to higher taxes.

To counter inflation and high energy prices, the CSU calls for cutting the electricity tax to the EU minimum and for low electricity prices for industry and mid-sized firms. It also wants to lower VAT on food and drinks and keep the reduced VAT rate for restaurants permanently.

The CSU wants electricity to cost less. The tax on electricity should drop sharply. The tax on food and drinks should also go down. Restaurants should keep their lower tax rate. The CSU wants to stop a tax on hotel stays.

The CSU wants to fully abolish the solidarity surcharge and bracket creep ("kalte Progression"). The commuter tax allowance would rise to 38 cents from the first kilometer. The platform justifies this by saying that effort must pay off.

The CSU wants to scrap the solidarity surcharge completely. That is an extra charge on top of income tax. Taxes should also stop rising quietly when prices rise. People who drive to work should be able to deduct more from their taxes.

The CSU wants higher exemptions and lower rates for the inheritance tax. In the future, the states would decide the level of the tax themselves. According to the platform, the tax burdens family businesses and disadvantages Bavaria because of high land prices.

The CSU wants heirs to pay less tax. Each state should set its own inheritance tax. The CSU says nobody should have to sell their parents' home to pay the tax.

The CSU considers the Länderfinanzausgleich (fiscal equalization among the states) unfair and is suing over it. In the future, transfers should only cover the core and mandatory tasks of recipient states. Bavarian tax money should mainly benefit people in Bavaria.

Rich states give money to poorer states in Germany. Bavaria pays a lot. The CSU thinks this is unfair and is going to court. The money should only pay for the basic duties of other states.

The CSU wants to trigger more private investment in housing, mainly through better depreciation rules and tax deductions. It wants to block new requirements that make building more expensive and to ease conversions and company housing.

The CSU wants more homes to be built. People who build should pay less tax. There should be no new costly building rules. Building permits should be handled online. Companies should find it easier to build homes for their staff.

The CSU wants to merge Bavaria's three state housing companies into one and supply it with capital so it keeps building new homes. Funding for social housing is to continue permanently at a high level.

Bavaria owns three companies that build homes. The CSU wants to turn them into one. This company should get enough money. The state should keep spending a lot on low-cost housing. Rents in state-owned homes should not rise until 2025.

The CSU wants average earners to be able to afford their own home. It calls for an allowance on the real estate transfer tax for first-time owner-occupied purchases and wants to keep Bavaria's rate at 3.5 percent.

The CSU wants more people to be able to buy a home. Buyers pay a tax on the purchase. For a first home, part of the price should be tax-free. This tax should stay low in Bavaria. Families should get low-cost loans from the state.

The CSU wants to keep the Bavarian Familiengeld (family allowance), regardless of whether a child attends daycare. Single parents are to receive a higher amount. The platform justifies this with families' freedom to choose between different ways of life.

In Bavaria, parents get a family allowance for small children. The CSU wants to keep paying it. It should not matter if the child goes to daycare. Single parents should get more money.

The CSU wants to set up 180,000 additional childcare places by 2028 together with the municipalities. At the same time, the quality of care is to improve and the profession of childcare worker is to become more attractive.

The CSU wants many more childcare places. By 2028 there should be 180,000 new places. The care should also get better. Childcare workers should get better pay.

The CSU rejects abolishing Ehegattensplitting (joint tax assessment for married couples), which it regards as a tax increase for married people. It wants to extend it into a "child splitting" through higher child allowances. At the federal level it also wants to simplify, expand and raise the Elterngeld (parental allowance).

Married couples often pay less tax through income splitting. The CSU wants to keep this. Parents should also get higher tax allowances for children. The parental allowance should go up and become simpler.

The CSU wants to keep Bavaria's multi-track school system and rejects a single comprehensive school for all as well as federal interference in education policy. School subjects, class groups and grades are to stay. Children should know German before they start school.

Bavaria has different types of schools. The CSU wants to keep it that way. It does not want one common school for all children. Grades and school subjects should stay. Children should learn German before starting school.

The CSU wants to set up 8,000 additional positions in schools by 2028 and provide all students with tablets. Teachers at elementary and middle schools are to be paid at the A 13 grade across the board by 2027. Small elementary schools are to be kept.

The CSU wants 8,000 new jobs in schools. All students should get a tablet by 2028. Teachers at elementary and middle schools should earn more. Elementary schools should not close if parents want to keep them.

The CSU wants every child to learn to swim. To that end, municipalities are to get more help for their swimming pools, and children receive vouchers for a swimming course.

Every child should learn to swim. The CSU wants to give towns more money for swimming pools. Children get a voucher worth 50 euros for a swimming course.

The CSU wants to preserve hospitals across Bavaria and develop them according to need, especially in rural areas. To do so, the state's annual investment is to grow to one billion euros.

The CSU wants to keep Bavaria's hospitals. Rural areas should also have good doctors and clinics. The state should spend one billion euros a year on hospitals. That is much more than today. There is extra money for emergency care.

The CSU wants to create nearly 3,000 additional places to study medicine and attract doctors to rural areas. Maternity care close to home is to keep receiving 28 million euros a year.

The CSU wants to train more doctors. There should be almost 3,000 new places to study medicine. Doctors should also move to the countryside. The state pays money for this. Midwives and small maternity wards will keep getting money too.

The CSU wants to fund 8,000 new care places by 2028 and continue the Landespflegegeld (state care allowance). More skilled workers are to come through better conditions and faster procedures for care workers from abroad.

The CSU wants more places in care homes. There should be 8,000 new places by 2028. Bavaria's care payment should stay. Care workers from other countries should be able to start work in Bavaria faster.

The CSU wants to broaden care for the dying, including at home and in nursing homes. It sees this as its answer to assisted suicide, which it rejects.

The CSU wants better support for dying people. This should also be possible at home and in care homes. The CSU is against helping people end their own lives.

The CSU rejects the federal government's planned legalization of drugs and calls it a wrong path. Bavaria is not to become a pilot region for cannabis.

The federal government wants to allow cannabis. The CSU is against that. Bavaria should not become a test area for cannabis. The CSU wants to stop this by every legal means.

The CSU wants to prevent irregular migration and speed up deportations while affirming labor migration and help for people in need of protection. It calls for better protection of the EU's external borders, a European asylum system with decision centers at the external border and more federal help for municipalities.

The CSU wants fewer people to enter without permission. Europe's borders should be better protected. People who need no protection or commit crimes should have to leave. People who have a job should be allowed to stay. Skilled workers from abroad are welcome.

The CSU rejects faster naturalization, for instance after just three years of residence. Citizenship should come at the end of successful integration and require a commitment to values and language. Dual citizenship should remain the exception.

The CSU does not want to make it easier to get a German passport. Three years in Germany is not enough for the CSU. People should speak German well and support themselves. Two passports should only be allowed in special cases.

The CSU wants to preserve Bavarian culture and way of life and rejects identity politics, "wokeness," "cancel culture" and compulsory gender-inclusive language. At the same time, it stands by the Queer Action Plan already under way.

The CSU wants to keep the Bavarian way of life. No one should be forced to use gender-inclusive language. Everyone should live and love as they wish. The CSU will keep working on the action plan for queer people.

The CSU wants to double electricity from renewable sources in Bavaria by 2030, triple solar power and build 1,000 new wind turbines. Hydropower, bioenergy, geothermal energy, storage and grids would also be expanded. The goal is a power mix that provides baseload, is affordable and is climate-neutral.

The CSU wants much more power from sun, wind and water. By 2030 there should be twice as much. Bavaria should get 1,000 new wind turbines. Power storage and power lines should grow too. This should keep power safe and affordable.

The CSU wants to make Bavaria the leading hydrogen location and invest 700 million euros to that end. Existing gas networks would be kept and later used for hydrogen. To secure the power supply, it also relies on gas-fired plants and a strategic gas reserve.

The CSU wants Bavaria to use a lot of hydrogen. Hydrogen is a gas that provides energy. A new pipeline should bring it from the Adriatic Sea to Bavaria. Bavaria's gas pipes should stay. Later, hydrogen should flow through them.

The CSU wants to keep Bavaria's nuclear power plants running as a bridge technology, if necessary under state authority. It justifies this with the need for affordable, reliable and CO2-free electricity. Bavaria is also to become a leader in nuclear technology and nuclear fusion.

The CSU wants to keep using the nuclear plants in Bavaria. If needed, Bavaria should be in charge itself. The CSU says nuclear power is reliable and has no CO2. Bavaria should also do research on new nuclear technology.

The CSU wants Bavaria to become climate neutral by 2040 and rejects an earlier target year such as 2035. Climate protection is to succeed through openness to all technologies and investment rather than bans. Protesters who break the law when gluing themselves to roads are to be punished consistently.

Bavaria should be climate neutral by 2040. The goal should not come earlier. The CSU wants climate protection without bans. People who glue themselves to roads and break laws should be punished hard.

The CSU rejects the federal government's heating and renovation plans, arguing they would make housing and home ownership unaffordable for average earners. It favors subsidies and incentives over bans and wants to keep all heating types available.

The federal government plans new rules for heating systems. The CSU is against them. It says the rules make housing too costly. The CSU would rather help with money. Heating with wood and pellets should stay allowed.

The CSU wants to limit and reduce the number of wolves and other predators. To do so, it should be permanently possible to remove wolves and otters, meaning to capture or kill them. The party justifies this with the protection of grazing animals, alpine pastures and fish farming.

Wolves and otters sometimes kill grazing animals and fish. The CSU wants fewer of these predators. It should be allowed to remove them for good. Removing here means catching or killing.

The CSU wants to introduce a Wassercent (a levy on water extraction) to protect drinking water and deep groundwater. Water supply is to remain in municipal hands. The party rejects a water-sharing scheme between the states at Bavaria's expense.

The CSU wants to protect water in Bavaria. For this there should be a water levy. That is a charge for taking water. Private companies should not take over the water supply.

The CSU wants to restore 55,000 hectares of peatland as natural CO2 storage and convert forests into more climate-resilient mixed forests. Nature conservation is to be carried out in cooperation with land users. Existing programs for species protection and landscape care are to grow.

The CSU wants to bring peatlands back to their natural state. Peatlands store the climate gas CO2. Forests should get more different kinds of trees. Animals and plants should also get more protection.

The CSU wants to promote regional food, regardless of whether it is produced organically or conventionally. To do so, the value-added tax on these products is to be cut permanently. Cafeterias, daycare centers and schools are to serve more regional products.

The CSU wants to promote food from the region. The tax on this food should go down. In daycare centers and schools, half of the food should be regional. Everyone should decide for themselves what to eat.

The CSU wants to preserve family farms and relieve them of regulations and levies. It calls for less red tape, a halt to new burdens and tax exemption for agricultural diesel and farm machinery. It rejects requirements to set land aside and to reduce livestock farming.

The CSU wants to protect family farms. Farmers should have fewer rules and less paperwork. Diesel for tractors should be tax-free. Farmers should decide about their own fields.

The CSU wants to raise cycling's share of traffic significantly. A Bavarian bicycle law, 1,500 kilometers of new bike paths by 2030 and a seamless statewide network are meant to achieve this.

The CSU wants more people to ride bikes. There will be a new law for this. By 2030, Bavaria should build 1,500 kilometers of new bike paths. Taking a bike on a local train should cost only one euro.

The CSU rejects driving bans and a general EU ban on combustion engines from 2035, arguing it would harm Bavaria's industry and auto workers. Instead it backs a mix of electric, hydrogen and climate-neutral combustion engines.

The CSU wants to keep cars with combustion engines. The EU plans to ban new ones from 2035. The CSU is against that. It also rejects driving bans. Cars should run on man-made fuel that is climate-friendly. These fuels are called e-fuels.

The CSU wants to provide more money for state roads and stick to expanding the A 3 and A 94 highways. At the same time, major rail projects around Munich, electrification of lines and rail freight are to move forward.

The CSU wants to expand roads and rail lines. State roads should get more money. Munich should get its second S-Bahn line through the city. More goods should travel by train.

The CSU wants a discounted Deutschlandticket (nationwide transit pass) for schoolchildren, students and trainees. Bus service is to become fully emission-free, and regional trains are to run without diesel by 2040.

The CSU wants better buses and trains. School kids, students and trainees should get a cheaper nationwide ticket. Buses should no longer give off exhaust. Bavaria will fund 2,000 new buses for this. Trains should run without diesel by 2040.

The CSU wants to strengthen the police with 1,000 additional positions by 2028 and better equipment, and to add staff in the justice system as well. Extremism, hate crime and attacks on emergency personnel are to be prosecuted severely. The party wants Bavaria to remain the safest German state.

The CSU wants more police officers in Bavaria. By 2028, 1,000 jobs should be added. Courts should also get more staff. The CSU wants to act hard against violence, online hate and extremism.

The CSU wants to prosecute abuse of children and adolescents with full severity. To do so, data retention, interception of encrypted communications at the source and remote searches of devices are to be used as far as the law allows. Storage periods for sexual offenses would rise to ten years.

The CSU wants to protect children better from abuse. Police should be allowed to use phone and internet data for this. They should also be allowed to secretly search computers. Data on sex crimes should be stored twice as long.

The CSU wants to enlarge the Bavarian Border Police to 1,000 posts. At the federal level, it will push for the Federal Police to receive more capacity for border protection as well.

Bavaria has its own border police. The CSU wants more posts there. In the end there should be 1,000 posts. The Federal Police should also get more staff for the borders.

The CSU wants to substantially reduce bureaucracy and speed up planning and permitting. For two years, no new administrative regulations would be added. In the platform's view, too much regulation holds back people and businesses.

The CSU wants less red tape. For two years, there should be no new rules for public offices. Permits should come faster. Offices should make more things possible and work digitally.

The CSU wants to achieve equal living conditions across Bavaria. To do so, government agencies and university places are to be moved to rural areas, municipalities are to be reliably funded, and fast internet and mobile coverage are to be expanded statewide.

The CSU wants to strengthen life in the countryside. Government offices should move from cities to rural areas. This creates jobs there. Almost all homes should get fast internet. Towns should have enough money.

The CSU does not want the broadcasting fee to rise further. Public broadcasters should have a clear profile and differ clearly from private providers.

Everyone pays a fee for public TV and radio. The CSU wants this fee to stay the same. Public stations should be clearly different from private ones.