FDP on democracy and the state

The FDP wants to turn the public administration in Bremen and Bremerhaven into modern service providers through a staffing reform. To do this, the Personalvertretungsgesetz (the law on staff representation in the public sector) would be fundamentally modernized. By 2030, the share of administrative spending in the state budget should fall by half.

The FDP wants to make Bremen's administration smaller and more modern. By 2030, it should cost only half as much of the budget. The FDP wants to review tasks and do more digitally. The law on staff representation should also change. Bremen should set money aside for future pensions.

The program considers Bremen's personnel spending too high compared with other states, especially in the Senate departments. The FDP wants to cut the government's share of the economy sharply by reviewing responsibilities and tasks, reducing internal bureaucracy, and digitalizing and automating processes. It also calls for flat hierarchies and short lines of communication. Sufficient reserves should be built up for future pension obligations.

The FDP calls for sweeping deregulation and a reform of Bremen's public agencies. For every new rule, at least two comparable ones would be repealed. The platform argues that bureaucracy holds back solutions to many other problems.

The FDP wants fewer rules in Bremen. For every new rule, two old rules should go. Experts should check new laws first. They should say how much work a law causes.

The platform names three tools. First, whenever a new rule is introduced, at least two equivalent rules must be dropped at the same time. Second, the bureaucracy cost index and the measurement of compliance costs for citizens and businesses would be expanded. Third, independent experts would have to assess the bureaucratic burden of bills before parliament debates them.

The FDP wants to establish English permanently and across the board as an administrative language in Bremen and Bremerhaven. Every government service would also be available in English. The aim is to make things easier for international companies and to attract skilled workers from abroad.

The FDP wants public offices to use English too. People should be able to do all their paperwork in English. This should help companies from other countries. It should also bring skilled workers to Bremen.

The platform points to international institutions, universities, companies, and an English-language school in the state. It says English is already common in both cities and that public offices should follow suit. The stated goals are better conditions for internationally active firms and an edge in the global competition for skilled workers.

The FDP wants a unified port policy with clear responsibilities for all ports in the state. Authority would rest with the state, while administration would lie with the city where each port is located. This is meant to better coordinate port and commercial areas.

The FDP wants clear rules on who is in charge of the ports. The state of Bremen should have top responsibility for all ports. The city where a port lies should manage it. This should help ports and business areas fit together.

The platform favors clear lines of action in port policy. Authority over all of Bremen's ports would pass to the state. Administration would follow geography, meaning it would sit with either Bremen or Bremerhaven. The FDP's stated reason is sensible coordination of port and commercial land.

The FDP wants to give Bremen's justice system better staffing and equipment. New positions are to be created for judges, prosecutors, and court administration. The platform sees the greatest need in the public prosecutor's office.

The FDP wants more staff for the justice system. There should be more judges and prosecutors. Court administration should also get more people. Pay should improve.

The staffing gap in the public prosecutor's office is to be closed as quickly as possible, based on the PEBB§Y staffing needs calculation system. Pay and salaries are to become competitive for this purpose. Additional positions in court administration are meant to relieve judges and prosecutors so they can focus on their core work. The platform also points to the cannabis legalization the FDP is pursuing at the federal level; capacity freed up by it is to improve the staffing ratio.

The FDP wants to reform the Magistrat, Bremerhaven's city government, to make democratic structures easier to understand. Whoever holds the majority should also fill the Magistrat. If the reform fails, the party will push for direct election of the mayor.

The Magistrat is the city government of Bremerhaven. The FDP wants to change it. Those who govern should also fill the Magistrat. If that fails, citizens should elect the mayor directly.

The term of Magistrat members is to match the electoral term of the city council. The requirement to have a fully qualified lawyer in the Magistrat, the public advertising of the posts, and, if possible, the honorary members are to be dropped. According to the platform, this would strengthen those in government, and the parties' lead candidates would compete for the office of mayor. The opposition is to be strengthened as well, and committees are to be chaired by city council members instead of Magistrat members.

The FDP wants citizens to directly elect the heads of the district offices (Ortsämter) in Bremen. It justifies this with the goal of achieving more democracy and trusting people to make important decisions themselves.

The FDP wants people to have more say. Citizens should elect the heads of the district offices themselves. Their term should match the term of the state parliament. This should apply at the next elections already.

The terms of the district office heads are to be aligned with those of the Bürgerschaft (state parliament). The FDP wants the direct election to take place as early as the next elections. The platform places the plan under the goal of expanding democracy in the state.

The FDP wants political decisions to be made in the state parliament and city council again rather than in municipal enterprises and companies. Public enterprises are to be critically reviewed, including for tasks that private businesses could do better. More practitioners are to sit on supervisory and administrative boards.

Bremen and Bremerhaven own many companies. The FDP wants to review these companies. Private firms should take over some tasks. More experts with practical experience should sit on the supervisory boards.

According to the platform, the aim of the review is a transparent, democratic, and low-cost structure. The state is to limit itself to its core tasks. Where companies remain, experts are to be considered for management. So far, the city and state have filled supervisory and administrative boards mainly with politicians and civil servants; in the future, half of the seats appointed by the public sector are to go to experts with practical experience.

The FDP wants to expand the legal service of the Bremische Bürgerschaft (Bremen's state parliament) into a full research service. This is meant to help parliament oversee the Senate more effectively.

The Bürgerschaft is Bremen's parliament. It is supposed to check the Senate. The Senate is the government. The FDP wants to give parliament more experts. These experts would advise the lawmakers.

According to the platform, overseeing the Senate is the state parliament's most important job. Parliament and its party groups should have the resources they need for that job. The platform says the Senate currently has a decisive advantage because of its large staff. The existing legal service would therefore be strengthened and developed into a research service.

The FDP wants to replace the state and city Deputationen (joint bodies of lawmakers and administration) with parliamentary committees, arguing that committees are independent of the administration. In addition, motions and bills would normally be referred to committees for debate.

Bremen has bodies called Deputationen. Lawmakers and the administration work together in them. The FDP wants to turn them into committees of parliament. The committees should check the government better. Motions and bills should almost always be discussed there.

The platform argues that committees work independently of the administration and are therefore better suited to overseeing Senate policy. All areas of the administration would come under full parliamentary oversight. The FDP criticizes that committees and deputations rarely deal with political motions today. Referring motions and bills to committee would therefore become the default. A referral would be skipped only if two thirds vote against it or if the group that filed the motion asks for that.

The FDP wants to involve Bremen's Beiräte (elected district councils) and Bremerhaven's neighborhood conferences earlier in decisions. The work of Bremen's district councils would also become traceable for everyone through a single digital information system.

Bremen's districts have elected councils called Beiräte. Bremerhaven has neighborhood conferences. The FDP wants them to have a say earlier. There should also be one website for all the councils. People can search there for topics and decisions.

The district bodies would be brought in earlier on district development, transportation, culture and social matters. The identity of the districts would be promoted through marketing and tied into city marketing. For council work in Bremen, the FDP plans a uniform digital information and search system, because the current search function is not maintained equally well in every district office. District offices would receive funds and staff for this where needed. The platform points to council information systems in other municipalities as a model.

The FDP wants to create citizens' forums in Bremerhaven whose members are selected by lot and who advise the city council members. Decisions would still be made only by the elected city council.

The FDP wants citizens' forums in Bremerhaven. A lottery decides who takes part. The forums advise the city council members. Only the elected city council makes the decisions.

The forums would work on specific topics or specific districts. The platform commits to representative democracy and calls for the forums' advisory role to be clearly limited and expectations to be defined. The FDP sees the benefit in citizens dealing with projects on the merits and in council members being better informed. The lottery would also bring in people who otherwise would not take part in politics.

In the long term, the FDP wants to turn Germany's Staatskirchenrecht (the law governing relations between the state and churches) into a constitutional law of religion. It would offer a suitable legal status to all religious communities that accept certain principles.

Germany has a law on how the state and churches relate. The FDP wants to turn it into a law for all religions. Every religious community should get a fitting status. To get it, a community must accept basic rights.

The plan is worded as a long-term goal. The new legal framework would apply to all religious communities. The condition is that they recognize the principle of equality, the diversity of faiths, fundamental rights and their members' self-determination.