FDP: program for the 2022 Schleswig-Holstein state election

The FDP wants to make it easier to launch companies out of universities and to set up a patent fund. It also wants to improve knowledge and technology transfer and the support of talent.

New companies should grow more easily out of universities. The FDP wants better rules and more work with businesses. There should be a fund for patents. A patent protects an invention.

The FDP wants to make Schleswig-Holstein the most small-business-friendly state in Germany, with good training, less red tape, and upgraded infrastructure. Starting a business and spinning off companies from universities are to become easier. It expects the federal government to cut red tape and improve financing for startups.

The FDP wants to strengthen small and mid-sized companies. They should have less paperwork. It should be easier to start a company. Ideas from research should turn into new companies faster.

The FDP wants to continue the state's strategy for attracting businesses and give the state business development agency WT.SH better permanent resources. The aim is to bring in companies, especially from abroad, in a more targeted way.

The FDP wants more companies to come to Schleswig-Holstein. The state agency that helps businesses should get more resources. Companies from other countries are a main target. Small and mid-sized firms should also have good conditions.

The FDP wants to put the skilled trades at the center of its economic policy and keep the bonus for master craftspeople who start a business. Red tape is to be cut and vocational training strengthened.

The FDP wants to help the skilled trades. Master craftspeople who start a business should keep getting a bonus. There should be less paperwork. Job training should get better.

The FDP wants to preserve and expand the state's industrial base. The "Bündnis für Industrie.SH" (industry alliance) is to continue, and new industrial sites are to be made easier through fewer administrative hurdles and adjusted funding tools.

The FDP wants to strengthen industry in the state. Industry offers many well-paid jobs. New factories should be able to set up more easily. For that, there should be fewer hurdles at government offices.

The FDP wants to expand state support for start-ups and make it possible to found a company entirely online. The platform sees new businesses as a driver of growth and prosperity.

The FDP wants to help people who start a company. The state should give young companies more support. People should be able to start a company fully online. Schools and universities should also teach about starting a business.

The FDP wants to put the expansion and modernization of infrastructure at the center of its economic policy and of public investment. Funding is to go primarily to infrastructure rather than to individual companies, and fiber-optic internet is to be available almost everywhere in the state by 2025.

The FDP wants to invest mainly in roads, rail, bike paths and fast internet. Public funding should go there rather than to single companies. By 2025, fiber-optic internet should be almost everywhere. Fiber-optic is a very fast internet cable.

The FDP wants state-level spatial planning that responds quickly to new developments and allows easy deviations from plans. Rules on housing development, land take and retail in the state development plan are to be reviewed and loosened.

The state plans where building is allowed. The FDP wants to relax these rules. Towns should find it easier to get land for homes and businesses. Plans should be quicker to change.

The FDP wants to shape the change in city centers as shopping habits and working life shift. It relies on housing in city centers, new business and restaurant concepts, and more flexible opening hours.

City centers are changing. Many people now shop online. The FDP wants more people to live in city centers. Shops should be freer to decide when they open.

The FDP wants to develop tourism together with the industry and residents and reach first place nationwide in customer satisfaction. To this end it plans a tourism competence center, larger marketing budgets and continued investment in destinations.

Tourism is very important for the state. The FDP wants to develop it further. A new center should advise and connect businesses. Local people should benefit too.

The FDP wants to make Schleswig-Holstein a year-round destination, both on the coast and inland. This is meant to create year-round jobs and make work in restaurants and hotels more attractive.

Tourists should come all year round. Then hotel and restaurant staff have work all year. The FDP also wants to support affordable homes near workplaces. This should make more people want to work in the industry.

The FDP wants existing campsites and RV sites to be able to expand and new ones to be designated more easily. The state nature conservation act is to be amended so that very small campsites on farms can be permitted again.

The FDP wants more places for tents and RVs. Small campsites on farms should be allowed again. To do this, the FDP wants to change a state nature protection law.

The FDP wants to shape the legal framework for the gambling market so that legal offerings are more attractive than illegal ones. It would check any additional requirements for whether they push players into the illegal market, while strengthening player protection and addiction counseling.

The FDP wants people to gamble with legal providers. So legal gambling should stay attractive. The FDP wants to check new rules carefully. Protection for players should get better. Counseling for gambling addiction should also be strengthened.

The FDP wants to limit the Working Hours Act to a simple framework that collective agreements and works agreements then fill in. In the party's view, individual preferences and models for work should not be restricted unnecessarily.

A law sets how long people may work. The FDP wants to make this law simpler. Companies and workers should agree on more themselves. This way working hours should fit people's lives better.

The FDP wants to introduce a liberal Bürgergeld (citizen's income). It would replace the many different welfare benefits, which the platform describes as confusing.

Today there are many different kinds of state aid. The FDP finds this too complicated. It wants one single benefit instead. It is called Bürgergeld.

The FDP wants to strengthen vocational education, especially dual training and the STEM fields, as well as continuing education. More people should gain access to the labor market, since the party sees the skilled labor shortage as one of the biggest challenges.

The FDP wants to strengthen job training in companies and vocational schools. People should be able to keep learning all their lives. Young people should get better help choosing a job. More people should find work.

The FDP wants to keep addressing occupational safety challenges across different industries. It relies on targeted information campaigns and on effective means of intervening when abuses occur.

Work should not make people sick. The FDP wants better protection at work. Companies and workers should get better information. The state should be able to step in when conditions are bad.

The FDP wants to review how effective state social benefits are and to show more openly where funds go and which structures they support. This is meant to make help more targeted and lasting.

The FDP wants to check whether social help from the state works well. Everyone should be able to see where the money goes. This way help should reach people better.

The FDP wants to keep treating inclusion as a task for all policy areas and to further develop the state action plan on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. People with disabilities should get more opportunities in the regular labor market, and daycare centers and schools should get more support for inclusion.

The FDP wants people with disabilities to take part everywhere. This applies to culture, transport and work, for example. They should have more chances at regular jobs. Daycare centers and schools should get more help for this.

The FDP wants to back volunteer work with paid staff structures, especially in youth associations, and to further develop the state's volunteering strategy. The volunteer card (Ehrenamtskarte) should offer more benefits, particularly on public transit.

Many people help for free in their spare time. This is called volunteering. The FDP wants to support these people better. The volunteer card should bring more benefits, for example on buses and trains. There should also be advice for volunteers who face hate and attacks.

The FDP wants to counter loneliness in old age with multigenerational housing projects and a digital platform listing all available programs. Public transit and accessibility are also to be improved, and education and prevention programs for older people expanded.

The FDP wants older people not to be lonely. Young and old should be able to live together. A website should show all programs against loneliness. Buses and trains should be better and free of barriers. There should be more courses for older people.

The FDP wants to make the retirement age more flexible so that people can decide for themselves how long they work. To fight old-age poverty, it backs the nationwide introduction of a "Basis-Rente" (basic pension).

The FDP wants people to decide for themselves when to retire. Those who want to work longer should be allowed to. Part-time work in old age should not hurt the pension. A basic pension should help against poverty in old age.

The FDP wants to use the Bundesrat (the chamber of the states) to make the reduced 7 percent VAT rate on restaurant meals permanent. The rate should also apply to drinks. The platform justifies this with the pandemic's impact on hotels and restaurants.

Restaurants currently pay a lower tax of 7 percent on food. This is set to end at the end of 2022. The FDP wants the lower tax to stay for good. It should also apply to drinks.

The FDP calls for an exemption allowance in the real estate transfer tax for the first purchase of an owner-occupied home. If that does not happen, the tax rate should be lowered across the board. The platform argues that high purchase costs keep middle-class families from buying a home.

People who buy a house pay a tax on the purchase. The FDP wants to waive or reduce this tax for a first home. Otherwise the tax should go down for everyone. This should help more people afford their own home.

The FDP wants to push at the federal level for residential buildings to be depreciated for tax purposes at three percent a year instead of two. This is meant to allow lower rents in new buildings.

People who build homes can deduct the cost from their taxes bit by bit. Today that is two percent a year. The FDP wants three percent. This should make building cheaper and lower rents.

The FDP stands by the debt brake and wants a quick return to balanced budgets. At the same time, a minimum rate of investment is to be written into the state constitution. The platform argues that the two together lead to the right budget priorities.

The FDP wants to keep the debt brake. The debt brake is a rule: the state may take on almost no new debt. At the same time, the state should invest more, for example in roads and buildings. At least 10 percent of the budget should go to investment. This duty should be written into the state constitution.

The FDP wants to sell state shareholdings where there is no important state interest or where private firms can do the job just as well and as economically. In addition, the state-owned agency handling the legacy assets of HSH Nordbank is to be wound down quickly to rule out further financial risks.

The state owns shares in companies. The FDP wants to sell such shares when the state does not really need them. Private firms should take over tasks if they can do them just as well. The FDP also wants to close the state's bad bank quickly. A bad bank manages old, risky deals of a bank.

The FDP wants Schleswig-Holstein to calculate property tax using a simple area-based model instead of the federal value-based model. It considers the federal model bureaucratic and prone to lawsuits. The reform is not supposed to raise the tax burden.

People pay property tax on land and houses. The FDP wants to base it only on size. The value of the land should not matter. This should be simpler and mean less paperwork. The tax should not go up because of the reform.

The FDP wants to amend the municipal charges act so that road improvement charges disappear across the whole state. Through the same law, the first dog in every household is to be exempt from the dog tax.

In some towns, residents must pay when their street is rebuilt. The FDP wants to end these charges everywhere in the state. Also, the first dog in a household should no longer be taxed. The FDP says a dog matters to many people and is not a luxury.

The FDP wants to lower taxes and charges on energy sources and everyday goods. It cites the price increases caused by the pandemic and the war against Ukraine, arguing that the state should not earn extra from crises and price shocks.

Electricity, gas, oil and gasoline have become much more expensive. Food costs more too. The FDP wants to cut taxes on these things. The state should not earn more from high prices than before.

The FDP wants a lasting fair split of funds between the state and its municipalities and a prompt overhaul of the municipal fiscal equalization system. Investment funds should go mainly to towns and cities, which according to the platform bear most of the cost of daycare centers, schools and roads.

The state gives money to local governments. The FDP wants to share this money fairly. Money for building should go mostly to towns and cities. They pay for daycare, schools and roads.

The FDP wants the federal government to permanently give municipalities a larger share of value-added tax revenue. It should also contribute more to costs that its decisions create for the states and municipalities.

Local governments should get more money. The federal government should give up part of its sales tax income for this. It should also pay more when it decides on new tasks. The FDP says: whoever orders must pay.

The FDP calls for a ceiling on the Nivellierungssätze, the standardized rates used to calculate a municipality's tax capacity in fiscal equalization. It aims to prevent a spiral of rising local property and business tax rates and to make designating commercial zones more worthwhile.

The state works out how much tax a town could collect. It uses fixed rates for this. The FDP wants a ceiling on these rates. That way local taxes should not keep going up.

The FDP wants Hamburg's payments for sediment management to go into a special fund controlled by the state parliament. The money should mainly benefit coastal fishing in the Elbe and the North Sea.

Hamburg pays Schleswig-Holstein money for its harbor silt. The FDP wants to put this money in a separate fund. The state parliament should decide on the fund. The money should mostly help coastal fishers.

The FDP wants to push in the Bundesrat for less tax bureaucracy. Minor taxes that are costly to collect should be abolished, founders and side businesses with low earnings should be exempt from advance VAT returns for two years, and the effects of tax policy should be evaluated.

The FDP wants less paperwork for taxes. Small taxes that take a lot of effort should go. People who start a business should file fewer tax reports for two years. Tax laws should also be checked to see what they really do.

The FDP wants to expand the state's pension reserve fund so that it can cover all pension obligations in the long run. Monthly payments for each new civil servant are to rise step by step, and the fund's assets are to be protected in the state constitution.

The state must pay pensions to its civil servants later. There is a savings fund for this. The FDP wants to pay more money into this fund. The fund should later pay for all pensions. The constitution should protect the money.

The FDP wants state planning to allow more housing and to lift fixed growth limits for rural municipalities. Municipalities should find it easier to designate commercial and mixed-use zones, and the state should invest in rural infrastructure and digitalization. According to the platform, this would ease pressure on urban housing markets.

The FDP wants more homes in the countryside. Villages should be allowed to grow more. Towns should find it easier to set aside land for businesses. The state should invest in internet and transport there. This should take pressure off the cities.

The FDP wants to keep funding social housing through state grants. Eligibility for a subsidized apartment would be reviewed every 24 months, and Wohngeld (housing benefit) would be adjusted regularly in line with rents.

The state should keep paying for low-cost homes. Every two years, officials should check whether tenants still qualify. Housing benefit should rise along with rents. Housing benefit is money from the state to help pay rent.

The FDP wants municipalities to designate enough building land and to process building applications quickly and with little red tape. Better conditions for private builders should take priority over founding new municipal housing companies.

Towns should provide enough land for building. They should handle building applications quickly. The FDP mainly wants to support private builders. It sees new town-owned housing companies as less useful.

The FDP rejects the Mietpreisbremse (rent brake), caps on rent increases and a ban on converting rental apartments into owner-occupied ones. It sees them as disproportionate interference with property rights and freedom of contract that prevents investment in new housing.

The FDP is against fixed limits on rents. It says such rules scare off builders. Then fewer new homes get built. Landlords should also be allowed to sell their apartments.

The FDP calls for all new and existing laws to be checked for their effect on housing costs. New laws that affect housing should only be passed after such a check.

The FDP wants a "Mieten-TÜV" (rent check). It is a test for laws. It shows whether a law makes housing more expensive. A law should only be passed after this test.

The FDP aims for parents to pay no daycare fees at all. Given the budget situation, this is to happen step by step by lowering the cap on parental fees year after year.

Daycare should one day cost parents nothing. This cannot happen all at once because money is tight. Today there is a top limit on the fees. This limit should go down every year.

The FDP wants to continue the daycare reform: more full-day places and flexible hours, higher quality standards and more inclusion. The ongoing evaluation of the reform is to guide further steps.

The FDP wants to keep improving daycare. There should be more full-day places and flexible hours. The rules for good care should get stricter. Children with special needs should get help more easily in daycare.

The FDP wants to make training and working conditions for staff in daycare centers and home-based childcare more attractive. This includes more hands-on training, more qualification programs and easier entry for workers with qualifications from elsewhere.

Daycare needs good staff. The FDP wants training to be more hands-on. There should be more courses for staff. People with a qualification from another country should be able to start more easily.

The FDP wants to link support services for families more closely with each other and with youth services. After the pandemic, additional counseling and leisure offerings are to offset burdens, and child protection centers are to be expanded.

There are many kinds of help for families. The FDP wants these services to work together better. After Covid there should be more counseling and leisure activities. Centers that protect children should also grow.

The FDP advocates a uniform nationwide rule under which couples who cannot conceive receive promising treatments free of charge. In its view, starting a family should not fail because of cost.

Some couples want a child but cannot have one. Doctors can often help. But this costs money. The FDP wants this help to be free. The rule should be the same all over Germany.

The FDP wants youth welfare offices to give priority to the Wechselmodell (alternating residence) after parents separate, in which the child lives with each parent in turn. Both parents are to keep a shared everyday life with the child.

Sometimes parents split up. The FDP wants the child to then live with each parent in turn. This is called alternating residence. Youth welfare offices should support this first. That keeps the bond with both parents.

The FDP backs the demand to write children's rights into the Basic Law, Germany's constitution. This is meant to define children's fundamental rights specifically, including in relation to the state and to parents.

Children have rights like everyone else. The FDP wants their rights written into the Basic Law. The Basic Law is Germany's most important law. This makes children's rights clearer.

The FDP wants to review the situation of youth associations and work with them on targeted support. It points to the largely volunteer-run work these associations did during the pandemic. It also calls for more counseling, better conditions in voluntary service, and a stronger voice for young people.

The FDP wants to give youth groups more support. First it wants to check how the groups are doing. Young people should have more say in their towns. People who do voluntary service should get better conditions.

The FDP wants youth welfare services to give young people a chance to shape their own lives regardless of their family background. To that end, the agencies involved are to cooperate more closely, and young people without housing are to get help faster.

The FDP wants to give better help to young people in hard situations. Offices and services should work together more closely. Young people without a home should get help fast. There should be a contact point that is always open.

The FDP wants to support the federal government's reform of family law, including recognition of multi-parent families and the new "community of responsibility." In the state, it wants to expand child care and flexible work models so that family and career fit together better. This is to apply to all family forms.

The FDP wants to support new rules for families. A child should be able to have more than two legal parents. People who are not married should also be able to take legal responsibility for each other. Day care should be open longer. Work should become more flexible to help parents.

The FDP wants enough teachers at every school to cover substitute lessons as well. The platform says this requires teacher staffing above 100 percent of regular need. The aim is reliable teaching without teachers having to work extra hours over the long term.

The FDP wants more teachers in schools. Fewer lessons should be canceled. When a teacher is absent, another one should step in. The party wants extra teaching jobs for this.

The FDP wants to expand school social work at all types of schools. It also wants to reorganize and combine school aides, school assistants and school social work. The platform cites a growing need for support and more efficient use of resources.

The FDP wants more social workers in schools. These are trained people who help children with problems. Different kinds of help at school should work together better. Teams with several professions should form.

The FDP wants to support inclusive teaching where the right conditions are in place. It rejects raising the inclusion rate at the expense of teachers. The party says it will provide the resources needed.

Inclusion means children with and without disabilities learn together. The FDP wants to support this where conditions are right. Teachers should not be overloaded by it. The party wants to provide the needed resources.

The FDP wants to give all teachers a right to free continuing education that fits their needs and their type of school. Current formats, which are mostly driven by what is on offer, are to be reviewed. Each school is also to get its own budget for training.

Teachers should get a right to further training. The training should be free. It should fit what the school needs. Every school should get its own money for it.

The FDP wants to lower the rules on class sizes so that students get more individual attention. Teachers are to be relieved of administrative tasks so they can concentrate on teaching.

The FDP wants smaller classes. Then teachers have more time for each child. Teachers should have less office work. They should be able to focus on teaching.

The FDP wants to push ahead with digitalization in schools: every child should have a digital device, every classroom gigabit internet and Wi-Fi, and every school IT support. Digital learning is to be anchored in law as a form of teaching beyond the pandemic. The party calls on the federal government for permanent funding and simpler applications.

The FDP wants modern technology in schools. Every child should get a device for learning, such as a tablet. Every classroom should have fast internet. Teachers should get devices too. The federal government should pay for this permanently.

The FDP wants to gradually increase the number of hours for computer science. It sees the subject becoming compulsory in grades 7 and 8 from the 2022/23 school year as a first step. The party considers four weekly hours across all of lower secondary school too little.

The FDP wants more computer science lessons. In this subject, students learn how computers work. From grade 7, the subject becomes required. The FDP says the planned hours are not enough. It wants to add more hours step by step.

The FDP wants to gradually raise the number of weekly lessons in elementary schools and bring them in line with the higher level in other German states. The platform points to performance studies in which Schleswig-Holstein does worse than other states.

Children in elementary school should get more lessons. The FDP wants to raise the weekly hours step by step. Other German states have more hours. Schleswig-Holstein should have just as many.

The FDP wants to introduce a binding core vocabulary as a minimum requirement in elementary schools. Spelling is to be learned according to the nationally uniform rules, and all types of schools are to improve results in spelling and grammar. The recommendation on which secondary school type a child should attend is also to be strengthened.

The FDP wants children to learn reading, writing and math better. There should be a fixed list of words. All elementary school children must be able to spell these words. The recommendation for the next school should carry more weight.

The FDP wants to avoid elementary school classes being taught by teachers not trained in the subject, which the platform says is especially harmful in German and math. It calls for a binding course of study for elementary teachers in which both subjects are required.

The FDP wants well-trained teachers in elementary schools. Teachers should only teach subjects they studied. Future elementary teachers should always study German and math. They can pick a third subject freely.

The FDP wants Gemeinschaftsschulen (comprehensive secondary schools) to decide for themselves whether to set up classes organized by the diploma students are aiming for. The platform considers stronger grouping by aptitude and ability necessary to reduce the number of students leaving without a diploma. New upper-level programs at these schools would be reviewed critically.

Comprehensive schools should decide for themselves. They should be able to form classes for specific diplomas. The FDP says this helps more students finish school. The FDP wants to check new upper-level programs at these schools carefully.

At comprehensive schools, the FDP wants to replace the combined science subject NaWi with separate classes in physics, chemistry, and biology, and split Weltkunde (social studies) into history and geography. This is meant to raise quality and interest in STEM subjects. A dedicated program would get more girls interested in these subjects.

The FDP wants separate subjects instead of combined ones. Physics, chemistry, and biology should replace general science. History and geography should replace social studies. Girls should get more excited about math, science, and technology.

The FDP wants to strengthen career and college guidance classes as a mandatory part of the school timetable. Following the motto "no diploma without a next step," every student should have a secured path after finishing school.

Students should learn more about jobs and college at school. This should be a fixed part of the timetable. Everyone should know what comes next after school. The FDP also wants more internships and contact with companies.

The FDP wants to push for comparable conditions for final exams across Germany, because Abitur grades determine access to university places and training contracts. At the Gymnasium (academic high school), subject-based teaching is to remain the core and be expanded.

Exams should be similar all over Germany. Abitur grades decide who gets a university place. At academic high schools, subject teachers should teach their subjects. Students should have more freedom to pick subjects in the upper grades.

The FDP wants parents of children with special educational needs to choose between a Förderzentrum (special-needs center) and inclusive schooling. The current model of inclusive schooling would be evaluated for effectiveness. At the same time, the profession of special education teacher is to become more attractive.

Some children need extra help with learning. Their parents should choose the school themselves. The FDP wants to keep special-needs centers. It wants to check how well joint classes work so far. There should be more special education teachers.

The FDP wants to improve the quality of all-day schools and implement the legal entitlement to all-day care at elementary schools as quickly as possible. The federal government is to contribute more, including to running costs. In the medium term, all-day programs would be extended to other school types.

The FDP wants more and better all-day schools. Elementary school children should soon have a right to afternoon care. The federal government should pay more for this. Later, grades 5 to 10 should also get all-day programs.

The FDP wants to give schools more freedom in using their funds and steer them through target agreements. Principals and teachers would be supported with training and more compensatory hours. The platform argues that taking responsibility requires corresponding freedom.

Schools should decide themselves how to spend their money. Schools and supervisors should set goals together. Principals should get more training. Teachers should get more time for organizing and teamwork.

The FDP wants uniform quality standards for building and equipping schools and calls for a special school construction program funded by the federal and state governments. It cites equal opportunity, since schools' equipment and internet connections currently vary widely.

Schools are equipped very differently. The FDP wants the same rules for all school buildings. The federal and state governments should pay for repairs. Schools should have good technology, ventilation, and modern restrooms. All schools should be accessible for people with disabilities.

The FDP wants the subject WiPo (economics and politics) taught as a mandatory, continuous subject through to the intermediate diploma or Abitur. The state commissioner for civic education would become an independent state agency for civic and economic education. The stated reason is concern about rising extremism, racism, antisemitism, and conspiracy narratives.

Students should learn more about politics and the economy. The subject should be required until graduation. A new state agency should teach people about politics and the economy. The FDP is worried because extremism is growing.

The FDP wants to modernize vocational education and establish it in the minds of parents and young people as equal to a university degree. This is also meant to counter the looming shortage of skilled workers in Schleswig-Holstein. It calls on the federal government to quickly implement the "Excellence Initiative for Vocational Education" and a "Digital Pact 2" for vocational schools.

Job training should count as much as a college degree. The FDP wants to modernize vocational schools. There should be more continuing education. This way the FDP wants to make sure there are enough skilled workers. The federal government should pay for digital technology.

The FDP wants to draw up a plan so that as many occupations as possible can be trained for throughout the state. It gives high priority to the supply of skilled workers in rural areas.

The FDP wants job training to work in rural areas too. People should be able to learn many jobs everywhere in the state. Trainees with a long trip to school should get more money. Some classes could also take place online.

The FDP wants to expand full-time vocational schools and technical colleges and equip them with modern resources. Students there, for example those training as childcare workers or nurses, are to get better financial support, because unlike dual apprentices they often receive no training pay.

Some jobs are learned only at a school. Students there often get no pay. The FDP wants to change that and give them more support. It also wants to promote childcare jobs and nursing jobs.

The FDP wants to strengthen vocational schools and regional vocational training centers across all their school types. General schools would be required to tell students that school diplomas can also be earned through vocational education.

The FDP wants to strengthen vocational schools. Students can also earn school diplomas there, even the Abitur. All schools should tell their students about this. That should become mandatory.

The FDP wants to put continuing vocational education on the same financial footing as university study and make it free of charge in the medium term. Learning at any age is to be supported through tax incentives, education vouchers and broader funding.

People learn all their lives. The FDP wants to fund further job training. Later it should cost nothing, just like university. People who cannot read should also get help.

The FDP wants to address the teacher shortage with better working conditions. This includes a 13th monthly salary, more support staff in schools and a review of whether required teaching hours can be reduced.

Schleswig-Holstein lacks many teachers. The FDP wants to make the job more attractive. Teachers should get a 13th month of pay again. Other staff should take work off their hands. Teachers might then have to teach fewer hours.

The FDP wants to improve initial and continuing teacher education. A demand forecast is to show how many study places are needed at the universities in Kiel and Flensburg, especially in subjects with teacher shortages.

The FDP wants to train more teachers. First the state should work out how many teachers it needs. Then there can be more places at universities. Fewer students should drop out.

The FDP wants a statewide higher education strategy and more money for universities. Core funding, campus construction and digitalization are to be expanded so that the universities can compete nationally and internationally.

The FDP wants to strengthen the state's universities. They should get more money. Old buildings should be modernized. Teaching and administration should become more digital. There should be one plan for the whole state.

The FDP wants to amend the law to give universities more independence, for example over finances, construction and staffing. The ministry would set goals rather than manage details.

Universities should decide more for themselves. This covers money, buildings and staff. The ministry should only set goals. The FDP wants to change the university law for this.

The FDP wants to strengthen academic freedom and free speech at universities. It opposes extremism and what it calls cancel culture, wants gender-inclusive language to remain voluntary and would not allow civil clauses.

The FDP wants free research and free speech at universities. Gender-inclusive language should be voluntary. It must not affect grades. Universities should not be allowed to ban research for the military.

The FDP wants to promote top-level research, clusters of excellence and research on artificial intelligence in the state. Lübeck is to become a leading location for AI in medicine and medical technology, and a new institute for advanced study is to be created.

The FDP wants to support top research in the state. Artificial intelligence, or AI, matters most to it. Lübeck should become a leader in AI for medicine. A new institute for researchers should also be set up.

The FDP wants to support the founding of a vocational university that combines dual vocational training with a bachelor's degree. The aim is to strengthen dual training and meet the demand for skilled workers.

The FDP wants to support a new kind of university. Students do job training and study at the same time. They finish with a trade qualification and a bachelor's degree. This should bring more skilled workers.

The FDP wants to expand basic research and set up a research fund that provides money on top of existing budgets. It sees this research as the foundation for innovation and cutting-edge technology.

The FDP wants more basic research in the state. That is research without a direct product in mind. A special fund should pay for it. New ideas and technology should grow from it later.

The FDP calls for a quality drive in university teaching, with the federal government contributing substantial funds. It wants to fundamentally change the capacity rules so universities can invest more in digital teaching, student support and continuing-education modules.

The FDP wants better teaching at universities. The federal government should give a lot of money for this. Today a rule fixes how many study places there are. The FDP wants to change this rule a lot. Then universities can do more for good support.

The FDP does not want to introduce tuition fees and wants to keep and further develop the semester transit pass. It also wants to support the creation of more student housing.

Studying should stay free of tuition fees. The semester ticket for buses and trains should stay. The FDP also wants more housing for students. Towns and cities should provide land for it.

The FDP supports a comprehensive reform of BAföG (federal student aid) that is independent of parents' income and takes different life paths into account. In the state, it wants to raise the subsidy for the student services organization so applications are processed faster.

BAföG is state money for students. Today it depends on what parents earn. The FDP wants to change that. Applications should also be handled faster. The student services office should get more money for staff.

The FDP wants to anchor a statewide student representation in the higher education act and abolish the Extended Senate. It also plans a nursing degree program in the north of the state and further modernization of the university hospital.

Students should get one voice for the whole state. This should be written into law. One university body, the Extended Senate, should go. People should be able to study nursing in the north. The university hospital should be modernized.

The FDP wants to enable universities to prevent full-face veils and other symbols it considers extremist. There should be no obligation to use gender-inclusive language in university exams.

Universities should be able to ban covering the whole face. This also applies to signs the FDP calls extremist. No one should have to use gender-inclusive language in exams. That means naming all genders when writing.

The FDP wants to create additional university places in architecture and civil engineering. The aim is to gain skilled workers for housing construction and for clearing the renovation backlog of the state and municipalities.

The FDP wants more university places for architecture and construction. The state lacks experts for building homes. They should also help renovate old buildings.

The FDP wants to expand state funding for municipal teaching pools so that every child can learn to swim. Because swimming is a compulsory part of schooling, it sees the state as responsible for countering pool closures.

Every child should be able to learn to swim. That takes swimming pools. The FDP wants the state to give more money for pools. Towns and cities should not pay the costs alone.

The FDP wants to abolish the current religious education classes in schools and replace them with a subject on ethics and religious studies. It is to give neutral information about different religions and worldviews. The party bases this on the separation of state and religion.

Today schools teach religious education. The FDP wants to replace it. Instead there should be ethics and religious studies. There, children learn about many religions in a neutral way. The FDP says state and religion should be separate.

The FDP wants to make prevention and prophylaxis a focus of its health policy. It relies on incentives and rejects bans. According to the platform, this should raise quality of life and keep health care costs in check.

The FDP wants to do more for prevention. Prevention means doing things so you do not get sick. The FDP wants to offer incentives for this. It does not want bans.

The FDP wants to secure family doctor care across the state and offer young physicians more flexible ways of working. Self-employed practice is to remain, while rural areas should offer more salaried and part-time positions. The background is that many family doctors will soon retire.

Many family doctors will retire soon. The FDP wants to win young doctors for rural areas. They should also be able to work as employees or part time. Doctors should still be allowed to run their own practice.

The FDP wants municipal health centers modeled on the one in Büsum to secure medical care in rural areas more often. Municipalities are to help set them up, and the state is to support them with funding. The legal requirements for founding such centers should be as lean as possible.

Rural areas should get more health centers. The town helps to set them up. Büsum already has such a center. The state should support the towns.

The FDP wants doctors to be able to hand more tasks to assistants, for example on home visits. This is to be combined with telemedicine and counter the thinning out of care in rural areas. Towns without a family doctor are to get fixed contact points.

Assistants should take more work off doctors. For example, they make home visits. The doctor then talks to the patient by video. Towns without a family doctor should get a fixed contact point.

The FDP wants to relaunch the state's Versorgungssicherungsfonds (care security fund). It is to keep funding projects for digitalization, networking, mobility and future-proof local care. This is how the state is to contribute to outpatient care.

The state has a fund for medical care. A fund is a pot of money. The FDP wants to fill this fund again. It should pay for new local projects.

The FDP wants to strengthen outpatient palliative care and link it more closely with hospices. The expansion of hospice places already under way is to be completed in the coming years.

Very sick people need help at home. The FDP wants to strengthen this help. It should work better with hospices. A hospice cares for dying people. There should be enough places.

The FDP wants to draw up a hospital infrastructure master plan and invest more money in clinics. The plan is to combine good accessibility with high-quality medicine. Investment funding is to be secured by law for the long term together with the municipalities.

The FDP wants a big plan for hospitals. The state should put more money into clinics. Clinics should be easy to reach and offer good medicine. Citizens and experts should have a say.

The FDP wants to push at the federal level for a fundamental reform of hospital payment. Hospitals providing basic and standard care are to receive base funding for equipment and standby costs. This is meant to reduce the economic pressure and misguided incentives of per-case flat rates.

Hospitals today get money per treatment. That is often not enough. The FDP wants fixed base funding for local hospitals. They should have fewer money worries. The federal government must change laws for this.

The FDP wants to allow walk-in practices at hospitals around the clock so that emergencies get the right outpatient or inpatient treatment. In rescue services, telemedicine, uniform quality standards and needs-based air rescue are to keep the time until first treatment short.

Help should come fast in an emergency. Hospitals should have practices that are always open. An emergency doctor should also be able to help by video. Islands should have enough rescue helicopters.

The FDP wants to create the additional positions in health offices and the health ministry agreed in the ÖGD-Pakt (public health service pact). There should be more leeway in filling them, especially on pay. The state and the health offices are also to work together more closely, for example on IT and disease reporting.

Health offices should get more staff. They should also be allowed to pay better. That makes the jobs attractive for young people. The offices should use shared computer programs.

The FDP wants to expand training and university capacity in health and nursing professions and create a second site for a nursing degree. Skilled workers from abroad should also find it easier to work in the sector. The reason given is the shortage of skilled workers, which demographic change is making worse.

Nursing lacks many skilled workers. The FDP wants to fund more training places. There should be a second place to study nursing. Skilled workers from abroad should be able to come more easily.

The FDP wants staffing ratios in nursing care to be reviewed and adjusted nationwide. The long-term care insurance funds are to cover the cost of the staff actually deployed and take the importance of care into account in payment negotiations. This is meant to make the profession more attractive and keep workers in it longer.

Care workers should get better working conditions. There should be enough staff. The care insurance funds should pay for the staff in full. Breaks and rest times should really be kept.

After the nursing chamber was dissolved, the FDP wants care workers themselves to decide how their interests should be represented in the future. The next state government should support a broad, democratic process without imposing its own preferences against the majority.

The state's nursing chamber no longer exists. The FDP wants care workers to decide on a new group to speak for them. Many care workers should have a say. The state government should help but not give orders.

The FDP wants to expand local care advice centers (Pflegestützpunkte) according to need and set up a statewide database of all care services and their occupancy. The state should provide investment funds for places in short-term, day and respite care so that people can return home after a hospital stay.

The FDP wants more advice for people who need care. A database should show all care services in the state. The state should pay for more short-term care places. Short-term care means care for a limited time, for example after a hospital stay.

The FDP wants to cap the share of care costs that people in need of care pay themselves; long-term care insurance should cover all further necessary costs. To keep contributions stable, a permanent subsidy from federal tax revenue should be added.

Care should stay affordable. The FDP wants a fixed upper limit on what people pay themselves. Care insurance should pay the rest. The federal government should give tax money for this every year.

The FDP wants to use digital technology in care to simplify processes for staff and administration, especially documentation. A state pilot project should test a fully digitalized nursing home. Residents should also get more opportunities for digital communication.

The FDP wants more digital technology in care. This should take work off the staff. Then there is more time for people. One nursing home should work fully digitally as a test. Residents should also be able to talk with family online.

The FDP wants to strengthen care oversight at the state level and in the counties and independent cities. People should be able to rely on care standards being met everywhere.

The FDP wants stronger oversight of care. Oversight checks whether homes give good care. The authorities should work together better. This should stop poor care.

The FDP wants to allow adults to possess and use cannabis and to limit sales to licensed stores. Addiction is to be tackled mainly through more prevention, funded by taxes on gambling, alcohol, tobacco and, in the future, cannabis.

The FDP wants to allow cannabis for adults. Only stores with a license may sell it. The taxes from it should pay for addiction help. Overall, the FDP wants more prevention of addiction.

The FDP wants a new law on skilled immigration with a points system. It should also allow a "lane change," meaning a switch, for example, from tolerated status to a residence permit for work. The background is the shortage of workers and skilled staff.

The state lacks skilled workers. The FDP wants skilled workers from abroad to come more easily. A points system should be used for this. People who are only tolerated should also be able to stay if they work.

The FDP supports legal immigration based on clear criteria and a consolidated federal immigration code. It wants faster recognition of foreign qualifications, access to dual citizenship and quicker naturalization for well-integrated people. Humanitarian protection and managed immigration are to be kept clearly separate.

The FDP says Germany is a country people immigrate to. There should be one law with clear rules for this. Degrees from other countries should be accepted faster. People should be able to hold two passports. Those who settle in very well should become citizens faster.

The FDP wants to extend integration programs to people moving in from other EU countries. It argues that many arrive unprepared and end up in precarious jobs, and that they do not use programs that cost money.

People from other EU countries may live and work in Germany. Many come unprepared and have poor jobs. The FDP wants to offer them free language courses. They should also get advice and integration courses.

The FDP wants people fleeing war or individual persecution to keep receiving protection in Germany. Refugees are to get early access to language and integration courses and to the labor market. Those who integrate especially well and support themselves financially should be able to switch from refugee status to regular immigration.

People fleeing war or persecution should get protection in Germany. Refugees should learn German and start working quickly. Those who are well integrated and earn their own money should be allowed to stay. This is called a change of track. Towns should get federal money for this.

The FDP calls for consistently returning people who neither qualify for protection nor meet the requirements of immigration law. Decisions on the right to stay are to be carried out quickly. Before someone is placed in pre-deportation custody, an electronic ankle monitor is to be considered first.

Some people have no right to protection in Germany. They also do not meet the rules for immigration. The FDP wants these people to leave the country. Instead of detention, an ankle monitor should be checked first. People who misuse welfare should face penalties.

The FDP rejects any obligation to fill management and supervisory boards of companies with state ownership half with women and half with men. Balanced representation is a goal, it says, but must not rank above the merit principle.

The FDP does not want a fixed rule for equal numbers of women and men on boards. This is about companies partly owned by the state. The FDP thinks equal numbers are good. But the best-suited person should get the job.

The FDP wants to promote equality but rejects quota rules and opposes discrimination against any gender. It backs equal pay for work of equal value, pay transparency and diversity management in public institutions. People are not to be reduced to membership in a group.

The FDP wants everyone to have equal opportunities. It rejects fixed quotas. Women and men should earn the same for work of equal value. Men and non-binary people should also be able to become equal opportunity officers. Public offices should promote diversity.

The FDP regards LGBTIQ rights as human rights and wants to further develop and adequately fund the state action plan for acceptance. It supports the federal plans, including a self-determination law to replace the Transsexuals Act and an amendment to the Basic Law. So-called conversion therapies are to be banned completely.

LGBTIQ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex and queer people. The FDP wants to strengthen their rights. Nobody should be treated worse because of who they love or their gender. A new self-determination law should come. Counseling centers should have secure funding.

The FDP wants to strengthen women's shelters, including their child protection rooms, and women's counseling centers in the state, and to expand protection from violence. Women should find it easier to return to an independent life after staying in a shelter.

The FDP wants to strengthen women's shelters. Women find protection from violence there. Counseling centers for women should also get more support. Afterward, women should find it easier to live on their own again.

The FDP wants to keep supporting Jewish life and to call out antisemitism whatever its source. It is open to recognizing Islam, provided there is a broadly legitimized organization that unquestionably stands by the Basic Law. It also wants to promote imam training in Germany.

The FDP wants to keep supporting Jewish life. It wants to speak out clearly against hatred of Jews. It is open to recognizing Islam. For that, there must be an organization that stands by the constitution. Imams should be trained in Germany. Imams lead prayers in a mosque.

The FDP wants to keep supporting and adequately funding the institutions of the Danish minority, the Frisians, and the German Sinti and Roma. It promotes the idea of a House of Minorities and wants to write the commitment to the German minority in Denmark into the state constitution.

Danes, Frisians, and Sinti and Roma live in Schleswig-Holstein as minorities. The FDP wants to keep funding their institutions. It would like a House of Minorities. The German minority in Denmark should also get help.

The FDP wants to build up and promote the state's west coast as a location for technology, production, and research around renewable energy. It sees renewable energy generation as a growth driver because companies increasingly choose their locations on that basis.

The FDP wants to strengthen the west coast of the state. A lot of wind power is made there. Hydrogen should also be made there in large amounts. The FDP hopes this will bring new companies to the region.

The FDP does not want energy requirements for residential buildings to be raised further and wants existing rules reviewed. It rejects mandatory photovoltaic systems on residential buildings. According to the platform, small energy savings come at high additional cost.

The FDP does not want stricter energy rules for homes. It also wants to review today's rules. Nobody should be forced to put solar panels on the roof. The FDP says strict rules make building too expensive.

The FDP commits to the Paris climate targets and wants to reach them through innovation, competition and openness to all technologies rather than bans. Public administration is to lead the way before obligations are placed on citizens and businesses.

The FDP wants to protect the climate. It wants to use new technology for this and no bans. The state should act first. Only then should citizens and companies get duties. Climate protection should stay affordable for people.

The FDP wants energy policy to be guided more by security concerns and aims for Germany and Europe to supply their own energy. To that end, the liquefied natural gas terminal in Brunsbüttel is to be built quickly, and energy affordability is to get more weight.

The FDP wants a secure supply of energy. Germany and Europe should be able to supply themselves. A terminal for liquid gas should be built quickly in Brunsbüttel. Energy should stay affordable.

The FDP wants to cut the electricity tax to the EU minimum, exempt energy storage from levies and surcharges, and make grid fees uniform nationwide. Grid expansion is to keep pace with the expansion of renewable energy.

The FDP wants to cut the tax on electricity sharply. Energy storage should no longer pay levies. Power grids should grow together with wind and solar energy. Grid costs should be shared equally across Germany.

The FDP wants to expand wind power so that the targets of the state's existing energy transition and climate protection law are met. Replacing old turbines with more powerful ones should become easier, including outside designated priority areas. Distance rules for homes would stay in place, and the party rejects turbines in forests.

The FDP wants more electricity from wind. Old wind turbines should be easier to replace with new, stronger ones. This is called repowering. The distance to homes should stay the same. There should be no wind turbines in forests.

The FDP rejects a solar panel mandate for residential buildings and wants to leave the decision to owners. Instead, simpler rules on taxation, billing and registration are meant to create incentives. Municipalities would continue to decide on ground-mounted solar sites.

The FDP does not want a rule that forces solar panels onto homes. Owners should decide for themselves. Taxes and registration should become simpler. People who use their own solar power should pay fewer charges.

The FDP wants a review of whether nuclear plants still running and those shut down recently can operate longer, in order to secure the energy supply and avoid dependencies. It also wants to give more support to nuclear fusion. Interim storage sites at the plants must not become permanent repositories.

The FDP wants to check whether nuclear power plants can run longer. This includes plants that were shut down only recently. The goal is enough energy for Germany. The party also wants to support nuclear fusion. That is a new way of producing energy.

The FDP wants to speed up the development of the hydrogen economy and make hydrogen a pillar of the energy system. This includes implementing the state strategy, integrated grid planning and a European Hydrogen Union. Methanol is also to receive much stronger support as an energy carrier.

The FDP wants to use hydrogen sooner. Hydrogen is a gas that can store energy. Old natural gas pipelines should be able to carry hydrogen. The party also wants more support for methanol. Methanol is a liquid that holds a lot of energy.

The FDP wants climate protection to take priority in the case of listed historic buildings. The state's heritage protection law would be amended so that owners may install solar panels and carry out energy-efficiency conversions.

Some old buildings are protected as monuments. Changes to them are often difficult. The FDP wants to allow solar panels on these buildings. The owners should decide for themselves. Changes that save energy should also be possible.

The FDP wants to implement the state strategies on biodiversity, biological climate protection and soil protection together with all stakeholders. Private landowners would receive money for creating forest or rewetting peatlands. Underground CO2 storage and fracking should not happen against the will of local residents.

The FDP wants to protect nature together with the people. Landowners who plant forest should get money. The same goes for peatlands that are made wet again. There should be less plastic and less waste. The party wants to strengthen the Wadden Sea National Park.

The FDP wants to fund animal shelters and wildlife rescue stations on a permanent basis and improve animal welfare step by step. It backs uniform European standards for animal husbandry and transport, fewer animal experiments and new rules for pets. Alongside legislation, it stresses the personal responsibility of animal keepers.

The FDP wants to keep giving money to animal shelters. The same strict rules for animals should apply across Europe. There should be fewer experiments on animals. Dogs should be registered. The party rejects break-ins at farms by animal rights groups.

The FDP wants to provide more money for coastal protection, for example for reinforcing dikes, and rejects a coastal protection levy. On water protection it sticks to the existing master plan and wants to secure wastewater facilities for the long term. Ghost nets are to be recovered from the sea.

The FDP wants to spend more money on protecting the coast. For example on stronger dikes. There should be no extra charge for this. Water should become cleaner. Old fishing nets should be taken out of the sea.

The FDP wants the old munitions in the North Sea and Baltic Sea recovered within the next few years because toxic substances are leaking from corroding casings. The federal government should bear the costs, with the state adding funds of its own. Waste oil is to be pumped out of shipwrecks quickly.

A lot of old munitions from the world wars lie in the sea. They rust, and poison gets into the water. The FDP wants them recovered soon. The federal government should pay for this. Oil should also be pumped out of old shipwrecks.

The FDP wants to increase forest cover in Schleswig-Holstein to twelve percent and push for a forest climate premium. It aims for sustainable management that takes both timber use and biodiversity into account, and wants to support forest owners rather than dictate to them.

The FDP wants more forest in Schleswig-Holstein. Twelve percent of the state should be forest. Forests store CO2 and so help the climate. Forest owners should get a payment for this. They should decide themselves which trees to plant.

The FDP rejects stricter rules in hunting and weapons law and wants to keep supporting hunters. Hunting law is to be modernized to strengthen property rights and improve wildlife management. The party sees hunters as partners in nature and species conservation.

The FDP wants no stricter rules for hunting and weapons. Hunters should keep getting support from the state. Shooting ranges should get money and be allowed to stay. Hunters should no longer pay dog tax for hunting dogs. Checks of gun safes should no longer cost anything either.

The FDP wants to continue the "Future of Agriculture" dialogue and set up an Enquete-Kommission (parliamentary inquiry commission) on agriculture in the state parliament. The results of the dialogue are to guide farm policy, and practitioners are to check draft regulations for workability in advance.

The FDP wants to keep talking with farmers. The state parliament should set up a special commission on farming. It is a working group of lawmakers and experts. Farmers should check new rules before they start. They should say whether the rules work in daily life.

The FDP wants to waive fees for farm building applications that improve sustainability and animal welfare and tie them to fixed processing deadlines. Once the deadline passes, the application is to count as approved. The platform argues that long and costly permit procedures hold back investment.

Farmers often want to build better barns for their animals. The applications take a long time and cost a lot. The FDP wants these applications to be free. The office should answer within a fixed time. If it does not answer in time, the building counts as allowed.

The FDP wants to safeguard pasture-based livestock farming, designate wolf-free regions and introduce regionally differentiated population management. Geese and cormorants are also to be managed effectively to prevent damage to farming. A premium for grazing animals is planned as well.

Many farmers keep animals out on pasture. The FDP wants to protect this. Some regions should have no wolves. Hunters should be allowed to shoot more geese, because geese eat the crops. Farmers with grazing animals should get a payment.

The FDP wants to reduce red tape and record-keeping duties in agriculture and push for a moratorium on new requirements. Federal or state rules that are stricter than EU single-market rules are to be dropped so farms compete on equal terms. Farms are to be given time to adapt to new environmental and animal-welfare demands.

Farmers have to follow many rules and write a lot down. The FDP wants to reduce this. For a while, no new requirements should be added. German rules should not be stricter than EU rules. That way farmers get the same chances as farmers in other countries.

The FDP wants to scrap the right of first refusal for nature conservation, which lets public bodies step in first when certain land is sold. Instead it relies on cooperative contract-based conservation programs and a dialogue on land swaps between farmers and the Stiftung Naturschutz (state nature conservation foundation).

Today the state may buy some land first to protect nature. This is called a right of first refusal. The FDP wants to end this right. Farmers should instead sign voluntary contracts to protect nature. Farmers and the nature foundation should talk about swapping land.

The FDP wants more support for research and new technology in agriculture, including green genetic engineering, climate-friendly crop protection and lower-emission livestock housing. Young farmers, farm successors and start-ups in the farm sector are also to get more help.

The FDP wants more research for farming. This includes green genetic engineering. That means scientists change the genes of plants. Barns with fewer emissions should be studied too. Young farmers and new farm businesses should get more help and advice.

The FDP wants to support commercial fishing with a one-time investment fund and financial compensation for lost fishing grounds. For anglers, the platform provides for more personal responsibility and fewer restrictions. In the party's view, Schleswig-Holstein should lead the way in fishing that is both sustainable and economically viable.

The FDP wants to help fishers. They should get money for newer boats and gear. If fishing areas are lost, fishers should be paid for it. Anglers should be able to decide more for themselves. Fishing at night should stay allowed.

The FDP stands by construction of the A 20 autobahn including an Elbe crossing west of Hamburg so that freight traffic can bypass the city. New commercial, logistics, and production sites are to be developed along the Fehmarnbelt link.

The FDP wants to keep building the A 20 highway. It should cross the Elbe river west of Hamburg. Trucks would then no longer have to drive through Hamburg. Land for companies should be made ready along the new route to Denmark.

The FDP wants to make planning and approval procedures for transport projects much shorter. In the platform's view, the procedures are too complicated and take too long, which hurts mobility, the economy and trust in democratic decision-making.

The FDP wants transport projects to be planned and approved faster. The party thinks today's procedures are too complicated and too slow. Citizens should be able to see the plans online. Associations should have a say early on.

The FDP wants to make road traffic safer through construction and technical measures as well as prevention. The platform puts special weight on prevention and traffic education.

The FDP wants to make traffic safer. There should be better lighting, guardrails and safe bike paths. Speed cameras should stand near kindergartens and schools. Traffic education also matters to the party.

The FDP commits to the car as indispensable in a largely rural state and wants to put at least 100 million euros a year into state roads. Major federal projects such as the extension of the A20 highway are to be carried out as quickly as possible.

The FDP says Schleswig-Holstein cannot do without cars. The state should spend at least 100 million euros a year on its roads. The A20 highway should be extended quickly. Drivers should not be held up on purpose.

The FDP wants to modernize tracks and stations faster, electrify more lines and run passenger rail service without emissions by 2027. The Marschbahn line is to be electrified and double-tracked as a priority.

The FDP wants to improve rail service in the state. More lines should get overhead power lines. By 2027, passenger trains should no longer give off exhaust. The line to Sylt should get a second track.

The FDP backs the construction of the fixed link across the Fehmarnbelt between Germany and Denmark. It expects new economic and cultural opportunities for the state, especially for Ostholstein and Lübeck.

The FDP wants the fixed link across the Fehmarnbelt to Denmark. The party sees chances for business and culture. People living nearby should get extra protection from noise. There should be land for companies along the route.

The FDP wants rural areas, too, to have a transport service every day and around the clock that can be called up with one hour's notice. To get there, municipalities are to receive targeted funding for new mobility concepts such as citizen-run buses and on-demand transport.

The FDP wants a mobility guarantee. This means people in rural areas can always order a ride. The ride should come within one hour. The state should help towns pay for this.

The FDP wants cycling to account for 30 percent of traffic by 2030 and plans to develop the statewide cycling network further. It also wants Schleswig-Holstein to rank among the top three German states for cycling tourism.

The FDP wants more people to ride bikes. By 2030, bikes should make up 30 percent of traffic. Bike paths should get better and safer. Tourists should also get more good bike routes.

The FDP wants to improve transport links to the state's ports and strengthen freight traffic there. The Kiel Canal (Nord-Ostsee-Kanal) is to be modernized and expanded quickly by the federal government so that outages caused by poor condition no longer occur.

The FDP wants ports to be easier to reach. The Kiel Canal should be renewed and expanded quickly. The federal government is in charge of this. Bridges and locks should no longer break down.

The FDP stands by air travel and the airports in the state, such as Lübeck, Kiel and Sylt. It wants flying to become more environmentally and climate friendly through synthetic fuels and proposes cooperation among the northern German states for this.

The FDP wants to keep the airports in the state. These include Lübeck, Kiel and Sylt. Planes should use new, man-made fuels. This should be better for the climate.

The FDP wants to make Schleswig-Holstein a digital model region and make administrative processes fully digital. To that end, written-form requirements would be dropped as a rule, pilot projects funded and municipalities supported with a special program.

The FDP wants public offices to work digitally. People should be able to apply without paper or a signature. The state should give towns money to help with this. Good example projects should get funding.

The FDP wants to create a ministry with clear responsibilities for digitalization. In addition, the state parliament would get its own digitalization committee to pool parliament's digital expertise.

The FDP wants a separate ministry for digital matters. It should steer the government's digital work. The state parliament should also get its own group for this topic.

The FDP wants to continue the fiber rollout so that almost all households can get a gigabit connection by 2025. Mobile dead zones would be closed, 5G networks built and public Wi-Fi expanded. Chinese suppliers such as Huawei and ZTE would be excluded from building the networks.

The FDP wants very fast internet for almost all households by 2025. Cell phone service should also work everywhere. Public offices should offer free Wi-Fi. Companies close to China's government should not help build the networks.

The FDP wants to make the public IT service provider Dataport more competitive and open it to third-party providers and small IT firms. Public applications should be based on open standards and interfaces, and open-source software should be used where it makes economic and technical sense.

Dataport runs the computer systems for public offices. The FDP wants Dataport to become faster and more open. Small IT firms should also be able to get government contracts. Software in public offices should work well together and not depend on one supplier.

The FDP wants to update the state's AI strategy and push the practical use of artificial intelligence through pilot projects. It also plans numerous digital trial projects together with municipalities, universities and the IT industry. The platform sees AI as a major opportunity for research and business in the state.

The FDP wants to support artificial intelligence in the state. The short name is AI. AI means computer programs that learn on their own. The state should test many new digital ideas in projects. Towns, universities and companies should take part.

The FDP wants to set up a data protection cockpit where citizens and businesses can see what data the public administration holds on them and how it is used. It also plans an easy-to-read data protection traffic-light label for public-sector applications and a stronger state data protection center. The platform says trust in how data is handled is essential.

The FDP wants a data protection cockpit. There, people can see what data public offices hold about them. They can also see what the offices use it for. A traffic-light label should show how well an app protects data. This should help people trust digital services.

The FDP wants public offices and services to stay reachable for everyone, including people without suitable devices or technical skills. The administration is to remain available in person, while digital services become easier to use and accessible.

The FDP wants everyone to be able to reach public offices. This should work without a computer and without tech skills. People should still be able to talk to an office in person. Digital services should work well on phones. People with disabilities should be able to use them too.

The FDP wants to continue the fiber-optic rollout and declare it a basic service. Municipalities are also to get support with digitalization, medical care, volunteering, mobility and local development so that rural life stays attractive.

The FDP wants fast fiber internet everywhere. It should count as a basic service. Towns should also get help with doctors and transport. This should keep life in the countryside good.

The FDP wants to turn administrations into service-oriented centers and offer a wide range of electronic government services. Procedures are to become leaner and responsibilities clearer; it does not want to push mergers of local administrative offices or counties.

The FDP wants public offices to offer more online. Forms should be simple and clear. People should see online how far their request has come. Offices and counties should not be merged.

The FDP wants to switch every court and prosecutor's office in the state to electronic case files by the end of the next legislative term. Court hearings by video conference are to be strengthened.

The FDP wants to make the courts digital. Files should no longer be on paper but on computers. This should be done within the next term. Hearings should be possible by video more often.

The FDP wants to enlarge the state police's cybercrime units and found a cybersecurity center for Schleswig-Holstein. The platform says online crime, espionage and sabotage are growing and that fighting them must not fail for lack of resources.

The FDP wants to do more against crime on the internet. The police should get stronger expert teams for this. The state should found a center for cybersecurity. Cybersecurity means protection against attacks on computers and networks. This should keep power grids and other key systems safe.

The FDP rejects what it sees as unnecessary intrusions on fundamental rights and is critical of new or expanded powers for security agencies. Instead, it relies on consistently applying existing law and equipping the agencies well.

The FDP wants to protect people's basic rights. It is against more and more new powers for police and agencies. Agencies should apply the laws that already exist better. For this they should have enough staff and good equipment.

The FDP wants to create more positions in the state police, relieve officers of tasks unrelated to policing and make the job more attractive. This includes better promotion prospects, counting the police allowance toward pensions again and more psychosocial support.

The FDP wants more police officers in the state. The police should have fewer tasks that are not police work. The job should become more attractive. For this there should be better pay and more chances for promotion. After hard missions there should be more help.

The FDP wants to free the police from tasks outside their core work by shifting responsibilities elsewhere. Documentation duties are to be slimmed down and administrative work handed to administrative staff.

The FDP wants to take work off the police. Officers should do fewer tasks that are not real police work. They should fill out fewer forms. Office staff should do the office work.

The FDP wants to keep police stations across the state and continue treating home burglaries as a priority of police work. According to the platform, people's safety should not depend on where they live.

The FDP wants police stations everywhere in the state. The police should work hard against home break-ins. People should be equally safe everywhere. The state should keep helping people protect their homes.

The FDP wants a pilot project to test whether case data can be used to calculate the likelihood of future crimes and how artificial intelligence can be used by the police. The trial is to be open-ended and pay special attention to fundamental rights.

The FDP wants to test something new for the police. Computers would use old cases to work out where crimes are likely. This is called predictive policing. Experts should watch the test. People's basic rights should be respected.

The FDP wants to make crimes committed online a priority for the state police and significantly increase staff and equipment for it. Specialization is to happen not only at the State Criminal Police Office but also in local stations.

The FDP wants to do more against crime on the internet. The police should get more staff and better equipment for this. Local police stations should work on it too. The police should be able to hire computer experts.

The FDP wants to equip the Verfassungsschutz (domestic intelligence agency) with enough staff and technology to use its existing powers effectively. It rejects new surveillance measures unless an overall review of existing powers shows them to be strictly necessary.

The FDP wants to give the domestic intelligence agency more staff and modern equipment. This agency watches groups that work against democracy. But it should not get new powers to watch people. The FDP would only change that if it is truly necessary.

The FDP wants to act against political, religious and ideological extremism, with particular attention to right-wing extremism. Public funding is not to reach extremist organizations, while exit programs are to keep receiving support.

The FDP wants to fight extremism. Extremism means people reject democracy. The FDP means right-wing, left-wing and religious groups. Such groups should get no money from the state. Programs that help people leave these groups should keep getting money.

The FDP wants a prison system that protects society and prepares inmates for a life without crime. More staff, vocational training and expanded victim support are meant to achieve this.

The FDP wants to improve prisons. There should be more staff. Inmates should be able to learn and train for a job. That way they should not commit crimes later. Victims of crime should get more help.

The FDP wants to keep modernizing fire and disaster protection and update the state's 10-point plan. Because climate change may make natural disasters more frequent, it considers an effective warning system, including digital tools, necessary.

The FDP wants better protection in disasters. Helpers should get modern equipment. There should be a good warning system, also a digital one. The federal, state and county levels should work together better. Hospitals should be able to practice for emergencies.

The FDP wants a statewide recruitment strategy to make volunteering in fire departments and aid organizations more attractive. It wants to avoid compulsory fire brigades where possible.

Many people volunteer in fire departments and rescue groups. The FDP wants more people to join. There should be a plan for the whole state. Fire brigades for children and teens should get support. Nobody should be forced into fire service if it can be avoided.

The FDP wants to fight group-based hostility in all its forms and set up an action program against hate crime that also covers offenses committed online. The main goal is to keep hate from turning into physical violence.

The FDP wants to act against hate toward certain groups. This includes hate toward Jews, women or gay people. It plans a program against hate crimes. The program also covers insults on the internet. The aim is less violence.

The FDP rejects a state anti-discrimination law with a reversed burden of proof, arguing it would weigh down police work with bureaucracy and place officers under blanket suspicion. Instead, the office of the commissioner for the state police is to have enough resources to handle citizens' complaints.

The FDP does not want a state law against discrimination. It says such a law would make police work harder. But people should be able to complain about the police. There is an office for that. This office should have enough money and staff.

The FDP wants to turn the state's freedom of information act into a transparency law so that publishing government data and information becomes the norm. The supply of open state data is also to grow. The platform argues that information held by public bodies belongs to the public.

The FDP wants a transparency law. Transparency means the state openly shows what it knows and does. Public offices should publish their information as a rule. State data should also be free to use online. Developers can build new services with it.

The FDP wants to make the state a more attractive employer through flexible working hours, better performance incentives and modern workplaces. New civil servants should be able to choose freely between public and private health insurance through a flat-rate subsidy (pauschale Beihilfe).

The state should be a good employer. The FDP wants flexible hours and modern workplaces. New civil servants should choose their health insurance freely. The state should pay a fixed contribution for this. Moving up in state service should get easier.

The FDP wants to introduce a two-vote system in local elections to strengthen smaller parties and voter associations. It also wants to make volunteer council seats easier to combine with work and family, for example through mandate breaks and digital participation in meetings.

Local elections should have two votes. This helps small parties. The FDP also wants to make council work easier. For example, members could take a break from their seat. Meetings should be easier to watch online.

The FDP wants to expand cooperation with Hamburg in the metropolitan region, for example on transport, public agencies and services across the state border. It continues to reject merging the northern German states into a single “Nordstaat.”

Schleswig-Holstein should work more closely with Hamburg. For example on buses and trains, road works and public offices. But the FDP does not want one shared northern state. The old coal power plant in Wedel should be shut down soon.

The FDP wants courts and prosecutors' offices to be well staffed and pay in the judiciary to be competitive. The aim is shorter proceedings and preventing staff from leaving for other states or professions.

The FDP wants more and well-paid staff for the courts. Prosecutors' offices should have enough staff too. Cases should then move faster. Good experts should stay in Schleswig-Holstein.

The FDP wants no closures or relocations of courts or prosecutors' offices and no mergers of court branches, in order to keep the justice system close to citizens. It wants to examine whether a second administrative court in the south of the state is feasible.

The FDP wants to keep all courts where they are. No court should close or move. People should not have to travel far. The FDP will check whether a second administrative court in the south is possible.

The FDP wants to develop the law governing state–church relations into a general constitutional law of religion and, in the medium term, to end the historic state payments to the churches. In addition, leaving a religious community should generally be free of charge for young people up to age 21.

The state pays the churches money every year under old agreements. The FDP wants to end these payments. This needs a federal law. Young people up to age 21 should be able to leave a church for free.

The FDP commits to a united Europe and names a European federal state as its goal. To get there, it wants to promote cross-border exchange, especially in the Baltic Sea region, and make the Conference on the Future of Europe permanent.

The FDP wants a strong and united Europe. In the end, there should be a European federal state. People in Europe should talk to each other more. Schleswig-Holstein should work more closely with countries around the Baltic Sea.

The FDP wants Schleswig-Holstein to take a bigger part in decisions in the EU and the Baltic Sea region. To that end, the Hanse-Office in Brussels is to be strengthened. It also backs reforms of the EU institutions, with a stronger European Parliament and a clear division of tasks under the subsidiarity principle.

Schleswig-Holstein should have more say in Europe. The state shares an office in Brussels with Hamburg. The FDP wants to strengthen this office. The EU Parliament should carry more weight. Things that can be decided better locally should be decided locally.

Because of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, the FDP wants to end the state's partnership with the Kaliningrad region and close the Hanse-Office there. Instead, Schleswig-Holstein is to work more closely with the Baltic states and Finland.

Russia is waging war against Ukraine. So the FDP wants to end the partnership with the Russian region of Kaliningrad. The state's office there should close. Instead, Schleswig-Holstein should work more with Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Finland.

The FDP sees the Bundeswehr as an important partner of the state and wants to keep its bases and training grounds. It backs stationing drones at Jagel and supports the armed forces' public outreach, including youth officers visiting schools.

The FDP calls the Bundeswehr a partner of the state. The training grounds should stay. Drones should be based at the Jagel airfield. Drones are aircraft with no pilot on board. Youth officers should keep visiting schools.

The FDP wants cultural development planning and an expert commission to support the restart of cultural life after the pandemic and make the various arts sectors more crisis-proof. Public arts funding should be predictable and also open to small cultural businesses and solo self-employed people.

The FDP wants a plan for culture in the state. Experts should help culture get going again after Covid. The state should keep funding culture. Small businesses and single artists should also be able to get funding.

The FDP wants targeted support for specific cultural institutions, including music schools, libraries, cinemas, and the state's arts universities. Cultural and media education and access to cultural institutions are to be treated as part of basic public services.

The FDP wants to support music schools, libraries, and cinemas. Libraries should become more digital. There should be a special program for cinemas. People who volunteer in culture should also get support.

The FDP wants to convey the memory of the injustices of National Socialism and of East Germany through new forms, including digital ones, and give memorial sites more money. Jewish life in the state is to be protected and supported, and antisemitism firmly opposed.

The FDP wants people to remember history. Memorial sites should get more money. They should also offer digital formats. Jewish life should be protected. The FDP wants to act against hatred of Jews.

The FDP wants more money for research into the origins of cultural objects, especially items from the colonial era. Looted artworks are to continue to be returned. In heritage protection, owners are to get more transparency and fair conditions.

The FDP wants to check where art in museums comes from. There should be more money for this. Stolen art should go back to its owners. Museums should also deal with the colonial era. That is the time when Germany ruled other countries.

The FDP wants public broadcasting to focus on culture, education and information and wants a noticeable cut in the broadcasting fee. It does not count expensive formats that private broadcasters could also offer among its core tasks. Online, public broadcasters should not compete with private media on terms the party sees as unfair.

The FDP wants smaller public broadcasting. It should mainly offer culture, education and news. The broadcasting fee should go down. School students, university students and trainees should pay nothing. Online, it should not hurt private media.

The FDP wants to continue the state program for renovating municipal sports facilities and swimming pools so that school and recreational sports benefit. It also wants to fund training bases and performance centers for elite sports, arguing that recreational and elite sports depend on each other.

The FDP wants to keep fixing up local gyms and swimming pools. This helps sports in schools and clubs. Top athletes should also get good places to train. The FDP says recreational sports need role models.

The FDP wants to raise the tax-free allowances for coaches and volunteers and adjust them on an ongoing basis. It argues that sports cannot function without volunteers and that recreational sports must be strengthened as a place where people come together.

Many people help out in sports clubs for free. The FDP wants them to be able to receive more tax-free money for this. It also wants less paperwork for volunteers. The FDP says there is no sport without volunteers.

The FDP wants to keep funding esports programs in municipalities and link them more closely with organized club sports. At the federal level, it wants esports clubs to be recognized as nonprofit. It sees esports as an opportunity for innovation, digitalization, violence prevention and health.

Esports means people compete against each other in video games. The FDP wants to keep supporting esports. Esports clubs should count as nonprofit. That brings tax benefits. Companies that make money from esports should not get funding.

On consumer protection, the FDP relies on responsible consumers who decide for themselves when well informed, and it rejects paternalism. It wants to keep funding the consumer advice center reliably, expand education and advice, and introduce a simple hygiene notice for restaurants and food retailers.

The FDP wants consumers to decide for themselves. For that, they need good information. The consumer advice center should keep getting enough money. Restaurants and shops should show simply how clean they are. The state should not tell people what to buy.