FDP on democracy and the state

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 plan is a binding, enforceable duty to publish in the state's information access act, with a list of covered information that grows step by step. The state's freedom of information commissioner would be able to sanction public bodies that fail to comply. The duty would also cover private companies controlled by the state. Information could be withheld only within narrow legal limits, such as national security or the interests of third parties. On open data, the FDP wants to involve municipalities and public companies more, open the data portal to private data providers, and release administrative data under the Creative Commons Zero license as a rule.

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.

According to the platform, the flat-rate subsidy is also meant to remove a growing competitive disadvantage compared with other German states. To improve mobility and promotion, the FDP wants to apply the Bologna Process fully to the state's civil service. Accredited bachelor's and master's degrees should give access to the second career group at its first and second entry levels, formerly the upper-intermediate and higher service.

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 platform justifies the two votes by noting that smaller groups sometimes cannot field candidates in every ward. A mandate break on the Danish model for work or family time off is to be examined. Committee seats should be easier to fill with citizens who are not council members. Streaming of public meetings should become easier, and officeholders should not be able to block it by invoking their personality rights. The FDP will also examine whether members may take part electronically in exceptional cases for important family or work reasons.

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.

Childcare, schools, universities, health care, culture, jobs and transport should be usable without gaps for people on both sides of the border. In the Hamburg transit association HVV, the FDP seeks more say over fares and timetables, and road works are to be planned across state lines. Municipal agencies should cooperate more closely to address the fragmented responsibilities criticized by the OECD in 2019. The FDP will press for a quick shutdown of the Wedel coal plant, which Hamburg owns. It wants to support Hamburg as a port and aviation hub and calls for aircraft noise monitoring stations across the area.

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 pay system is to be reviewed comprehensively; prior professional experience and senior duties are to be reflected in pay. A pool of extra positions is to close gaps caused by illness, maternity leave or parental leave at short notice. Judges are to be appointed, promoted and transferred solely on merit, and the FDP wants to re-regulate the rules on performance evaluations by law. Standards for judicial assistants are to be examined, and arbitration and mediation bodies are to be moderately expanded to relieve the courts.

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 platform argues that there are only four social courts and one administrative court, and that a merger would not measurably improve workflows. The Higher Administrative Court is to get more staff so it can set up specialized panels for construction and infrastructure law; in this way the FDP supports the federal government's planned acceleration of planning procedures. A statewide service office is also to be set up to answer questions about the justice system in an accessible, barrier-free way.

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.

Staatsleistungen are regular payments by the states to the churches that go back to historic expropriations. The FDP wants the states to end them through a final settlement based on a federal law. The law governing relations between state and churches is to become a general constitutional law of religion. Anyone who leaves a religious community before turning 21 should as a rule pay no fee for doing so.