Freie Wähler: program for the 2023 Bavaria state election

The Free Voters want to keep Bavaria as an industrial and technology hub and prevent key industries from leaving. At the same time, Bavaria is to become Europe's leading location for founders, with more start-up funding and less red tape.

The Free Voters want to keep industry in Bavaria. Important companies should not move away. New companies should get more help and money. There should be less red tape.

The Free Voters want to promote sustainable tourism, expand public tourism infrastructure and give tax relief to people working in the sector. They want to counter the decline of rural inns.

The Free Voters want to strengthen tourism in Bavaria. Tourism workers should pay less tax. Inns in the countryside should survive. There should be more buses and trains in vacation areas.

The Free Voters want to tackle the shortage of skilled workers with more hands-on career experience in schools, stronger dual vocational training and an immigration law for qualified workers. The Meisterpflicht (master craftsman requirement) would be extended to more trades, and master training would be free.

Bavaria needs more skilled workers. The Free Voters want more internships in schools. Well-trained people from abroad should be able to come more easily. More trades should require a master craftsman title. Training to become a master should be free.

The Free Voters want to reform Bürgergeld (citizen's income) and impose sanctions when recipients refuse to cooperate. Low wages would carry lower taxes and social contributions so that work pays more than Bürgergeld.

The Free Voters want to change Bürgergeld, a basic welfare payment. People who refuse to cooperate should get less money. People with low wages should pay lower contributions. That way work should pay more than welfare.

The Free Voters reject a higher retirement age, pension cuts and the retroactive taxation of pensions. The pension level is to rise back to 55 percent using tax money, while contributions stay at 20 percent at most.

The Free Voters want higher pensions. The money should come from taxes. Nobody should have to work longer than today. After 40 years of work, people should retire without deductions.

The Free Voters want €2,000 of monthly income to be tax-free. Pensions are no longer to be taxed at all, and company pensions are not to be burdened twice. The platform argues that the state profits from inflation while workers and retirees lose purchasing power.

The Free Voters want lower taxes on income. €2,000 a month should be tax-free. There should be no more tax on pensions. The party says: prices are rising and people have less money.

The Free Voters want to preserve cash and reject any caps on cash payments. The platform argues that cash means freedom and that restrictions do not fit a liberal society.

The Free Voters want to keep cash. They do not want a limit on cash payments. The party says that cash means freedom.

The Free Voters want Bavaria's state budget to stay balanced without new borrowing and want existing debt reduced. At the same time, a large share of the budget is to go to investment.

Bavaria should not spend more money than it takes in. The Free Voters want to pay back old debt. The state should still invest a lot of money.

The Free Voters want to lower taxes on work: €2,000 of monthly income would be tax-free, and bracket creep and the solidarity surcharge would be eliminated. The platform cites inflation and higher living costs as the reason.

The Free Voters want lower taxes on work. People should pay no income tax on up to €2,000 a month. The solidarity surcharge should end completely. The party says that life has become more expensive.

The Free Voters call for abolishing the tax on inheritances and gifts and want to prevent a return of the wealth tax. In addition, Bavaria should not introduce Grundsteuer C.

The Free Voters want to end the tax on inheritances. Gifts should not be taxed either. A tax on wealth should not come back.

The Free Voters want to lower the tax burden on companies from about 30 to 25 percent. In the platform's view, that rate would be internationally competitive.

Companies should pay less tax. Today the rate is about 30 percent. The Free Voters want 25 percent. This should help German companies compete with firms abroad.

The Free Voters want to make the reduced 7 percent VAT rate permanent for food and drinks in restaurants and extend it to staple foods. Energy and hairdressing services would also be taxed at a lower rate.

VAT in restaurants should stay at 7 percent for good. This should cover food and drinks. Staple foods, electricity, gas and haircuts should also be taxed less.

The Free Voters want more people in Bavaria to own their homes and average earners to be able to afford it again. The state subsidy for social housing is to rise from €500 to €750 per square meter. The platform rejects stricter tenancy law, which the party says drives up prices, and a Grundsteuer C (a property tax on undeveloped building land).

The Free Voters want more people to own a house or apartment. The state should give more money for social housing. Building should become easier. Landlords should get more rights. There should be no new tax on unbuilt land.

The Free Voters want to keep childcare free of charge and adjust the state child-raising allowance (Landeserziehungsgeld) for inflation. The final kindergarten year is to become mandatory, with compulsory pre-school classes in all kindergartens. More staff are to be recruited through shorter training and appropriate pay.

The Free Voters want childcare to stay free. The last year of kindergarten should be required. Every kindergarten should offer pre-school classes. Childcare workers should be paid better. Their training should be shorter.

The Free Voters want children and a career to be easy to combine. Among other things, they call for a right to switch between part-time and full-time work and for childcare geared to parents' needs.

Parents should be able to combine children and work. People who work less should be allowed to work full-time again later. Childcare should fit what parents need. Fathers should take parental leave too.

The Free Voters want to expand and fund a statewide network against violence toward children and young people. Children are to be better protected online, where the program sees new dangers emerging.

The Free Voters want to protect children better. There should be help against violence all over Bavaria. Children should be safer on the internet. Nobody should exploit children as influencers. Influencers promote things online.

The Free Voters want to keep Bavaria's three-track school system and all existing school locations. School buildings are to be renovated and new ones built where needed.

Bavaria has different types of schools. The Free Voters want to keep it that way. No school should close. Run-down schools should be fixed quickly.

The Free Voters want to make the A13 pay grade the starting salary for teachers at all school types and secure enough new teachers. Teachers are also to get permanent jobs and be supported by additional staff.

The Free Voters want more teachers for Bavaria. All teachers should earn the same at the start. They should get permanent jobs. Other helpers should also work in schools.

The Free Voters want to expand adult education and create a legal entitlement to educational leave. The program justifies this with a working world that is changing ever faster.

Work is changing fast. So adults should be able to keep learning. The Free Voters want to spend more money on this. There should be a right to educational leave. That is time off work for learning.

The Free Voters want to raise base funding for universities and change BAföG (federal student aid) so that more students get more money. Bavaria is to stay at the top in higher education and research.

The Free Voters want more money for universities. More students should get BAföG. BAföG is money from the state for studying. There should also be more affordable housing for students.

The Free Voters want to expand digital education from elementary school through university. Information and communication technology is to become a compulsory subject at secondary schools, while analog learning content is to remain alongside it.

Students should learn more about computers and the internet. At secondary schools this should be a required subject. Teachers should also learn it in their training. The state should help pay for devices.

The Free Voters want to make master craftsman training and further training free in Bavaria and largely remove costs from vocational education overall. The program regards vocational and academic education as equal in value.

People who want to become master craftsmen should not pay for it. The Free Voters say an apprenticeship is worth as much as a degree. Vocational schools should get better equipment. The state should promote apprenticeships.

The Free Voters want to keep local pharmacies across the state, with online mail order only as a supplement. More medicines are to be produced and stockpiled in Germany and Europe.

The Free Voters want to keep pharmacies close to home. Online shipping should not replace them. More medicines should be made in Germany and Europe. That way there should always be enough medicine.

The Free Voters want to keep hospitals, emergency rooms and maternity wards across the whole state and reject the federal government's hospital plans, which they call a clear-cutting. Flat-rate case payments are to be abolished, and more medical school places are to counter the shortage of doctors.

The Free Voters want to keep hospitals everywhere in Bavaria. Small hospitals should stay too. The federal government should provide enough money. There should be more places to study medicine. That way rural areas should have enough doctors too.

The Free Voters want to improve long-term care significantly, give family caregivers more support and set up an independent professional body for care workers. A mandatory year of community service for everyone is also listed among the care goals.

The Free Voters want to improve care. People who care for relatives at home should get more help and money. Care homes should have more staff. Everyone should have to work for society for one year.

The Free Voters want an immigration law that selects by qualification to meet the economy's need for skilled workers. Refugees who make an effort to integrate would be allowed to work or start training sooner and gain a prospect of staying.

The Free Voters want to bring skilled workers from abroad. A law should choose people by their training. Canada and Australia are the model. Refugees should be allowed to work sooner. Those who make an effort should be able to stay.

The Free Voters want to sharply restrict family reunification for asylum seekers, speed up asylum procedures and continue to carry out deportations consistently. According to the platform, immigration should keep humanity and the capacity to integrate in balance.

The Free Voters want fewer family members of asylum seekers to follow them. Asylum cases should be decided faster. People who may not stay should have to leave. Asylum seekers should get goods rather than cash.

The Free Voters reject rules requiring gender-inclusive language from employers, public authorities and universities; language should develop without deliberate intervention. They also oppose what they call cancel culture and want to promote a respectful culture of debate.

The Free Voters do not want anyone forced to use gender-inclusive language. That means writing and speaking so that all genders are included. Employers, offices and universities should not require it. The party also wants people to argue with respect.

The Free Voters want to expand participation for people with disabilities and ease the burden on their families. They add equality demands such as equal pay for equal work, more women in leadership positions and better protection from violence.

People with disabilities should be able to take part everywhere. Train stations and new buildings should have no barriers. Deaf people should get money. Women and men should earn the same for the same work. Women's shelters should get more staff.

The Free Voters want to expand renewable energy, storage and the hydrogen economy in Bavaria and abolish the 10-H distance rule for wind turbines. The platform sees great potential for local value creation in the gradual shift from fossil fuels to renewables.

The Free Voters want more power from wind, sun, water and biogas. The strict distance rule for wind turbines should go. Bavaria should produce a lot of hydrogen. It should become easier to store electricity.

The Free Voters want to use nuclear and fossil-fuel power plants for as long as a secure supply requires. Energy prices are to stay low through a slight oversupply and a reform of electricity pricing.

The Free Voters want to keep nuclear plants and coal or gas plants for now. They should run as long as they are needed. Power and heat should stay affordable. Private wood stoves should not face a CO2 tax.

The Free Voters reject privatizing the drinking water supply and want essential public services to stay in public hands as far as possible. The platform calls the privatization of energy supply a mistake to be corrected carefully. Water is also to be protected through better wastewater treatment and water retention.

The Free Voters do not want to sell drinking water to companies. The supply should stay with the state and the towns. Wastewater should also be cleaned better. Towns should get help to hold back water.

The Free Voters want to limit land consumption in Bavaria to five hectares per day and give priority to development within existing built-up areas over designating new land. The party continues to reject a third runway at Munich Airport. Cities are to get more greenery instead of strict densification.

The Free Voters want less land to be built on. It should be at most 5 hectares per day. Empty buildings and old business sites should be used again. Munich Airport should not get a third runway. Cities should have more green spaces.

The Free Voters want to avoid long animal transports and end transports to countries outside the EU, both in Germany and EU-wide. They also call for more money for animal shelters, a state animal welfare commissioner, and easier removal of problem wolves.

The Free Voters want to protect animals better. Animals should no longer be driven to countries outside the EU. Animal shelters should get more money. Bavaria should get an official for animal welfare. Wolves that cause problems should be easier to kill.

The Free Voters want to preserve family farming, including livestock, across Bavaria and thereby secure the domestic food supply. Red tape and requirements are to be reduced and tightened fertilizer rules reversed. On forests and hunting, the party rejects further set-asides, new national parks and stricter gun laws.

The Free Voters want to keep Bavaria's family farms. Farmers should have less paperwork. Stricter rules on fertilizer should be dropped again. There should be no new national parks. Hunters should be allowed to hunt wolves. Gun laws should not get stricter.

The Free Voters want to preserve small and mid-sized farms and food businesses and expand direct sales. They want to take on dominant players in the food trade and better protect local producers from cheap imports.

The Free Voters want to keep small farms, butchers and bakers. Farmers should find it easier to sell their goods directly. The party is critical of cheap goods from abroad. Grazing animals should be protected from wolves.

The Free Voters want to greatly expand public transit in cities and rural areas and create a single fare for all of Bavaria. Students would ride to school free from the first kilometer, and apprentices would get much cheaper tickets.

The Free Voters want more buses and trains in Bavaria. There should be one fare for all of Bavaria. Students should ride to school for free. Apprentices should get much cheaper tickets. Everyone should be able to use buses and trains without barriers.

The Free Voters consider the car indispensable and reject a general speed limit on the Autobahn. At the same time, they want to build fast cycle routes, shift freight to rail and waterways, and keep blocking a third runway at Munich Airport.

The Free Voters say driving must stay affordable. They do not want a general speed limit on the Autobahn. They also want to build fast bike routes. More goods should travel by train and ship. Munich Airport should not get a third runway.

The Free Voters want to digitize public administration throughout and offer government services electronically everywhere. A voluntary electronic citizen account is meant to spare people from entering the same data again and again.

The Free Voters want public offices to work digitally. People should be able to do things online. There should be a voluntary citizen account on the internet. Then people do not have to enter the same details many times.

The Free Voters want to bring fiber-optic service to all of Bavaria, expand 5G and mobile coverage, and fully digitize public administration. Net neutrality is to be strictly enforced.

The Free Voters want fast internet everywhere in Bavaria. Every connection should get fiber-optic service. People should be able to file government forms fully online. All data on the internet should be treated equally.

The Free Voters want strong police, courts and rescue services. Attacks on these institutions are to be met with the strictest penalties. In addition, decentralized depots for disaster response are to be expanded.

The Free Voters want a safe Bavaria. Police, courts and rescue workers should be strong. Anyone who attacks them should be punished very hard. There should be more storage sites for disaster response.

The Free Voters want to expand Schleierfahndung (police stops without specific suspicion), keep checks at Bavaria's borders when many refugees arrive, and act firmly against enemies of the constitution and persons deemed dangerous. Online crimes would be punished more severely, while the platform rejects state cyber counterattacks.

The Free Voters want more security in Bavaria. Police should carry out more random checks. Checks at Bavaria's borders should stay when many refugees arrive. Crimes on the internet should be punished more harshly.

The Free Voters want additional staff for courts, prosecutors' offices, prisons and the police so that proceedings move faster and officers are relieved. In addition, the justice minister would no longer be allowed to give instructions to prosecutors.

The Free Voters want more judges, prosecutors and police officers. This should make court cases faster. The police should get 500 new positions every year until 2029. The justice minister should no longer give orders to prosecutors.

The Free Voters want to expand disaster response in Bavaria and adapt it to new situations. The platform cites the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic and relies on decentralized depots, central procurement and closer links among emergency services.

The Free Voters want Bavaria to be better prepared for disasters. There should be more depots with supplies. Supplies should be bought centrally. Fire, rescue and police services should work together better. People who attack rescue workers should get no leniency.

The Free Voters call for a compulsory year of service to society for everyone. Among other things, it is meant to support disaster response and bring recruits from across society into the Bundeswehr.

The Free Voters want a year of community service for everyone. This year should be required. It should help with disaster response and the army.

The Free Voters want referendums on important questions in Bavaria and at the federal level, as well as direct election of the federal president and of the presidents of the district assemblies. A Bavarian freedom of information law would give citizens a right to information.

The Free Voters want citizens to decide more things themselves. There should be referendums in Bavaria and in all of Germany. Citizens should elect the federal president directly. Citizens should get a right to information from public offices.

The Free Voters want to give municipalities more money of their own and more room to decide, instead of pointing them to complicated grant programs. Water supply would stay fully in municipal hands, and the platform rejects further privatization of essential public services.

The Free Voters want strong cities and towns. They should get more money of their own. They should decide as much as possible themselves. Water should stay fully in the hands of the towns. Important public services should not be sold to companies.

The Free Voters want to bring young people's concerns more strongly into state politics and appoint a youth commissioner of the state government for this. Youth parliaments, youth centers and local education programs are to be supported.

The Free Voters want to listen more to young people. One person in the government should look after youth issues. Youth parliaments should get help. In rural areas, a car license at 16 should be tested.

The Free Voters want an EU of citizens and regions and reject a centralist direction. Brussels would get new powers only where strictly necessary; some would be handed back, and the platform rejects EU taxes and joint liability for debt.

The Free Voters want a Europe with strong regions. The EU should get as few new tasks as possible. Some tasks should go back to the countries. There should be no EU taxes. Each country should be liable for its own debts.

The Free Voters want to improve the equipment and readiness of the Bundeswehr (German armed forces) and raise its standing in society. Bavaria's bases, training grounds and defense industry would be preserved.

The Free Voters want a well-equipped army. Soldiers should get more respect. The army bases in Bavaria should stay. The defense companies in Bavaria should also be secured.

The Free Voters want to support volunteering and clubs, among other things through higher tax allowances and more security for board members on liability. Customs, dialects and the so-called sensory heritage are to be preserved and protected. The independent arts scene and club sports are also to get more support.

The Free Voters want to strengthen clubs and volunteering. Volunteers should pay less tax. Club board members should be better protected if something goes wrong. Customs and dialects should stay. No one should be able to sue over church bells or cowbells.

The Free Voters consider public broadcasting important but want it to focus on its core tasks and be organized more efficiently. Surpluses from the broadcasting fee would be used to lower the fee, and local stations would get more funding.

The Free Voters think public broadcasting is important. But it should stick to its most important tasks. If money from the broadcasting fee is left over, the fee should go down. Local TV stations should get more money.

The Free Voters want to develop rural areas on an equal footing with cities. This includes fiber-optic internet for every connection, keeping hospitals and maternity wards, more public transit and secure local supply. Cities are to get enough affordable housing but be densified only moderately.

The Free Voters want rural areas served as well as cities. Every connection should get fast fiber internet. Hospitals and maternity wards should stay everywhere. Buses and trains should get better. Villages should keep shops and access to cash.