Grüne on democracy and the state

The Greens want everyone who lives, works, or studies in Berlin to belong and to have a say. Passport, origin, or residence status should not matter for this. The platform sees it as an opportunity for the city when newcomers settle in successfully.

The Greens say: Everyone in Berlin belongs. The passport should not matter. People without a German passport should also have a say. The Greens want to make policy for these people too.

The platform describes Berlin as a "city of the many." Belonging should depend on whether someone lives, works, studies, or raises children here. The Greens say they also make policy for people who cannot vote because they are too young or lack German citizenship. The platform also notes that 16-year-olds can vote for the first time in this election and that EU citizens can vote for the district assemblies.

The Greens want to carry out urban planning together with the districts and residents and to expand participation procedures. Climate protection, climate adaptation and affordable rents are to become the guiding principle of urban development.

The Greens want to plan the city together with the people. People should have a say. Plans should be easy to understand. Climate protection and affordable rents matter most here.

The districts are to be strengthened so they can draw up integrated development plans for buildings, infrastructure, green spaces and streets. The program calls for regular city debates, competitions, district exhibitions and a clear overview of all plans, including online. All relevant departments are to be involved from the start in every neighborhood development as a requirement. Where zoning plans are missing, they are to be drawn up with districts and residents. A statewide land register is to record ownership, use, vacancy, condition and potential sites. EU funding programs are to become easier to access.

The Greens want to simplify the rules for public grants and allow multi-year funding so that initiatives can plan ahead. The volunteer card is to be expanded. Voluntary service programs are to get more places and higher pocket money.

The Greens want to support volunteering. Groups should be able to get money for several years. Then they can plan better. Young people in voluntary service should get more pocket money. They ride buses and trains for free.

The platform justifies the reform by saying many nonprofit organizations have to worry about their funding anew each year. Berlin's Ehrenamtskarte (volunteer card) is to keep growing as the main tool of recognition. The number of voluntary service places is to be secured and increased, and the pocket money raised markedly in steps. People in voluntary service are to use the Berlin climate ticket for free. The Senate is to inform all school leavers by letter about voluntary service and invite them to a counseling session.

The Greens want to keep the state's land and infrastructure permanently in public hands and continue buying land strategically. A privatization brake in the state constitution and a land protection law are meant to secure this legally.

Berlin should keep its land and facilities. The Greens want to rule out selling them. This should be written into Berlin's constitution. Berlin should also keep buying land. When land is awarded, the best idea should count, not the highest price.

The Berlin land fund is to receive more equity, and parliament is to be informed about the goals and priorities of purchases. Land is to continue being awarded to the best concept; the procedure is to be developed further with civil society. The party accepts public-private partnerships only if the state does not become dependent on individual private providers and the risks do not fall one-sidedly on the public sector. It supports cooperation with nonprofit companies and cooperatives.

The Greens want people with an East German background to be better represented in leadership positions and view this background as a dimension of diversity. At the same time, civil society, youth participation, and prevention of far-right youth violence are to be strengthened.

People from East Germany should get important positions more often. So far they are rare there. The Greens want to collect better data on this. Children should have a say early, for example in class councils from first grade. Youth clubs should get enough money for the long term.

Data on people with East German socialization is to be improved using proven monitoring methods. Career paths in public administration are to become more transparent, since the program says East German perspectives are too rare in business, government agencies, and state-owned companies. Volunteering and civil society are to be strengthened through participation formats, among other things; class councils are to actually take place from first grade on. Against far-right youth violence, especially in East Berlin districts, the party relies on prevention, democracy education, and open youth work with long-term funding. Exchange with democratic Eastern European groups in Berlin is also to be supported.

The Greens want Berlin to be able to abolish the Staatsleistungen (regular state payments to the churches); the federal government is to create the legal basis for this. Leaving the church in Berlin is to be free of charge and possible online in the future.

The state pays the churches money every year. The Greens want to end these payments. The federal government has to pass a law first. People who leave the church should not pay a fee. Leaving should also be possible online.

Staatsleistungen are regular payments from the states to the churches that go back to historical expropriations. The program wants the federal government to create the conditions for abolishing them in Berlin. Berlin's law on leaving the church is to be changed so that people who leave no longer pay a fee. The Greens also aim for an online procedure for leaving.

The Greens want a state law on promoting democracy to secure the work of associations, initiatives and migrant organizations for the long term. They also want to strengthen the state agency for civic education and make parliament, the constitutional court and the district assemblies more resilient.

Many groups work to support democracy. The Greens want a new law to fund them for the long term. Civic education should get stronger. Parliament and the constitutional court should be better protected.

The program accuses the CDU-SPD coalition of having thinned out democracy funding. The mandate of the state agency for civic education is to be clearly laid down. At the federal level, the Greens want political engagement by associations to count as charitable. A council of political youth organizations is to be set up and funded. Together with other democratic parliamentary groups, safeguards are to be created for the state parliament, the constitutional court and the district assemblies.

The Greens want everyone whose life is centered in Berlin to be able to vote in elections and referendums, even without a German passport. The program regards the exclusion of nearly one million people as a structural democratic deficit.

Almost one million people in Berlin have no German passport. So they are not allowed to vote. The Greens want to change that. People who live in Berlin should be able to vote.

The right to vote is to cover citizens' initiatives and referendums as well as elections to the state parliament and the district assemblies. In the long run it is also to include federal and European elections. The party intends to push for this in Berlin and in the Bundesrat and to seek support from the other democratic parties.

The Greens want to lower the voting age at state and district level from 16 to 14. Children's and youth parliaments with their own rights are to be made possible in all districts and at state level.

In Berlin, people can vote from age 16. The Greens want people to vote from age 14. There should also be parliaments for children and teenagers. They could then speak and make proposals.

The children's and youth parliaments are to have the right to speak and submit motions in the district assemblies, the state parliament and their committees. The program argues that political decisions affect young people for an especially long time. In the 2026 election, 16-year-olds can vote for the state parliament for the first time, which the Greens describe as their own achievement.

The Greens want to expand direct democracy in Berlin and introduce an optional referendum. It would let citizens veto a change by parliament to a law that was passed by popular vote.

The Greens want people in Berlin to have more say. Sometimes parliament changes a law that the people voted for. Then people should be able to vote on it again. Votes in the districts should be binding.

Hurdles for direct-democratic procedures are to be reviewed and reduced as far as possible. Citizens' votes in the districts are to become binding, participation offices are to be strengthened and participatory budgets made possible. The guidelines on participation are to be fully implemented and overseen by a commissioner. A "Stadtvertrag Beteiligung" (city participation compact) is meant to ensure processes with binding results. Citizens' assemblies chosen by lot are to draw up recommendations on neighborhood and state-level issues.

The Greens want Germany's Federal Constitutional Court to rule on a ban of the AfD. The platform bases this on the domestic intelligence agency's classification of the party as confirmed right-wing extremist and on a rise in hate crime.

The Greens want a court to check a ban of the AfD. Germany's highest court should decide. The domestic intelligence agency calls the AfD right-wing extremist. The Greens say this must have consequences.

The platform points out that the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has classified the AfD as a confirmed right-wing extremist party. In the Greens' view, this classification must have consequences. The party says it will use every available means so that the Federal Constitutional Court can review a ban. As background, the platform cites racist, antisemitic and anti-queer crimes, which it says have become commonplace.

The Greens want to give children and teens more of a say. Children's and youth councils would get voting rights and the right to submit motions in all twelve district assemblies, and the UN children's rights would be written into Berlin's constitution.

Children and teens should have more of a say. Their councils should be able to make proposals and vote in the district assemblies. The children's rights of the United Nations should be in Berlin's constitution. All of Berlin should become a child-friendly city.

All of Berlin is meant to become a "Kinderfreundliche Kommune" (child-friendly municipality). The rights of children's and youth councils would be set down in the district administration law. The platform plans age-appropriate, inclusive and professionally guided participation formats, for example on playgrounds, road safety or tree planting. Class councils, which are already required by law, should actually take place in every school and class. Students in welcome classes for newcomers should have the same democratic rights from the start.

The Greens want to give older people more political weight and would revise the law on seniors' participation to do so. They also want to fight age discrimination, make it easier to keep working in the public administration, and promote learning in later life.

The Greens want older people to have more say. Their representatives should be allowed to speak in district committees. They should get money for travel and expenses. The Greens also want to act against unfair treatment because of age. Older people should be able to keep learning, for example on computers.

Seniors' representative bodies would get binding rights to participate and speak in the committees of the district assemblies, along with travel reimbursement and expense allowances. More people with a migration background and queer seniors would be recruited for these bodies. Official publications would show a positive image of aging, and Berlin's anti-discrimination law would be better publicized. In the administration, flexible transitions into retirement, part-time models and age-appropriate working conditions are planned for those who want to work past the standard retirement age. In the long term, retraining for older people and more digital inclusion programs would be set up, with a particular focus on women.

The Greens want everyone in Berlin to be able to assert their rights on equal terms. According to the platform, people with little money are at a disadvantage because they often cannot afford legal counsel. Legal aid for advice and court costs is to become easier to obtain, and the courts' legal application offices are to be expanded.

The Greens want everyone to have the same chances in court. Many people with little money cannot pay a lawyer. They should get help with the costs more easily. The courts should offer more advice, also in several languages.

At the federal level, the Greens want to push for easier access to legal aid for advice and court costs and to criminal defense. In Berlin, the courts' legal application offices are to grow, work in several languages and be easier to reach digitally. State agencies would be required by law to cooperate with the administrative courts, and burdensome decisions would generally not be enforced while an admissible request for interim relief is pending. The rights of children before family courts and in criminal proceedings are to be strengthened, as are the child protection outpatient clinic and the Childhood-Haus at the Charité hospital. Crime victims are to get support through a victim protection law. The prosecution of white-collar crime and asset recovery are also to be expanded.

The Greens want the justice system to deal more openly with its own mistakes and to reduce wrongful verdicts. To that end, evidence is to be kept longer and the appeals courts are to be strengthened.

Courts sometimes make mistakes too. The Greens want the justice system to learn from mistakes. Evidence should be kept longer. Experts should study why wrong verdicts happen.

The platform names four elements: longer retention periods for evidence, stronger appeals courts, a scientific study of the causes of wrongful verdicts, and matching training. The training is aimed at judges and prosecutors. According to the platform, the goal is a transparent justice system that learns from its errors.

Because many justice system employees will soon retire, the Greens want to recruit more staff. Work is to become more family-friendly, and lateral entry and promotion are to become easier. Where qualifications are equal, applicants with a migration background are to be given preference in hiring.

Many people in the justice system will retire soon. So the Greens want to win new staff. Work should fit better with family life. People from other jobs should be able to join more easily. Judges should have to take training courses.

Working conditions are to become more family-friendly and mobile, and prior experience is to be credited appropriately to ease lateral entry, promotion and job changes. The legal traineeship (Rechtsreferendariat) is to become more attractive. Women are to be supported through, among other things, gender-balanced shortlists for promotion posts. Mandatory training is to be introduced for judges. More training is planned on hearing children in court, the Istanbul Convention, domestic violence, and crimes motivated by right-wing extremism or group-based hostility. Training for court bailiffs is to be improved.

The Greens want to largely abolish the justice administration's right to issue instructions to public prosecutors. At the same time, lay judges would have to commit to the free democratic basic order, and applicants would be systematically screened. Courts are to be made resilient against anti-democratic forces.

Today the justice administration can give orders to prosecutors. The Greens want to largely end this. Lay judges are volunteer judges. They should have to commit to democracy. The Greens want to check people who apply for this role. This should keep extremists from becoming judges.

As a first step, a decree is to state that external instructions to prosecutors in individual cases are generally not issued. The platform points to the majority of other EU countries as a model. Through the Bundesrat, the Greens want to require lay judges and other volunteer judges to commit to the basic order. A strategy for screening applicants is to be developed to prevent extremism. The party wants to examine changing legal rules so that no one can use them to paralyze courts. Structural barriers to accessing a defense are to be removed.

The Greens want to implement Berlin's already adopted administrative reform. The Senate departments are to handle citywide steering, while the boroughs carry out services and steer at the borough level. The administration is to see itself as a service provider and deliver its services without discrimination.

Berlin has passed a reform of its administration. The Greens now want to put it into practice. It should be clear who is responsible for what. The Senate should plan for the whole city. The boroughs should do the work on the ground. Offices should treat all people equally well.

The platform highlights two core elements of the reform: a clear split of steering and delivery between the Senate and the boroughs, and the Konnexitätsprinzip (whoever assigns a task must fund it) in the state constitution. Under it, the Senate must give the boroughs the money needed for new tasks. The ongoing inventory of all tasks is to continue quickly, with each task critically reviewed. A professional idea management system is to be set up so that employees can suggest improvements more easily. As examples of a working administration, the platform cites quick appointments at citizens' offices and good advice at the youth welfare office.

The Greens want to further develop the Bezirksverordnetenversammlungen, the elected assemblies of Berlin's districts. More of their resolutions are to be binding. It should also become clearer who in the district administration is responsible for which policy.

Each Berlin district has an elected district assembly. The Greens want to make these assemblies stronger. More of their decisions should be binding. The district office would then have to follow them. People should see more clearly who is responsible for what.

The platform wants democracy at the district level to be effective and tangible. The district assemblies are to be developed as bodies of local self-government, for example by giving more of their resolutions binding force. Political responsibility within the district office is to become more transparent for residents. The party describes the districts as people's first point of contact and as shaping trust in the administration as a whole.

The Greens want to keep the state of Berlin's workforce at the level built up by 2023 and plan staffing needs strategically. Berlin is to become a more attractive employer, among other things through more participation, development opportunities and modern equipment. The Landesverwaltungsamt (state administrative office) is to become the central HR service provider.

Berlin needs enough people in its public offices. The Greens want to keep the number of staff stable. They want to plan carefully where staff is needed. Berlin should be a good employer. One office should handle staff matters for all agencies.

According to the platform, filling positions currently takes too long, there is no overarching staff planning, and the districts are at a disadvantage in recruiting. Planning is to be based on the actual need for public services. The platform foresees a culture of appreciation and participation, more development opportunities and digital work equipment. A central women's representation body modeled on the central staff council is to strengthen the women's representatives in the agencies. The Landesverwaltungsamt is to make HR procedures more efficient across the administration, and the districts' disadvantages in recruiting and retaining staff are to be reduced. Violence prevention, support for employees affected by violence and a menopause strategy are also planned.

The Greens want to attract more young people to the public service through a training drive. Dual vocational training, dual degree programs and trainee programs are to be expanded. The party also wants to tackle housing for employees.

The public offices need young people. The Greens want more training places in the public service. Dual study programs and trainee programs should grow too. Students should be able to do more internships in agencies. Staff should find housing more easily.

The platform treats dual vocational training, dual degree programs and trainee programs as equally important paths for recruiting young staff and wants to expand all three in a targeted way. The party wants to explore and start establishing employee housing. Career paths in the administration are to become more visible. To that end, career guidance is to be strengthened and more school internships offered.