Grüne on democracy and the state

The Greens want to make citizens' assemblies possible at the state and municipal level and create a legal basis for them. The aim is for more people to take part in decisions so that these have broader support.

The Greens want citizens' assemblies. In such an assembly, ordinary people discuss political questions. There should be assemblies for the state and for towns. This way more people can have a say.

The platform calls for a law governing how citizens' assemblies are set up at both levels. The Greens also want to push, in the talks on the next multi-year EU budget, for money to be firmly earmarked for citizen participation formats. Suitable administrative structures are to be built for this. The party's reasoning is that participation is the core of a living democracy.

The Greens want to anchor young people's say in law and support children's and youth councils across the state. Volunteering is also to be made easier through better leave arrangements. The party argues that volunteers often lack time, support and real opportunities to take part.

The Greens want young people to have more of a say. Children's and youth councils should be made stronger. Such a council is a group that advises politicians. Volunteering should also get easier. People should get time off for it more easily.

Rights to participation and to be heard are to be written into law. Children's and youth councils are to be formed on issues such as climate or education and be allowed to submit motions in the relevant committees of municipal councils. The Greens want to make educational leave easier to use and examine a right to leave for further volunteer roles. The state program "Demokratie und Toleranz gemeinsam stärken" (strengthening democracy and tolerance together) is to get a statutory basis, and the democracy promotion law is to be developed further together with civil society.

The Greens want to make direct democracy at the state and municipal level simpler and more binding. In the party's view, initiatives currently often fail because of complicated procedures and high formal hurdles.

The Greens want to make citizen petitions for a vote easier. In these, people collect signatures to get a vote. Fewer topics should be off limits. Successful petitions should have more effect.

Whether a petition is legally admissible is to be settled bindingly before signature collection begins. Successful petitions are to have an automatic suspensive effect, so the decisions concerned are not carried out further until the vote is decided. In addition, fewer topics are to be excluded from such procedures.

The Greens want 16-year-olds to be able to stand for election to municipal councils and county councils. This is meant to open a path into local politics for young people and bring in new perspectives. In addition, candidate lists are to be filled more often with equal numbers of women and men.

The Greens want to lower the age for candidates. At 16, people should be able to run for their local council. Young people should take on responsibility early. Candidate lists should also have as many women as men.

To this end, the state and municipal election law is to be changed so that the minimum age to stand for municipal councils and county councils is 16. The party expects this to bring new ideas into politics. The Greens also want to promote gender-balanced candidate lists in local and state elections.

The Greens want to give people without EU citizenship the right to vote in local elections once they have lived in Germany for more than five years. The party sees a democratic deficit when people who live in the state permanently cannot take part in decisions.

Some people do not have a passport from an EU country. Today they cannot vote in local elections. The Greens want to change that. Anyone living in Germany for more than 5 years should be able to vote locally.

The plan is to amend the state and municipal election law. The condition for the right to vote would be residence in Germany of more than five years. The platform argues that many residents are currently shut out of political participation because of their origin.

The Greens want to introduce a transparency law that requires public authorities to publish their information proactively. State parliament committees are to meet in public as a rule, and it is to be disclosed who contributed to a law. The party wants this to strengthen trust in political decisions.

The Greens want the state to work more openly. Public offices should publish their information on their own. This should cost nothing. Committees in the state parliament should meet in public. For each law, people should see who helped write it.

The transparency law is to be modeled on a draft by the Initiative für Transparenz in Politik und Verwaltung (initiative for transparency in politics and administration). Data such as expert reports, contracts and fees are to be accessible digitally, free of charge and barrier-free. A legislative footprint would oblige politicians to disclose whom they were in contact with while working on a law. The Greens also want to put time limits on laws more often and review their effect before they continue to apply.

The Greens want to make government action easier to follow. Non-personal public data would be freely available at no cost, and contacts between politicians and interest groups would be disclosed. In the platform's view, a lack of transparency breeds distrust.

The state should open its data to everyone. This should be free. Private data about people is excluded. Meetings between politicians and lobbyists should be public. Lobbyists speak for companies or associations. People who report violations of the law should be protected.

Open data would become the standard: non-personal public-sector data would be provided centrally, free of charge, in machine-readable form and explained clearly. This is meant to let researchers and the public review government programs, for example on climate or social policy. People who reuse such data for nonprofit purposes, such as apps or research, would get legal certainty. Meetings of the government, ministries and state legislators with interest groups would be publicly documented. Whistleblowers reporting legal violations would be protected from retaliation.

The Greens want to hire more staff for courts and prosecutors' offices and make the judiciary more independent of the government. The judiciary would govern itself, and instructions to prosecutors in individual cases would be limited.

The Greens want to hire more judges and prosecutors. Court cases should move faster that way. The courts should manage themselves. The government should have less influence on the justice system. People should be able to study law in Rostock again.

The platform cites long proceedings and staff shortages at the state's courts as the reason. To offset retirements, considerably more positions for judges, prosecutors and court staff would be filled and paid appropriately. The University of Rostock would again offer a law degree leading to the first state examination. The judiciary would be self-governing so that the executive branch no longer has influence over judges. The power to give prosecutors instructions in individual cases would be restricted.

The Greens want the perspectives and rights of children and young people to be systematically considered in political decisions. To that end, a child impact assessment is to be introduced in the state government's departments.

Political decisions affect children and teenagers. The Greens want these effects checked in advance. The ministries should do this when they decide things. That way children's rights should count for more.

The assessment is to take place in the individual government departments. It is meant to examine how decisions affect young people's everyday lives, their development opportunities and their rights. The platform ties the plan to the goal of considering equality and self-determination from the very start.