Grüne on families

The Greens want to scrap daycare fees for children under two as well and make it easier to combine family and work. At the federal level, they are pushing for child sick pay at full wage level and a reform of Elterngeld (parental allowance).

The Greens want daycare to cost nothing. This should also apply to children under two. Parents should be able to combine work and family better. Fathers should also take longer parental leave.

Labor law is to fit different stages of life, and companies are to become more family-friendly; single parents are to get particular consideration. Child sick pay is to fully replace wages for people with statutory health insurance. The parental allowance reform is meant to make longer parental leave more attractive for fathers too. In the state administration, more 75 percent positions and part-time leadership roles are planned.

The Greens call for abolishing Ehegattensplitting, the joint tax assessment of married couples. They also want to ease the burden on families with a family box at birth, an automatically available family card, and lower taxes on children's products.

Married couples often pay less tax today. This is called Ehegattensplitting. The Greens want to end it. Parents should get a box with important things when a baby is born. Things for children should be taxed less.

The family box is meant as a starter kit covering what a child needs in the first months of life. All families are to receive the Rhineland-Palatinate family card without having to apply. The party wants to push for lower taxation of children's products. The platform justifies the relief by saying families need space, time, and room to move in housing, mobility, and leisure.

The Greens want no child to grow up in poverty and will push at the federal level for a Kindergrundsicherung (basic child benefit) and more money for education and participation. They also want children's right to political participation written into the federal Basic Law and the state constitution.

The Greens want to end child poverty. They want a basic child benefit. That is money from the state for children. Children should also have more of a say. This right should be written into the constitution.

The party plans to press harder at the federal level for a basic child benefit and for higher payments under the education and participation package. Children should have a say in daycare, school, daily life and their municipality. Their right to participate should be added to the Basic Law and to the constitution of Rhineland-Palatinate. Youth participation is already part of the municipal code, and participation by children is meant to become just as normal.

The Greens want to expand and better connect counseling and support services for families in difficult situations. Early intervention is to last longer, and parents with disabilities as well as young people leaving youth welfare care are to get more support.

Some families get into trouble. The Greens want to help them faster. There should be more places that give advice. More family midwives are planned too. Parents with disabilities should get more help in daily life.

Family centers, debt counseling and consumer protection for families are to be strengthened and linked. The program "Guter Start ins Kinderleben" (a good start in life) is to be offered in every maternity clinic in the state, along with additional positions for family midwives. Early intervention is to continue until a child turns six. Young people leaving youth welfare care are to get reliable help with housing and counseling. Parenting assistance for parents with disabilities is to grow according to need, and the party keeps pushing for parental allowance for foster parents.

The Greens want to protect children better against violence and sexual abuse. By 2029 at the latest, every institution working with children is to have a mandatory protection plan, and the state pact against sexualized violence is to be implemented.

Children should grow up without violence. Schools, clubs and summer camps should have a protection plan by 2029. The plan says how children are kept safe there. Children who were harmed should get more help and advice.

The recommendations of the survivors' advisory council are to be implemented step by step, and there is to be a state commissioner against sexual violence toward young people. Child protection services and the state teacher training institute get more specialists, and police and courts are trained to work in a child-appropriate way. Investigators are to report known storage locations of abuse material to hosting companies so that they delete the data voluntarily. Court proceedings involving affected children are to be improved, victim and compensation counseling expanded, and the helpline "Nummer gegen Kummer" kept funded. The pact is to get additional staff positions and training for volunteers.