Grüne on democracy and the state

The Greens see public administration as a service and want procedures to be faster, more uniform, and more digital. All government services are to be available online in one central place. According to the platform, this should also make investment easier.

The Greens want government offices to work faster. People should be able to apply online. Everything should be in one place. People should only have to give their information once.

The plan includes uniform procedures, fixed contact persons, and digital tools. The party wants to examine introducing practice checks at the state level, modeled on those of the federal economics ministry, which bring companies' day-to-day experience into cutting bureaucracy. Municipalities are to get targeted help implementing the Online Access Act. Agencies are to exchange data digitally through open, standardized interfaces. Services at all levels are to be offered seamlessly and in several languages. Secure digital identification procedures are planned for funding programs.

The Greens want to use digital tools to make the work of the state parliament more transparent. An independent research service within the parliament's administration is to provide expert opinions and fact checks, making political debate more fact-based.

The Greens want everyone to be able to follow the state parliament's work. Videos and minutes of meetings should be easy to find. The parliament should get a research service. It should check facts and answer questions.

A modern parliamentary information system is planned. Video recordings and minutes of plenary and committee sessions are to be easy to access in one central place. The research service is to work independently. The party expects this to increase democratic participation in parliamentary affairs.

The Greens want to expand citizen participation at the state and local level, including through citizens' assemblies, an advisory office and an enhanced participation portal. The petition system is also to become more citizen-friendly. The platform argues that participation leads to decisions that better match needs and brings in new ideas.

The Greens want people in Saxony to have more of a say. There should be citizens' assemblies in the state and in towns. In a citizens' assembly, citizens discuss a topic together. A new office should advise towns on participation. Petitions should also be possible online.

Plans include an advisory office for democracy promotion and citizen participation, more networking, and moderators for local processes, with special attention to rural areas. The Greens want more admissible local citizens' initiatives and will look into an innovation clause that would let municipalities, for example, mail out absentee ballots automatically to raise turnout. Several funding programs, including "Orte der Demokratie" (Places of Democracy), are to be expanded in the districts. For state projects, officials are to check how participation beyond the legal minimum can take place, and a new research unit is to study the processes. Online petitions are to be enshrined in law.

The Greens want a Saxon democracy promotion law to secure long-term funding for civil society initiatives. Civic education, democracy research and research on coming to terms with East German history are also to be strengthened. According to the platform, democracy depends on such initiatives.

The Greens want a new law for democracy. It should give clubs and groups steady money. These groups offer civic education, for example. They also work against hatred toward people. There should also be more research on East German history.

The law is to secure organizations that promote democracy and diversity, offer civic education or work against anti-democratic and hateful movements, while keeping funding flexible. Research and teaching on communist dictatorships are to be strengthened structurally and financially at universities and beyond, since the platform sees East German history as insufficiently examined. The Landeszentrale für politische Bildung (state agency for civic education) is to get support for methods, partnerships, and facilities and technology. The John Dewey research center in Dresden is to be made permanent. The Greens also back a professorship for adult civic education at TU Dresden and one for democracy research at Leipzig University.

The Greens want to set up a documentation center on the NSU in Saxony as part of a nationwide network. It is meant to commemorate the crimes of the far-right terrorist group. It is also meant to be a place for learning and for teaching democratic values.

The NSU was a far-right terror group. It murdered several people. The Greens want to build a center about it in Saxony. The center should remind people of the crimes. People should also learn about democracy there.

The center is to be linked to a nationwide documentation center. It is to document and commemorate the crimes of the "Nationalsozialistischer Untergrund" (National Socialist Underground). Beyond that, it is intended as a place of learning that conveys democratic values and, according to the platform, stands for a democracy able to defend itself.

The Greens want Saxony's Transparency Act to also cover municipalities and companies in which the state holds a stake. Exemptions are to be cut significantly and information requests made free of charge. Non-confidential government data is to be published openly by default.

The Greens want the state to be more open. The Transparency Act should also apply to towns and cities. It should also apply to companies that the state partly owns. Asking for information should cost nothing. Government data should be open to all unless it is secret.

The law is to be developed further with public participation. The transparency platform is to be expanded and there are to be fewer exemptions from disclosure duties. On whistleblower protection, the party wants Saxony to go beyond what federal law provides. The state's open data portal is to be promoted more actively so that more people give feedback and submit data sets. According to the platform, public cloud services could make civil-society open data projects technically easier.

The Greens want the state administration to have enough well-qualified staff and to be a more attractive employer. This includes better training, an end to fixed-term contracts without objective reason, and a revised civil-service pay system. The administration is also to become more diverse.

The Greens want enough good staff in government offices. Training should get better. Short-term contracts without a reason should end. Pay for civil servants should be reworked. More people with a migration background or a disability should work there.

The Meißen administrative college is to become the central site for training; administrative and police training from Bobritzsch and Rothenburg would move there, with the old sites kept for continuing education. Plans include a single skilled-labor strategy for all state agencies, remote work, health management, job bikes and agency daycare centers in Dresden and Leipzig. The staff representation law is to be developed with the unions, and pay-step periods should keep running during parental leave. The pay regulations are to be thoroughly revised so Saxony stays competitive with the federal government and other states. The age limit for becoming a civil servant is to be raised, and the extra work caused by digitalization is to be factored into staffing plans.

The Greens want to keep and expand funding for civil-society initiatives against anti-democratic and inhumane attitudes. The overall strategy against right-wing extremism is to be continued. The party wants firm action against enemies of the constitution in public service and to disarm right-wing extremists.

The Greens want to support groups that stand up for democracy. The plan against right-wing extremism should go on. Right-wing extremists should not be allowed to have weapons. Public servants who work against the constitution should face consequences. Jewish life should be protected.

According to the platform, the overall strategy combines teaching democratic values, advising municipalities, prevention, early detection and prosecution. The Else-Frenkel-Brunswik-Institut in Leipzig is to grow as a research and documentation center and inform municipalities more. The expert network at the Landesdirektion is to receive further training. Disciplinary cases against civil servants are to be pooled under a single senior state attorney, following the Bavarian model. For disarmament, the interior ministry is to get stronger authority over the weapons licensing offices. The party commits to protecting Jewish life and to Israel's right to exist.

The Greens want to improve training for the justice professions so Saxony can manage the generational change by 2030. A second site for training lawyers is to be created. Legal education is to become more digital and more practical.

The Greens want more young people to work in the justice system. Many staff will retire by 2030. There should be a second place to train lawyers. Exams should be possible on a computer. Legal trainees should be paid more fairly.

Training is to improve for prison staff, court officers, justice clerks and court guards. Central facilities for public-service training areas are meant to create synergies. After the electronic second state exam, the first state exam is also to go digital and digital aids are to be allowed. The maintenance allowance for legal trainees is to be redesigned, with better options for extra earnings. The party wants to keep monitoring the need for reform and coordinate with students and trainees.

The Greens want to keep hiring many new judges and keep the justice system attractive as an employer. Digitalization is to go beyond the electronic case file, for example with an AI competence center. Courts everywhere are to get video conferencing equipment and Wi-Fi.

The Greens want enough staff for courts and prisons. Many new judges should keep being hired. Jobs in the justice system should fit with family life. Courts should get Wi-Fi and video call equipment. Artificial intelligence should help with the work.

The justice system is to attract staff with flexible work, competitive pay, career planning and equal promotion chances for all genders. Staffing needs in courts and prisons are to be reassessed and used as the basis for resources. The central recruitment office for the prison service is to grow and cover other justice professions too. By January 1, 2026, the electronic case file is to be in place at all courts and prosecutors' offices. An AI competence center for the justice system is to automate workflows and help with complex and mass proceedings.

The Greens want to revise Saxony's constitution, arguing that after almost 35 years it must reflect social change. Climate protection is to become a state objective, the debt brake is to be changed and the equality clause widened.

The Greens want to change the constitution of Saxony. Climate protection should be a goal of the state. The rules on debt should change. Children's rights should be added. The word "race" should be replaced.

Climate protection is to be written into the constitution as a state objective. For the debt brake, the repayment period is to be adjusted and a component for economic downturns added. The term "race" is to be replaced and sexual identity added to the equality clause. Children's rights are to get constitutional status. A vote of confidence is to be introduced as an instrument, and members of parliament are to get access to files and broader information rights.

The Greens want 14-year-olds to be able to vote in local and state elections. People from non-EU countries are to get a local vote, and the hurdles for citizen-initiated legislation are to come down.

The Greens want young people to vote from age 14. This applies to local elections and state elections. People from countries outside the EU should also vote locally. Citizens' votes on laws should become easier.

The voting age for local and state elections is to be 14. Third-country nationals are to be able to get the right to vote in local elections. The quorums set in the constitution, meaning minimum numbers of signatures or votes, are to be lowered for citizen-initiated legislation. For residents' petitions to local councils, the quorum is to be 0.6 percent of the population aged 14 and over.

The Greens want a mandatory register for organizations that influence political decisions. Members of the state government are to observe a waiting period after leaving office before moving to the private sector.

The Greens want a lobby register. Lobby groups try to influence politics. These groups would have to sign up on a list. Ministers should not move straight to a company after leaving office.

Every outside organization that influences politics would have to be entered in the register. For each law, the role third parties played in the process is to be disclosed. Cooling-off periods for members of the state government are meant to prevent a direct move to companies. The platform argues that knowledge and contacts gained in office should not be used for private economic gain.

The Greens want a new election law with a constitutionally permissible women's quota so that more women sit in the state parliament. The parliament is also to gain weight relative to the government and not be shrunk across the board.

The Greens want to change the election law. A quota for women should bring more women into the state parliament. There should be fewer voting districts. The parliament should stay the same size. It should be better able to check the government.

The number of electoral districts is to fall while the size of the parliament stays the same, in order to avoid overhang seats. Parties of national minorities are to be exempt from the electoral threshold in state elections. The Greens reject an across-the-board reduction of the parliament. The parliament is to be more involved in cabinet decisions and follow EU lawmaking early on. To that end the platform backs longer deadlines for subsidiarity checks and wants to invite representatives of EU institutions to the state parliament.

The Greens want a new functional reform to settle which tasks and funds sit with the state and which with municipalities. Councils, city districts and volunteer council members are also to get more rights and better conditions.

The Greens want to divide tasks between the state and towns in a new way. The money for these tasks should be divided anew too. Local councils should get more rights. Towns should only merge if they choose to.

The reform is meant to strengthen local self-government while improving steering by the state. Municipal mergers are to happen only voluntarily. Local district councils are to be possible in areas that were not annexed, and directly elected district advisory boards in larger towns that belong to a county. Individual council members are to get a statutory right to submit motions, and an elected member could chair the council. Municipal business law is to be revised, cooperation between municipalities eased, and council service made more attractive, for example through better compatibility with family life and a pension scheme to be examined.