Linke: program for the 2025 federal election

The Left wants to curb the power of large food and retail corporations with tougher antitrust law and break up monopolies. Speculation on food is to be banned. Farmers and consumers are meant to benefit.

A few big supermarket chains have a lot of power. The Left wants to limit that power. Companies that are too big should be split up. Nobody should be allowed to speculate on food. Farmers should get minimum prices where needed.

The Left wants to create an independent federal agency that monitors prices and can intervene quickly when key industries raise them sharply. In the energy sector, price increases would need approval.

A new agency should watch prices. It should warn early when prices rise too much. Then the state should be able to step in fast. Energy companies should need permission to raise prices.

The Left calls for a binding ceiling on the pay of managers and board members. It may be at most twenty times the lowest salary in the company.

Managers should not be able to earn unlimited amounts. The Left wants a fixed limit. A manager may get at most 20 times what the lowest-paid person in the company gets. Bonuses count too.

The Left wants to expand the Lieferkettengesetz (Supply Chain Act), which requires companies to respect human rights and environmental standards among their suppliers. Violations would be punished more severely.

Companies buy goods and parts in many countries. A law requires them to respect human rights when they do. The Left wants to make this law stricter. Companies should face tougher penalties if they break it.

The Left calls for 200 billion euros for an investment fund that helps companies convert to climate-friendly production. Support is to come as long-term loans or in exchange for company shares. A binding future plan for the economy is to form the basis.

The Left wants 200 billion euros to rebuild industry. The money goes into a fund. Companies get loans from it. Or the state gets shares in the company in return. This should make industry climate-friendly.

The Left wants to grant state aid and subsidies only in return for binding commitments from companies. These include guarantees for employees, collective agreements, commitments to sites and investment plans. Funding is to be repaid if the conditions are broken.

Companies should only get state money in return for firm promises. They must protect jobs and pay union-agreed wages. They must keep their sites. Companies that break the promises pay the money back.

The Left wants the federal government to buy stakes in important companies through industrial foundations and other forms of public ownership. This is meant to steer the climate-friendly conversion better and protect critical infrastructure from being sold off.

The federal government should buy shares in important companies. Industrial foundations should be set up for this. This lets the state steer the rebuilding of the economy. Important sites like ports or pipelines should not be sold.

The Left wants to give works councils co-determination on economic matters. Workforces are to confirm major decisions and be able to veto relocations, closures and mass layoffs. In regions undergoing structural change, transformation councils are to help shape the conversion.

Workers should have more say in companies. Big decisions need the workers' approval. Workers should be able to stop closures and mass layoffs. In affected regions, councils should help decide on the changes.

The Left wants to keep auto industry sites and jobs and convert the companies into mobility manufacturers that produce more for buses and rail. Plants the corporations want to give up are to be socialized. Electric mobility is to advance through public procurement, quotas and charging infrastructure.

The Left wants to keep jobs in the car industry. The companies should build more buses and trains. If a company wants to close a plant, the plant should become public property. The state should only buy electric cars. There should be more charging stations.

The Left calls for a federal fund that municipalities and states can use to bring privatized companies back into public ownership and run them on a nonprofit basis. Municipalities should carry out their tasks themselves instead of handing them to private providers.

Towns sold many companies in the past. The Left wants to bring them back. The federal government should give money for this. These companies should not work for profit.

The Left wants to accompany structural change in eastern Germany with investment plans, especially in regions with an auto industry. Workers would be protected through transitional employment companies and guaranteed incomes.

The economy in the East is changing. The Left wants investment plans for this change. New jobs should come from building trains. Workers should keep a secure income.

The Left wants to replace Bürgergeld (citizen's income) with an individual minimum income without sanctions, pegged to the at-risk-of-poverty line of currently about 1,400 euros a month. In the platform's view, poverty and unemployment mostly have structural causes and are not people's own fault.

The Left wants to change the basic welfare payment. Each person would get a minimum income. There would be no cuts as punishment. It would be about 1,400 euros a month. Rent is already included in that.

The Left advocates shorter working weeks at full pay, such as 32 hours or a four-day week. Parents would be protected from dismissal until their child's sixth birthday. This is meant above all to help single parents combine work and family.

The Left wants shorter working hours for the same pay. For example, four days of work per week. Parents of small children should be harder to fire. The protection would last until the child is six.

The Left wants to ban age discrimination in the Basic Law and give older people a legal right to elder assistance. It also plans age-appropriate housing and a free nationwide transit ticket for seniors. The goal is self-determined aging without poverty or disadvantage.

The Left wants to protect older people better. Nobody should be treated worse because of age. This would be in the constitution. There would be more homes without barriers. Older people would ride buses and trains for free.

The Left wants to raise the statutory minimum wage to 16 euros by 2026 at the latest and tie it to the median wage. It cites the EU minimum wage directive, which names 60 percent of median income as a benchmark.

The minimum wage is the lowest pay allowed. The Left wants to raise it to 16 euros an hour. That should apply by 2026 at the latest. After that it should rise every year. It should apply to everyone, with no exceptions.

The Left wants more workers to be covered by collective agreements. Public contracts would go only to companies that comply with such agreements, and it would become easier to make agreements binding for entire industries.

A collective agreement sets pay and working hours for many workers. The Left wants more people to have one. The government should give contracts only to companies that follow collective agreements. It should be easier to make an agreement apply to a whole industry.

The Left wants to ban temporary agency work and abolish fixed-term contracts without objective justification to give workers more security. Minijobs and Midijobs (low-hours jobs with reduced social contributions) would be replaced by jobs with full social insurance.

The Left wants secure jobs. Temp agency work should be banned. Contracts should no longer be time-limited without a reason. Minijobs should also end. Every job should be fully insured for sickness, retirement and unemployment.

The Left wants shorter working hours with full pay, for example as a four-day week, and wants to lower the legal weekly maximum to 40 hours. The statutory vacation entitlement would rise to six weeks.

The Left wants people to work less and earn the same. One example is the four-day week. No one should have to work more than 40 hours a week. Everyone should get six weeks of vacation a year. Twice in their working life, people should be able to take a year off.

The Left wants to give works councils and staff councils an enforceable right of co-determination on key company decisions. In companies with 500 or more employees, workers and shareholders would have equal representation on the supervisory board.

The Left wants workers to have more say in their company. The works council should help decide important questions. For example, when a plant is supposed to close. In larger companies, workers should get half the seats on the supervisory board.

The Left wants every workplace to have a works council. Elections are to become easier, and anyone obstructing them is to be prosecuted more strictly. Work organized through digital platforms is to count as regular employment by default.

The Left wants a works council in every workplace. A works council speaks for the workers. Electing one should be easier. People who block an election should be punished. People who work through an online platform should count as employees.

The Left wants to abolish the special labor law that applies to churches and their welfare organizations. The right to strike is to cover church employees and civil servants as well, and political strikes are to be allowed. The Tarifeinheitsgesetz (collective bargaining unity act) is to be repealed.

Churches have their own rules for their workers. The Left wants to end these special rules. Civil servants and church workers should be allowed to strike. Strikes for political goals should be allowed too.

The Left wants to require companies to train their employees and to set up sector-wide funds for this. Employees are to be able to cut their hours for training while keeping most of their pay. People who lose their job or change sectors are to receive a training allowance of 90 percent.

Companies should train their workers. All companies in a sector pay into one fund for this. People in training may work fewer hours. They still get most of their pay. People who lose their job get 90 percent of their last pay during training.

The Left wants to raise unemployment benefit to 68 percent and pay it for longer. More people are to gain access to unemployment insurance, and benefit suspension periods are to be dropped.

The Left wants to pay more unemployment benefit. It should be 68 percent. People should get it for longer. More people should qualify. There should be no more suspension periods. In a suspension period, people get no money.

The Left wants to introduce an enforceable right to paid work. Publicly funded jobs are to be created for people who are permanently shut out of the regular labor market. Unemployed people are to get a legal entitlement to training.

The Left wants a right to work. People should be able to claim this right in court. The state should fund extra jobs. They are for people who cannot find work for a long time. Unemployed people should have a right to training.

The Left wants to move vacant commercial space such as shopping malls into municipal or cooperative ownership and set up care centers there. These are meant to ease the burden of caregiving and daily life; the platform speaks of socializing care work.

Many department stores are empty. The Left wants to give them to towns or cooperatives. Care centers should open there. The centers help people who care for relatives, for example.

The Left wants to require companies to fill six percent of their jobs with people with disabilities, with no option to buy their way out. The minimum wage should apply in sheltered workshops. The party notes that unemployment in this group is twice the overall rate.

Companies should hire more people with disabilities. Six out of a hundred jobs should be for them. Companies should not be able to pay to avoid this. Workshops should pay the minimum wage.

The Left wants a pension insurance into which everyone with earned income pays, including civil servants, the self-employed and members of parliament. In the platform's view, the public pension has a fairness problem rather than a demographic one, and this would allow the pension level to rise.

The Left wants one pension fund for everyone who works. Civil servants, self-employed people and lawmakers would pay in too. Then the fund has more money. That way pensions can go up.

The Left wants to raise the pension level to 53 percent and double the income ceiling for contributions. Low pension entitlements would be upgraded. The party rejects a stock-based pension as risky and expensive.

The Left wants higher pensions. The pension level should rise to 53 percent. People with high pay would pay contributions on more of it. Pension money should not be invested in stocks.

The Left wants to lower the standard retirement age to 65. Anyone who has worked and paid contributions for 40 years could retire at 60 without deductions. In the platform's view, retirement at 67 amounts to a pension cut.

The Left wants people to retire at 65. Today the age is rising to 67. Anyone who worked 40 years could retire at 60. Their pension would not be cut.

The Left wants to introduce a solidarity-based minimum pension. People whose pension is too low would get a top-up to the at-risk-of-poverty line, currently about 1,400 euros. The aim is to prevent poverty in old age.

Some people get only a very small pension. The Left wants to give them a top-up. Their pension would then be about 1,400 euros. Nobody should be poor in old age.

The Left wants to keep the upward adjustment of eastern German wages in pension calculations until 2030 and legally correct how East German pensions were transferred after reunification. A higher minimum wage and more collective bargaining coverage are meant to close the wage gap with the West.

Wages and pensions are lower in the East than in the West. The Left wants to change that. Eastern wages should keep counting more for pensions. The minimum wage should rise to 15 euros.

The Left wants to exempt staple foods, hygiene products and bus and train tickets from value-added tax. This is meant to give quick relief to households with little money and boost purchasing power.

The Left wants to end the sales tax on basic foods. The same goes for hygiene products and tickets for buses and trains. These things should become cheaper. Stores must pass the tax cut on to customers.

The Left wants to levy the wealth tax again, with rates from 1 to 5 percent and 12 percent above one billion euros. It also calls for one-time wealth levies on the richest. According to the platform, the goal is that billionaires no longer exist.

Very rich people should pay a tax on their wealth. The first million euros stays tax-free. Those with more than a billion pay 12 percent on the part above it. There should also be a one-time levy on the richest. The Left wants there to be no more billionaires.

The Left wants to make income up to 16,800 euros a year tax-free and tax top incomes at up to 75 percent. Capital income is to be taxed like income from work.

People who earn little should pay less tax. Up to 16,800 euros a year, there should be no tax at all. People who earn very much should pay clearly more. Gains from investments should be taxed like wages.

The Left wants to tax large inheritances and gifts more heavily and eliminate exemptions for business assets. Ordinary owner-occupied homes would remain tax-free.

People who inherit very much should pay more tax. Exceptions for inherited companies should end. Each heir may receive 200,000 euros tax-free. A home the heir lives in also stays tax-free.

The Left wants to raise the corporate income tax to 25 percent and push for the global minimum tax to match that rate. Multinational companies would be taxed where they actually do business. The platform argues that the tax burden on companies has fallen sharply over recent decades.

The Left wants higher taxes for companies. The tax on company profits should rise to 25 percent. Big companies should no longer be able to move profits to other countries.

The Left wants to replace the Gewerbesteuer (local trade tax) with a municipal business tax levied on a broader base that also covers high-earning self-employed people. The platform points to underfunded municipalities and competition among towns over low tax rates.

The Left wants to change the local business tax. Businesses pay this tax to their town. In the future, well-paid self-employed people should pay it too. This should give towns and cities more money.

The Left wants to tax every financial transaction at 0.1 percent. The tax is meant to curb speculation and, according to the platform, to stabilize and shrink financial markets.

The Left wants a new tax on financial trades. Every trade on the markets would cost 0.1 percent. This should slow down speculation. Speculation means betting on prices.

The Left wants to tax the extra profits companies make during crises at 90 percent. In the platform's view, energy companies used their market power during the war in Ukraine to make record profits at the public's expense.

Some companies earn a lot more during a crisis. The Left wants to tax these extra profits heavily. 90 percent would go to the state. The money should benefit everyone.

The Left wants to fight tax fraud and money laundering with more staff, more audits of the very wealthy, and criminal liability for companies. German citizens would be taxed in Germany regardless of where they live. The platform cites cases such as Cum-Ex and Wirecard.

The Left wants to go after tax fraud harder. Tax offices should get more staff. Very rich people should be checked more often. Companies themselves could be punished. Germans living abroad would still pay German taxes.

The Left wants to scrap the Schuldenbremse (constitutional debt brake) so that the federal and state governments can again finance investment with loans. In the platform's view, the rule has caused large gaps in infrastructure and social services. Municipalities would be strengthened through a finance reform and a fund for old debts.

The debt brake limits new government debt. The Left wants to get rid of it. The state should be able to borrow for investments. For example for schools, trains and housing. Poor cities should get help with old debts.

The Left wants to shrink banks, wind down investment banking, and allow financial products only after approval by a financial safety inspectorate. According to the platform, the financial sector should serve society because financial crises can endanger entire states and welfare systems.

The Left wants to make banks smaller. Risky market deals should end. New financial products would need a permit first. Nobody should bet on food prices. Interest on overdrawn accounts should be capped.

The Left wants a nationwide package to relieve municipal debt and wants the federal government to cover social benefit costs in full. The local business tax (Gewerbesteuer) would be turned into a broader municipal business tax.

Many towns have high debts. The Left wants to reduce these debts. The federal government should pay all social benefits. The local business tax should be changed.

The Left calls for a rent cap for all of Germany that not only limits rents but lowers them in tight markets. As an immediate step, rent increases are to be ruled out for six years.

The Left wants a rent cap for all of Germany. Rents should not rise for six years. Very high rents should even go down. Small shops and tradespeople should also be able to get protection.

The Left wants to protect tenants more strongly against termination, tightly limit owner-occupancy claims and generally ban converting rental units into condos. It also calls for a right to swap apartments and mandatory tenant councils.

Tenants should be better protected from losing their home. Landlords should only claim an apartment for close relatives. Rental apartments should no longer be turned into condos. Tenants should be able to swap apartments without paying more.

The Left wants to scrap the modernization surcharge so that renovations do not raise total rent including heating. Property tax is also no longer to be passed on to tenants, and housing benefit is to be easier to claim.

Today landlords can add renovation costs to the rent. The Left wants to end this. Tenants should also no longer pay the property tax. Housing benefit should be easier to get. Heating bills that are too high should be punished.

The Left wants to put 20 billion euros a year into nonprofit housing and reach a 30 percent share of such housing in the medium term. Municipalities are to get rights of first refusal, and public subsidies would go only to nonprofit construction.

The state should spend 20 billion euros each year on affordable housing. Social housing should stay social housing forever. Cities should get the first chance to buy land. Public money should only go to nonprofit housing. Nonprofit means: not built to make a profit.

The Left wants to transfer the apartments of real estate corporations with more than 3,000 units into public ownership. It thereby backs the initiative Deutsche Wohnen & Co enteignen (Expropriate Deutsche Wohnen & Co).

Some corporations own more than 3,000 apartments. The Left wants to bring these apartments into public ownership. A public body would then manage them. Only small shareholders should get compensation.

The Left wants to record vacant apartments and charge 10 euros per square meter so that leaving them empty does not pay. In cases of long vacancy, apartments would be temporarily seized and rented out.

Many apartments stand empty. The Left wants owners to pay a fee for that: 10 euros per square meter. If an apartment is empty for very long, the state should take it over for a time. Then it gets repaired and rented out.

The Left wants to enshrine a right to one's own home in the Basic Law and end homelessness. Evictions that lead to homelessness are to be banned.

Every person should have a right to their own home. This should be written in the constitution. Nobody should be evicted onto the street. Homeless people should get an apartment first. Refugees should no longer have to live in mass shelters.

The Left wants to stop energy-saving renovations from raising rents and, to that end, abolish the passing on of renovation costs to tenants. Demolishing existing buildings to make way for expensive new ones is to be largely banned.

Today landlords can add renovation costs to the rent. The Left wants to end this. After a renovation, housing should not cost more than before. Tearing down homes should only rarely be allowed.

The Left wants a major expansion of public, fee-free all-day care for children of all ages. The second parent would get 28 days of leave after the birth, and the minimum Elterngeld (parental allowance) would rise to 420 euros. The aim is to make family and work easier to combine and to share care work more equally.

The Left wants more daycare and all-day care. Care should cost nothing. After a birth, the second parent would also get 28 days off. The lowest parental allowance would rise to 420 euros.

The Left wants to abolish Ehegattensplitting (joint tax splitting for married couples) and tax each person individually. Single parents would get a tax credit and improved advance child support. For the party, family is wherever people take responsibility for each other, regardless of marriage.

Married couples often pay less tax today through joint filing. The Left wants to end that. Each person would be taxed alone. Single parents would get more help. Families with two mothers or two fathers would get equal rights.

The Left wants to create a stand-alone Kindergrundsicherung (basic child benefit) that combines four benefits. It includes a Kindergeld (child benefit) of 350 euros a month for every child. The aim is to fight child poverty.

The Left wants a basic benefit for children. Every child would get 350 euros a month. Poor children would get extra money. Housing costs and school trips would also be covered.

The Left wants to end the repair backlog at schools and universities. In the long run a wealth tax would fund the states for this; until then the federal government should set up a 100-billion-euro special fund. More teachers and childcare staff are also to be recruited.

Many schools are run-down. The Left wants 100 billion euros from the federal government for schools, daycare and universities. Later a tax on large fortunes should pay for it. There should also be more teachers.

The Left wants the federal and state governments to be able to cooperate without limits on education and to anchor this as a joint task in the Basic Law. A federal framework law on education would secure the same minimum standards nationwide.

Today the federal government can do little for schools. The Left wants to change that. Federal and state governments should handle education together. The same minimum rules should apply in every state.

The Left wants learning materials, meals and school transport to be free so that education does not depend on parents' income. Homework would be abolished because, in the party's view, it turns social differences into unequal school success.

Schoolbooks and devices for learning should cost nothing. Meals in daycare and school should be free too. So should the trip to school. There should be no more homework. Practice happens at school.

The Left calls for a daycare quality law that actually delivers on the legal right to a daycare place. Daycare would be free, with fewer children per staff member and better pay for staff. The platform points to 430,000 missing places and overburdened employees.

Many children get no daycare place. The Left wants a new daycare law. Daycare should cost nothing. Each caregiver should look after fewer children. Caregivers should earn more.

The Left wants to replace the tiered school system with a common, inclusive all-day school where every diploma can be earned. In its view, today's tiered structure reinforces social inequality.

Today there are different types of schools. The Left wants one school for all children. School lasts all day. Students can earn any diploma there. Several professionals should help in each class.

The Left wants to prohibit advertising and lobbying in schools and bar the Bundeswehr (German armed forces) from advertising at schools and universities. Instead, students would learn about peace work and civilian alternatives. Digital learning tools should likewise not become a gateway for corporate interests.

Companies should not advertise in schools. The armed forces should not advertise there either. Schools should teach about peace. Artificial intelligence should not give grades.

The Left wants a levy: companies without apprentices of their own would help pay for training places elsewhere. All vocational training would be free and lead to a full qualification, with a legal entitlement, minimum pay and permanent hiring afterward. The platform points to many young people without a diploma and companies training less.

Some companies train no one. Those companies should pay into a fund. The fund pays for training places. Everyone should have a right to training. Apprentices should get more pay and a permanent job afterward.

The Left wants to promote lifelong learning as an offer and improve working conditions in adult education. This includes a collective agreement for all employees in the sector and a continuing-education allowance.

Adults should be able to keep learning. It should be an offer, not a duty. People who work in adult education should get union-scale pay. There should be a training allowance.

The Left wants to turn BAföG (federal student aid) into support for all students that need not be repaid and is paid regardless of parents, age or origin. It rejects tuition fees and wants broader access to universities. The platform cites poverty among students.

All students should get BAföG. That is state money for studying. They do not have to pay it back. It should be enough to live on. Studying should have no fees.

The Left wants to push back fixed-term contracts in academia and fund universities through reliable core funding rather than third-party grants. Research should focus on peace, social equality and ecology; civil clauses would apply at all universities.

Many researchers only have short-term contracts. The Left wants permanent jobs for them. Universities should get enough steady money from the state. Universities should do research only for peaceful purposes.

The Left wants a single health and long-term care insurance into which everyone pays contributions on all income. Privately insured people would move into the public system, and care insurance would cover all care services. According to the platform, health should not depend on a person's wallet or insurer.

The Left wants one health insurance for everyone. People with private insurance would pay in too. Contributions would be due on all income. Care insurance would pay all costs of care. Most people would pay lower contributions.

The Left wants a law setting how many staff health professions need and calls for at least 100,000 additional nurses in hospitals. Outsourcing used to cut wages would end. The platform sees cost pressure and staff shortages as causes of overload and poorer care.

The Left wants more nurses in hospitals. A law would set how many staff are needed. Former nurses should be won back. Everyone in one hospital should be paid under the same contract.

The Left wants to scrap flat-rate payments per case and have health insurers fully cover hospitals' necessary operating costs. Profits and losses would then hardly be possible. The party rejects the previous coalition's hospital reform because, in its view, it endangers small hospitals and keeps competition in place.

Hospitals today get fixed amounts per treatment. The Left wants to end that. Insurers would pay the necessary costs in full. Hospitals would no longer make profits. Private hospitals that are given up would go to the public.

The Left wants to promote municipal health centers that combine outpatient, inpatient, nursing and therapy services in one place. Psychotherapy services would be greatly expanded. The platform points to hard-to-reach practices, long waits and a lack of doctors in many regions.

The Left wants health centers run by towns and cities. Doctors, care and therapy would be in one place. There would be more places for psychotherapy. Investors should no longer profit from medical practices.

The Left wants to push back the influence of pharmaceutical companies, place drug research under public control and set prices uniformly across the EU. Research on neglected diseases such as ME/CFS and long COVID would get more funding. The platform points to fast-rising drug spending by health insurers.

Medicines are often very expensive. The Left wants the EU to set the same prices everywhere. The state should oversee research on medicines. There should be more money for research on long COVID.

The Left wants a system change in long-term care: corporations are to be pushed out of residential care and private homes transferred to public ownership. It also calls for 100,000 additional care workers in nursing homes and equal pay in elder care and hospital nursing.

The Left wants to change the care system. Private nursing homes should belong to the state or to towns. Big companies should no longer make money with nursing homes. 100,000 more care workers should work in the homes. Elder care should pay as well as hospital nursing.

The Left wants to introduce full-coverage long-term care insurance that pays all care costs, so that out-of-pocket contributions disappear in the long run. Costs for room and board in nursing homes are to be capped.

Today people in nursing homes pay a lot themselves. The Left wants to change that. A new care insurance should pay all costs of care. Room and food in the home should not get too expensive either.

The Left wants to ease the burden on people caring for relatives: six weeks of paid leave, cash benefits and pension credits. It also wants to expand day care and short-term care and to regulate so-called 24-hour care provided by foreign workers.

Many people care for family members themselves. The Left wants to help them more. When a family member first needs care, workers should get six weeks off. The employer keeps paying their wages. Caregivers should also get money and a higher pension.

The Left wants to stop punishing drug use and rely on prevention, counseling and support instead. Cannabis would be fully legalized. According to the platform, bans reduce neither trafficking nor use and themselves cause many problems.

The Left no longer wants to punish people for taking drugs. They should get help and advice instead. Cannabis should be fully legal. Ads for alcohol, tobacco and gambling should be banned.

The Left wants refugees to be allowed to work without restriction from their first day. They should live in apartments rather than group shelters and receive cash instead of in-kind benefits or payment cards. Municipalities should get more federal money for hosting them.

Refugees should be allowed to work right away. They should live in normal apartments. They should get money and not a payment card. The federal government should pay towns and cities for the costs.

The Left wants to dissolve the EU border agency Frontex and replace it with a civilian European sea rescue program. Pushbacks, meaning turning people away without a procedure, should stop. The party points to the thousands who die at Europe's borders each year.

Frontex is the EU's border agency. The Left wants to shut Frontex down. Instead, the EU should rescue people at sea. Nobody should simply be sent back at the border.

The Left rejects all previous tightening of asylum law and the Common European Asylum System (GEAS/CEAS). Every person seeking protection should get an individual procedure with legal remedies, including at the EU's external borders. There should be no fast-track procedures or detention of people seeking protection.

The Left is against stricter asylum rules. It also rejects the EU's new asylum system. Every person should get their own asylum procedure. Nobody should be locked up for seeking asylum.

The Left wants safe and legal routes into the EU and would lift the visa requirement for people seeking protection. Climate impacts, environmental damage and poverty should also count as reasons for flight. Immigration law should no longer be based on origin or economic usefulness.

People fleeing should be able to reach the EU safely and legally. They should not need a visa for that. Poverty and climate damage should also count as reasons to flee. Places that take in refugees should get EU money.

The Left wants to give everyone who lives in Germany long-term the right to vote at all levels. After five years in the country, people would have a legal claim to citizenship regardless of income. People without secure residence status should be able to stay.

People who live in Germany for a long time should be allowed to vote. After five years, everyone should be able to become German. That should not depend on money. Children born here should be German right away.

The Left rejects deportations, especially to countries marked by war, persecution and misery. Deportation should also not be used as an additional punishment for offenders.

The Left is against deportations. Nobody should have to go back to a country with war or hardship. Offenders should not be deported either. They should get their punishment in Germany.

The Left wants to turn the Entgelttransparenzgesetz (Pay Transparency Act) into an equal pay law that enforces equal pay for work of equal value. Pay gaps affecting women and workers with a migration background are to disappear.

Women often earn less than men. People with a migration background often earn less too. The Left wants to change this with a law. Work of equal value should get equal pay. Unions should be allowed to sue on behalf of those affected.

The Left wants election law to require that half of all list positions and seats go to women. In addition, new laws would be checked for their effects on gender equality.

The Left wants more women in parliaments. Half of the places on party lists should go to women. Half of the seats should also go to women. This should be written into election law.

The Left wants to remove abortion from the criminal code and treat it as a regular medical service. Counseling would be voluntary, and health insurers would pay for contraception.

Abortion is in the criminal law today. The Left wants to delete this rule. Counseling should be voluntary. Health insurance should pay for all birth control.

The Left wants to fully implement the Istanbul Convention on violence against women and fund women's shelters permanently. In sexual offense law, the principle "only yes means yes" would apply.

The Left wants to protect women better from violence. Women's shelters should get secure funding. Protection and counseling should be free. For sex, the rule should be: only yes means yes.

The Left wants to add sexual orientation and gender identity to the equality article of the Basic Law. It also wants improvements to the Self-Determination Act, a reform of parentage law and guaranteed health care.

The Left wants to protect queer people better. The constitution should name this protection. Families with two mothers or two fathers should get equal rights. Health insurance should pay for needed treatment.

The Left wants to strengthen the rights of Germany's four recognized minorities and write them into the constitution. They should be able to use their languages with government offices and in court.

Germany has four recognized minorities. The Left wants to write their rights into the constitution. They should be allowed to speak their language at government offices. This should also apply in court.

The Left wants a federal law to strengthen the participation of people with a migration background. A quota would bring their share in public administration in line with their share of the population. Quotas for disadvantaged groups would also apply in the private sector, politics, culture and the media.

The Left wants a new law for more participation. More people with a migration background should work in public offices. A quota should make sure of that. A quota is a fixed share. There should also be quotas in companies, politics and the media.

The Left wants to expand legal protection against racism. This includes reforming the Allgemeines Gleichbehandlungsgesetz (General Equal Treatment Act), banning racial profiling by police and adding a protection clause to the constitution. A separate federal ministry would be responsible for migration.

The Left wants more laws against racism. Police should not check people because of how they look. Checks without a reason should end. There should be a separate ministry for migration.

The Left wants full accessibility everywhere and would legally require private businesses to provide it too. Learning should be inclusive in all educational institutions. In the party's view, separate special structures for people with disabilities violate human dignity.

All places and services should be usable without barriers. That should also be a duty for private companies. Children with and without disabilities should learn together. Associations should be able to sue against discrimination.

The Left wants low-cost base rates for average use of electricity and heating energy, while higher use costs more. This is to be funded temporarily by a surcharge on the rich. Electricity and gas shutoffs are to be banned.

Power and heating should be cheap for normal use. People who use more pay more. Rich people should pay an extra tax for a while to fund this. Nobody should have their power or gas cut off.

The Left wants to pay every person 320 euros a year in Klimageld (climate dividend) directly, retroactive to the start of 2025. This is meant to offset the rising carbon price in a socially fair way.

Every person should get 320 euros of climate money per year. The state pays it out directly. It should make up for higher costs from the carbon price. People with little money should benefit most.

The Left wants to give the federal Climate and Transformation Fund 65 billion euros a year. It is to pay for storage technology, hydrogen, an industrial electricity price and aid for auto suppliers, among other things.

The federal government has a fund for climate protection. The Left wants to make it bigger. It should get 65 billion euros every year. The money is for storage, hydrogen and cheaper power for industry. Suppliers to the car industry should get help too.

The Left wants Germany to become climate neutral by 2040. To get there, binding targets and emission limits are to apply, and the sector targets in the Climate Protection Act are to be restored.

Germany should be climate neutral by 2040. That means the country no longer harms the climate. There should be fixed limits on emissions. Each area such as transport or buildings gets its own target again.

The Left wants to lower electricity prices by cutting the electricity tax to the EU minimum, restructuring grid fees and ending the system in which expensive fossil power plants set the price for the whole market. Income-based rates and a ban on power and gas cutoffs are added.

Electricity should become cheaper. The Left wants to cut the tax on electricity sharply. Expensive power plants should no longer set the price for all electricity. There should be cheap rates for normal use. Nobody should have their power or gas cut off.

The Left rejects the European emissions trading system for heating and transport (ETS-2). It is to be replaced by binding climate targets, emission limits, and funding and infrastructure programs.

In the EU, CO2 from heating and driving will soon get a market price. The Left does not want this. It wants fixed limits on emissions. The state should pay to support the changes.

The Left wants to make climate protection and adaptation to climate impacts a joint task of the federal government, states and municipalities, and to strengthen disaster protection. Countries of the Global South are to receive far more money for climate protection and climate damage.

The federal government, states and towns should work together on climate. They should prepare for floods, heat and drought. Disaster protection should get better. Poor countries should get much more money for climate protection.

The Left wants to transfer electricity, heating and gas grids into public ownership. The state and municipalities are to take a large part in expanding renewable energy, and heating networks are to be barred from making profits.

The grids for electricity, heat and gas should belong to the state or the towns. The state should build many wind and solar plants itself. Nobody should make a profit from heating networks. Energy should not belong to big corporations.

The Left wants a solar mandate for new buildings and for existing buildings after a major roof renovation. Municipalities are to receive a bonus for new wind and solar plants and higher mandatory payments from operators.

New buildings should get solar panels on the roof. This also applies to old buildings after a big roof renovation. Towns get money when wind turbines or solar plants are built there. This way local people benefit.

The Left wants to write the nuclear phase-out into the constitution and end the production of uranium fuel in Gronau and Lingen. Public money is to be pulled out of fossil and nuclear energy companies.

The Left wants no more nuclear power. This should be written into the constitution. The uranium fuel factories in Gronau and Lingen should close. The state should not invest money in nuclear, coal or gas companies.

The Left wants to complete the coal phase-out by 2030 and then phase out the burning of natural gas. A gas phase-out act is to set a binding path; electricity from natural gas is to end by 2035.

Germany should stop burning coal by 2030. After that, natural gas should end too. There should be a law with a fixed plan for this. By 2035, no electricity should come from natural gas. Affected workers should be protected.

The Left wants no new permanent infrastructure for natural gas and liquefied gas, a fracking ban and an import ban on fracked liquefied gas. It rejects underground CO2 storage as a climate solution, and hydrogen is to be used only where it is indispensable.

No new permanent facilities should be built for natural gas. Fracking should be banned. Fracking is a risky way to get gas out of the ground. Gas from fracking should not come into the country. CO2 should not be stored underground. Hydrogen should only be used where nothing else works.

The Left calls for 25 billion euros a year for energy-saving renovations and replacing heating systems. Subsidies are to be scaled by income so that low- and middle-income households face no extra burden.

The state should give 25 billion euros every year for renovations and new heating. People with low incomes get their new heating fully paid. People with middle incomes get part of it. Very rich people pay for it themselves.

The Left wants to rebuild cities in response to global warming and make climate adaptation and disaster protection a standard public task. The platform points to heat and water shortages, which especially affect children, older people and outdoor workers.

Summers are getting hotter. That is dangerous for health. So the Left wants to rebuild cities. There should be more parks, gardens and drinking fountains.

The Left wants to ban throwing away edible food. By 2030, the amount of food waste is to be cut in half.

The Left wants to ban throwing good food in the trash. Stores should donate the food or give it away. By 2030 there should be only half as much food waste.

The Left wants a resource protection act and to rule out mining in protected areas and the deep sea. Local people are to share in mining projects and be able to reject them. A stricter supply chain law is meant to prevent exploitation in the Global South.

The Left wants a law to protect raw materials. There should be no mining in protected areas or the deep sea. Local people should be allowed to say no. Companies should be liable if their suppliers harm people or nature.

The Left wants to make products longer-lasting and repairable, recycle more and cut waste. Single-use packaging is to be largely banned, waste exports from the EU prohibited and waste disposal returned to public ownership.

Products should last longer and be repairable. There should be more recycling and less waste. Much single-use packaging should be banned. Waste should no longer leave the EU for other countries. Waste collection should be public again.

The Left wants to spend twice as much on nature-based climate protection, expand protected areas and restore damaged ecosystems. Nature would get rights of its own, water would stay in public hands, and the oceans would be better protected.

The Left wants twice as much money to protect nature. More land should be wilderness. People should be able to go to court on behalf of nature. Water should belong to everyone. The oceans should be better protected.

The Left wants to overhaul the Animal Welfare Act, enforce it more strictly and add tougher penalties. The party sees animals as sentient beings whose protection should take priority over profit. A phaseout of animal testing and several bans are also planned.

Animals should be better protected. People who abuse animals should be punished harder. One federal official should focus only on animal welfare. Animal testing should end step by step. Fur and wild animals in circuses should be banned.

The Left wants to curb the market power of slaughterhouse, dairy and retail corporations and build up regional processing and marketing. Minimum producer prices, tougher antitrust law and a farm structure law against land speculation are meant to secure farmers a decent income.

Farmers often earn too little. Big companies have a lot of power. The Left wants minimum prices for farmers. Farmland should not go to investors. More food should come from the region.

The Left wants to cut pesticide use at least in half by 2030 and ban glyphosate and neonicotinoids. Genetically modified crops should not be grown, and patents on life would be prohibited.

Farmers should use far fewer pesticides. Some, like glyphosate, should be banned. Plants with altered genes should not be grown. No one should get a patent on living things.

The Left wants to link the number of farm animals to a farm's land area and thereby reduce livestock numbers in Germany. The transition should be socially fair and serve animal welfare, climate and environment; less over-fertilization is meant to relieve water bodies.

A farm should keep only as many animals as its land can support. Then Germany has fewer farm animals. Animals should live better. Long animal transports should be banned. Very large meat plants should close.

The Left wants to ensure healthy, affordable food for all. Staple foods and plant-based substitutes would be exempt from VAT, with checks to make sure shoppers get the savings. Also planned are a state label, advertising bans for unhealthy food, and decriminalizing dumpster diving.

Basic foods should be sold without VAT. That makes food cheaper. A state label should show how good a food product is. Ads for unhealthy food should be banned. Taking food from store trash bins should no longer be a crime.

The Left wants to redesign the vehicle tax so that large and heavy vehicles cost considerably more. The program sees no need for ordinary passenger cars weighing over two tons.

The Left wants to change the tax on cars. Large and heavy cars should be taxed much more. The party says normal cars do not need to weigh more than two tons.

The Left wants to set up a transport infrastructure fund covering all modes of transport, modeled on Switzerland. Investment would no longer depend on the annual federal budget and would be reliable over the long term.

The Left wants a fixed pot of money for roads, rail and waterways. Switzerland is the model. The money is set for several years. That makes planning easier.

The Left wants to bring back the 9-euro ticket immediately and introduce a 0-euro ticket for schoolchildren, apprentices, students and seniors. In the long run, local public transit should be free nationwide. The platform points out that the 9-euro ticket reduced car trips.

The Left wants the 9-euro ticket back. Schoolchildren, apprentices, students and older people pay nothing. Later, buses and trains should be free for all. The commuter tax break becomes a mobility payment.

The Left wants a right to sustainable mobility: every locality should be served by bus or rail at least once an hour during the day. Privatized local transit companies would return to public ownership because, in the party's view, transit must not be left to the market.

Every town should have a bus or train each hour. Something should run at night too. Private bus and rail firms should belong to the public again. Drivers should get better pay.

The Left wants to keep the EU-wide end of new combustion-engine car sales and backs electric cars. It sees e-fuels and biofuels as unrealistic for private cars because they are scarce, expensive and inefficient.

New gas and diesel cars should end as planned. The Left backs electric cars. It thinks synthetic fuels are too costly and too scarce. Some groups should get help buying an electric car.

The Left calls for a speed limit of 120 km/h on autobahns and 30 km/h in built-up areas, except on main traffic arteries. It cites the protection of people and the climate.

The top speed on autobahns should be 120 km/h. In towns it should be 30 km/h. Big main roads are exempt. This is meant to protect people and the climate.

The Left wants Deutsche Bahn run as a public-interest, integrated company rather than a profit-driven stock corporation. The network would be repaired, electrified and expanded; in return, no new or wider autobahns would be built. Train travel should also get cheaper.

The railway should serve people and not have to make a profit. Tracks should be repaired and new ones built. In return, no new autobahns get built. Train tickets should cost less.

The Left wants to ban flights shorter than 500 kilometers or five hours by train, as well as private jets. Aviation would be taxed more heavily, including through an EU-wide kerosene tax and a frequent flyer tax. The party speaks of a race to the bottom in aviation and of climate-damaging luxury.

Short flights should be banned. Private jets and very large yachts should be banned too. People who fly often pay an extra tax. Jet fuel should be taxed across the EU.

The Left wants less freight moved by truck and more by rail and inland shipping. It points to dilapidated bridges not designed for today's truck volumes. Ports should stay in public hands and get more federal funding.

Fewer trucks should carry goods. More goods should go by train and ship. Ports should not be sold to private firms. Truck drivers should get good rest stops.

The Left wants car-free city centers, with exceptions such as deliveries and people with special needs. Walking and cycling should be safe everywhere, and a bicycle network should cover the whole country.

The Left wants city centers without cars. There are exceptions, for example for deliveries. There should be more safe paths for bikes and walkers. Everyday shops should be a 15-minute walk away.

The Left supports an ECB-issued digital euro as a supplement to cash and as a public alternative to the payment services of big tech companies. For small amounts, there would be a legal right to pay anonymously. According to the platform, money and currency should remain in public hands.

The Left supports a digital euro. This is central bank money in digital form. Cash should stay. People should be able to pay small amounts anonymously. Anonymous means nobody sees who paid.

The Left wants to raise the legal entitlement to internet access to 100 Mbit/s and cap prices. Fiber rollout would be municipal and non-profit, with a single network for all providers. This is meant to include people in rural areas and those with little money.

Everyone should have a right to fast internet. Prices should have an upper limit. There should be only one network that all companies use. Public offices should help with online forms.

The Left wants software, data and research paid for with tax money to be open to everyone. Public administrations would use almost only open-source software. The party says this would reduce dependence on big tech companies and their license fees.

What the state pays for should belong to everyone. Public offices should use open software. Anyone can look at open software and reuse it. Data from public offices should be free for all.

The Left rejects Staatstrojaner, meaning government spyware on private devices, and the scanning of chats. Security vulnerabilities should always be closed and not kept open for surveillance. The party argues that such gaps also help criminals.

The state should not use spy software on phones and computers. It should not read private chats. Security gaps in software should always be closed. Otherwise criminals can use them too.

The Left wants to break the power of big tech companies, by breaking them up if necessary. Personalized online advertising would be banned. As an alternative, the party wants to support public and cooperative platforms.

Very large internet companies should be split up. Ads tailored to individual people should be banned. The state should support public and shared platforms. Gains from new technology should be shared fairly.

The Left wants to abolish the domestic intelligence service (Verfassungsschutz) and replace it with an independent monitoring office. As a first step, the system of paid informants would be exposed and ended.

The Verfassungsschutz is a secret service inside Germany. The Left wants to abolish it. An independent office should replace it. First, the secret informants should go.

The Left rejects data retention, state spyware and blanket video surveillance and wants to ban biometric surveillance and chat scanning. In its view, more surveillance and tougher criminal laws do not bring more security.

The Left wants less surveillance. The state should not store data just in case. Cameras should not be allowed to recognize faces. The state should not check private chats.

The Left demands that police officers be individually identifiable and rejects equipping police with military weapons, tasers and rubber bullets. At the same time, police training and working conditions are to improve.

Every police officer should wear an ID mark. Then people can identify the officer. Police should not use tasers or rubber bullets. Pepper spray should be banned at demonstrations.

The Left wants to lower the voting age to 16 and create youth bodies with voting rights in municipalities. Children's rights would be written into the Basic Law. The platform argues that young people must be involved in decisions about their future.

The Left wants people to vote from age 16. Towns and cities would have youth parliaments. Children's rights would be in the constitution. Leisure activities for children would be free.

The Left wants a guarantee of basic services in every locality: bus service, a bakery, access to cash, a doctor's office and meeting places. The platform argues that the market does not provide this, so privatization and cuts should end.

The Left wants a guarantee for every town. Every place should have a bus, a bakery, a doctor and places to meet. People should be able to get cash everywhere. Towns should get enough money for this.

The Left wants to introduce federal referendums and popular vetoes, lower the voting age to 16 everywhere, and let people without a German passport vote after five years of residence. The right to demonstrate should not be curtailed.

The Left wants popular votes for all of Germany. People should be allowed to vote at 16. People without a German passport should also be allowed to vote. They must have lived here for five years.

The Left wants to ban corporate donations to parties and party sponsorship and cap private donations at 25,000 euros a year. More transparency is meant to make lobbyists' influence on laws and lawmakers visible.

Companies should no longer give money to parties. One person may give at most 25,000 euros a year. Lawmakers should not accept donations. People should see who helped write laws.

The Left wants an institutional separation of state and religion and an end to preferential treatment of Christian churches. Churches would collect their own tax, state payments to them would be ended by settlement, and the churches' special labor law abolished.

The Left wants to separate church and state more. Churches should collect their money themselves. The state should treat all religions the same. Two new holidays should come: Eid al-Fitr and Yom Kippur.

The Left wants to ban militant neo-Nazi organizations and have the Federal Constitutional Court examine a ban of the AfD. Initiatives against right-wing extremism would get permanent funding through a democracy promotion law.

The Left wants to ban armed neo-Nazi groups. The highest court should examine a ban of the AfD. Groups against right-wing extremism should get lasting funding. May 8 should become a public holiday.

The Left wants to place the European Central Bank under the oversight of the European Parliament and expand its mandate to include full employment and sustainable development. In the platform's view, the ECB failed in recent crises because rate hikes did not stop inflation and slowed investment.

The ECB is the central bank for the euro. The Left wants the European Parliament to oversee it. The Parliament would elect the ECB's leaders. The ECB should also care about jobs. It should be allowed to give money directly to states.

The Left wants a more social EU and large-scale public investment, for which European deficit and debt rules would be changed. In the long run it seeks new EU treaties because, in its view, the current ones limit fundamental reform.

The EU has strict rules on debt. The Left wants to loosen these rules. Then countries can put more money into education, health and climate protection. The Left also wants new treaties for the EU. The EU should become more social.

The Left wants to give the European Parliament the right to propose legislation itself and to hand it the fundamental decisions. It also wants citizens' initiatives and referendums to be possible at EU level.

Today the EU Parliament cannot propose its own laws. The Left wants to change that. Parliament should decide the important matters. People in the EU should also be able to vote on issues themselves.

The Left opposes further rearmament of the EU and the militarization of its external borders. The border agency Frontex would become a rescue mission, and the party rejects deals designed to keep refugees out.

The Left wants no further arms buildup in the EU. The EU's borders should not be secured by military means. Today Frontex guards the EU's borders. The Left wants Frontex to rescue people in distress instead.

The Left condemns Russia's attack on Ukraine and calls for a change of strategy: diplomatic initiatives for a ceasefire in place of further arms deliveries. Targeted sanctions against the Russian leadership and arms industry are meant to increase pressure.

The Left says Russia was wrong to attack Ukraine. Russia should pull out its soldiers. But Germany should stop sending weapons. It should start peace talks together with other countries. Sanctions should hit the powerful in Russia, not ordinary people.

The Left welcomes the end of Assad's rule and calls for democratic elections and guaranteed basic rights in Syria. Autonomy for the Kurdish areas is to be secured, Turkish attacks are to stop, and German arms exports to Turkey are to end.

Assad's government in Syria is over. The Left wants free elections there. The Kurds in the north should keep governing themselves. Turkey should not attack them. Germany should stop selling weapons to Turkey.

The Left considers NATO unsuited to providing security in Europe and wants to build a cooperative security order modeled on the CSCE instead. It would include every country on the continent and make NATO unnecessary.

The Left sees NATO as a purely military alliance. It wants a new security order for Europe. All European countries should take part. Then NATO is no longer needed, the party says.

The Left wants to cut military spending sharply, abandon NATO's two-percent target and use the Bundeswehr special fund for civilian infrastructure. It rejects the planned stationing of US intermediate-range missiles in Germany, arguing that this heightens confrontation with Russia.

The Left wants to spend much less money on the military. The money should go to schools, health and social programs. The US wants to put new missiles in Germany. The Left is against that. Europe should disarm, meaning reduce its weapons.

The Left wants to end all Bundeswehr deployments abroad. The armed forces would become a purely defensive army that is structurally incapable of attack.

German soldiers are deployed in other countries. The Left wants to bring them all home. The Bundeswehr should only defend its own country. It should not be able to attack.

The Left wants to end nuclear sharing, Germany's participation in the deployment concept for US nuclear weapons stored in Germany. These weapons are to be withdrawn, and Germany is to join the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

US nuclear weapons are stored in Germany. The Left wants them removed. Germany should sign a UN treaty. This treaty bans nuclear weapons. In the end, Europe should have no nuclear weapons at all.

The Left calls for an immediate ceasefire and a peace process in Israel and Palestine. Germany should stop delivering weapons to Israel, recognize Palestine as a state and enforce the International Criminal Court's arrest warrants.

The Left wants the fighting in Israel and Palestine to stop at once. Germany should send no more weapons to Israel. Germany should recognize Palestine as a state. Neighboring countries should recognize Israel as a state.

The Left wants to prohibit the export of military goods without exception. Arms companies would be transferred into common ownership and converted to civilian production.

German companies sell weapons abroad. The Left wants to ban that completely. Arms companies should belong to the public. They should make other, useful things. The jobs should stay.

The Left opposes a return to conscription and wants to stop Bundeswehr recruiting at schools, universities and education fairs. It is taking a stand against what it calls the militarization of society.

The Left does not want a military draft. No one should be forced to serve in the Bundeswehr. The Bundeswehr should not recruit young people at schools and universities. It should not send recruiting letters either.

The Left wants to reverse the cuts to development policy and humanitarian aid and permanently provide at least 0.7 percent of economic output for it. It also calls for debt relief for countries of the Global South, more climate aid and a worldwide billionaire tax.

The Left wants to help poor countries more. Germany should give a fixed share of its money for this. Poor countries should not have to repay part of their debts. Very rich people should pay a tax worldwide. Poor countries should also get more money for climate protection.

The Left wants to keep the broad range of public broadcasting while making its finances transparent. Media mergers would be scrutinized more strictly and journalists better protected. The party sees public broadcasting as a counterweight to the power of private platforms.

Public broadcasters should keep their full range of programs. They should show what they spend money on. Big media companies should not merge so easily. Journalists should be better protected.

The Left wants to make cultural funding a mandatory government task so that access to culture does not depend on income. Freelance artists would get binding minimum fees. States and municipalities would receive enough money to do this.

The state should have to support art and culture. Culture should be for everyone, including people with little money. Freelance artists should get a fixed minimum fee. Cities should have enough money for this.

The Left wants to write sport into the constitution as a state goal and fund it as a public task. The federal government would contribute one billion euros a year for 15 years to sports facilities and swimming pools. The party says access to sport should not depend on income.

Sport should be written into the constitution. The federal government should pay for gyms, sports fields and swimming pools. That means one billion euros a year for 15 years. All children should learn to swim.

The Left wants to protect consumers better against corporations. Plans include a public body in place of the credit agency Schufa, free debt counseling and a ban on commission-based sales of financial products. Advertising for especially climate-damaging products would be banned.

The Left wants to protect customers better. A public body should replace Schufa. Schufa rates whether people can pay back debts. Debt advice should be free. Everyone should get a free bank account.