Linke: program for the 2026 Saxony-Anhalt state election

The Left wants to set up an economic fund that supports companies in restructuring through long-term loans or in exchange for equity stakes. The money would be tied to collective bargaining coverage, location guarantees, and public-interest production. The platform aims to replace subsidies with investments and pursue an active industrial policy.

The Left wants to create a fund for the economy. The fund gives companies loans or buys a share in them. In return, companies must pay union-agreed wages and stay in the region. Workers should be allowed to take over companies in crisis.

The Left wants to support industry's shift to climate-neutral production with a state program. Small and medium-sized companies would get grants and interest-free loans. The transition is to be steered democratically and backed by social protections.

The Left wants a funding program for industry. Small and mid-sized companies get money for climate protection. They also get loans without interest. No one should lose their job in the change without help.

The Left wants to shift Saxony-Anhalt's auto industry, with about 30,000 workers, toward sustainable production. Companies would get support for investment and innovation, and key suppliers would get a rescue fund.

About 30,000 people work in the car industry in the state. The Left wants to help these companies change. They should make more for electric cars and rail. Important supplier companies should get help in a crisis.

The Left wants to support the chemical and basic materials industry in moving to climate-neutral processes. Energy and CO₂ costs would be lowered during the transition, subject to conditions. A statewide hydrogen network would be built, in public ownership if needed.

The chemical industry is very important for Saxony-Anhalt. The Left wants to help it change. Energy should cost these companies less during that time. In return, they must protect jobs and sites. The state should build a hydrogen network.

The Left wants to support the skilled trades with a state program called "Handwerk 2035." Master craftsman training would become free, and public contracts would go to local businesses. The platform sees the trades as key to the social and ecological transition.

The Left wants a program to support skilled trade businesses. Training to become a master craftsman should be free. Students should do required internships. The state should give contracts to businesses from the region.

The Left wants to support engineering companies that switch to new products such as battery storage or heat pumps. Investment in modern manufacturing would be subsidized directly, and supply chains secured regionally and within Europe.

Machine building has a long history in the state. The Left wants to support companies that make new things. For example, battery storage or heat pumps. Important parts should come from the region or from Europe.

The Left wants to use state funds to make tourism and hospitality more resilient. Plans include a program for heat and flood protection, investment aid for restaurants, and tying subsidies to local providers and social standards.

The Left wants to support tourism and restaurants. A program should protect against heat and floods. Restaurants get money for new equipment and energy-saving technology. Buses and trains should reach tourist places more easily.

The Left wants to improve working conditions at universities and cut back on fixed-term contracts. People doing permanent tasks are to get permanent positions. It supports a separate collective agreement for student employees.

The Left wants better jobs at universities. Many contracts there only run for a short time. Permanent tasks should come with permanent jobs. Students who work at the university should get a union contract.

The Left stands for basic income support without sanctions, a minimum pension of 1,400 euros, and a low-bureaucracy Kindergrundsicherung (basic child benefit). In the state, it wants to treat poverty preventively and over the long term as a task for all policy areas, because Saxony-Anhalt's poverty rate is above the national average.

The Left wants to end poverty in Saxony-Anhalt. Basic income support should be enough to live on. There should be no more penalties. Pensions should be at least 1,400 euros. Children should get their own basic benefit.

The Left wants to deploy mobile advisers who help people apply for social and family benefits. The platform argues that existing support is often unknown and hard to access.

Many people do not know what help the state offers. Applications are often hard. The Left wants to introduce bureaucracy guides. These are advisers who come to the people. They help fill out the forms.

The Left wants a cross-departmental state action plan against poverty and ongoing social reporting. According to the platform, there has been no clear picture of social conditions for years, and past measures were spread around without planning.

The Left wants a plan against poverty in the state. The state should collect data on social conditions regularly. That way people can see which help works. Poor children should get better chances where they live.

The Left wants to change the rules for full-time work so that a four-day week applies without a pay cut. This is meant to relieve families and keep parents from losing income by going part-time.

The Left wants a four-day week. Full-time would then mean four working days. Pay should stay the same. That gives parents more time for the family.

The Left calls for a state framework agreement for facilities that care for people with intellectual disabilities. It should cover real costs, cut administrative work and leave more time for those in care.

Some facilities care for people with intellectual disabilities. The Left wants a contract with the state for them. The contract should pay all real costs. Caregivers should have more time for the people.

The Left wants a law guaranteeing older people in Saxony-Anhalt rights to participate in decisions. The state's seniors policy program is to become a binding strategy. Mobile guides are to help older people with applications, and services against social isolation are to grow.

Older people should have more of a say. The Left wants a special law for this. Helpers should assist retirees with applications and forms. They also come to villages. There should be more meeting places against loneliness.

The Left wants to push at the federal level for a Kindergrundsicherung (basic child benefit) that protects against poverty and involves no sanctions. Until it takes effect, a state-level top-up would close the gap to the level of need recommended by experts. In addition, a basic package for children would become standard so that costs exclude no one.

The Left wants a basic child benefit from the federal government. This is money meant to protect children from poverty. Until it exists, the state should pay money itself. Children should reliably get lunch, trips and supplies. A device and internet are part of it too. This should apply to all children, including refugees.

In the long term, the Left aims for a 35-hour week with no loss of pay and six weeks of vacation for all employees. It also calls for a right to full-time work, a right to return from part-time, and stronger occupational safety. According to the platform, work should provide security and prospects.

In the long run, the Left wants a 35-hour work week. Pay should stay the same. All workers should get six weeks of vacation. Part-time workers should be allowed to go back to full-time. There should be no exceptions to the minimum wage.

The Left wants to make collective bargaining coverage the norm again. A minimum wage of €16.50 would apply to public contracts and rise with inflation and collectively agreed wages. A training levy would make companies that do not train apprentices share in the costs.

The Left wants more companies to pay union-agreed wages. For government contracts, a minimum wage of €16.50 should apply. Companies without apprentices should help pay for training. Apprentices should get at least 80 percent of the union-agreed apprentice pay.

The Left wants to give works councils a say in decisions on investments, locations, and digitalization. Regional economic and transformation councils would democratically plan the restructuring of the economy. The platform argues that employees bear the consequences of closures and relocations.

The Left wants workers to have more of a say. Works councils should help decide on investments and locations. Anyone who obstructs works councils should be punished hard. New regional councils should help plan the economy.

The Left wants to ban decisions on subsistence benefits from being made by algorithms alone. It argues that AI systems risk perpetuating existing inequalities and that people without digital access could be shut out.

Some people need money from the state to live. The Left wants a human to always decide on this, not a computer alone. The party fears that computer programs treat people unfairly. There should still be offices that people can visit.

The Left wants to raise the federal pension level to 53 percent and create a statutory pension system that everyone pays into. A justice fund would make regular compensation payments to former East German workers. The platform says about 60 percent of pensions in the state were below the poverty line in 2024.

The Left wants higher pensions. The pension level should rise to 53 percent. Everyone should pay into the same pension system. People who worked in East Germany should get compensation payments.

The Left wants to launch a Bundesrat initiative to bring back the wealth tax and to reform the inheritance and gift tax. Large fortunes are to contribute more to funding public tasks. The party aims to reduce inequality and raise money for municipalities and social infrastructure.

The Left wants a tax on large fortunes. People who own more than one million euros should pay one percent in tax. Large inheritances should also be taxed more. The money should help towns, cities and social services.

The Left wants to develop the Gewerbesteuer (local trade tax) into a municipal business tax that covers all income from self-employment. A uniform allowance of 24,500 euros is meant to protect small businesses. The party aims to strengthen municipal revenue and treat different forms of work equally.

Businesses today pay a trade tax to their town. Some self-employed people do not pay this tax. The Left wants to change that. All self-employed people should pay the new tax. Nobody should pay on the first 24,500 euros. This way, towns should get more money.

The Left wants to reshape the state's investment bank so that capital is steered democratically and directed into sustainable future projects. A regional investment fund is to give local actors a stake in the economy. The party considers investment in education, social infrastructure and climate protection worthwhile even when financed by borrowing.

The Left wants to change the state's investment bank. Citizens, towns and businesses should decide together about the money. A new fund should give local people a share in companies. The state should also be allowed to take on debt. The party wants to use the money for education, social services and climate protection.

The Left wants a state program for investment in climate protection, education, health care, and social participation. It accepts higher debt in the short term, which the party says will be offset later by tax changes and a stronger domestic economy.

The Left wants a big investment program. The money should go to schools, health care, and climate protection. The state would take on more debt at first. The party says this will balance out later.

The Left rejects any sale of public property without exception and wants to bring key infrastructure back under municipal ownership. It rules out cuts to social and environmental spending as well as job cuts in the public sector.

The Left does not want to sell public property. Important facilities should belong to towns and cities again. The party does not want to cut social or environmental spending. No public service jobs should be lost.

The Left wants to replace the large number of separate grant programs with a lump-sum allocation to municipalities. Municipalities are to decide for themselves how to use the money because, in the party's view, they know best what is needed locally.

Today towns must file separate applications for many projects. The Left wants to change that. Towns should get a fixed amount of money. They then decide themselves how to use it. Poor towns should get more.

The Left wants to redistribute money in favor of towns and cities and adapt the municipal fiscal equalization system to their tasks. The federal government and the state are to pay in full for tasks they hand down to municipalities.

The Left wants towns and cities to get more money. The federal government and the state give towns many tasks. They should then pay for these tasks in full. The money from the state should grow along with costs.

The Left calls for a debt cut for municipalities at the federal level. It says the old debts arose because municipalities had to carry out mandatory tasks without enough money; the party sees the responsibility with the federal government and the states.

Many towns have old debts. The Left wants the federal government to cancel these debts. The Left says the towns are not to blame for them. Without the debts, towns can build and repair more again.

The Left wants to fund the conversion of homes to suit older people so that they can live independently. It also calls for simpler housing benefit applications, home swaps and assisted living options in rural areas.

Older people often need homes without obstacles. The Left wants to give money for remodeling. Applying for housing benefit should be easier. Older people should be able to swap their home for a smaller one. There should be more assisted living in rural areas.

The Left wants to designate tight housing markets by state ordinance so that a Mietpreisbremse (rent brake) can apply in the cities. At the same time, non-profit housing providers are to be strengthened because, in the party's view, housing must be affordable, safe and as accessible as possible.

The Left wants rents in the cities to rise less. For this, the state should make a rent brake possible. This is a rule that limits rents in new leases. Landlords who do not aim for profit should get more help.

The Left wants state housing subsidies to go exclusively to social rental housing whose rent and occupancy restrictions never expire. Home ownership would no longer be subsidized. The platform argues that such restrictions have almost entirely lapsed in the state and that prices have risen as a result.

The Left wants to spend housing subsidies only on social housing. These homes should stay cheap forever. There should be no more subsidies for buying a home. Nobody should lose their home through eviction.

The Left wants to make applying for Wohngeld (housing benefit) much simpler and set a six-week deadline for decisions. Tenants would also bear fewer costs: the modernization surcharge would be abolished and property tax could no longer be passed on to them. According to the platform, only about a third of those eligible currently receive the benefit.

The Left wants to make it easier to apply for housing benefit. The office should decide within six weeks. Tenants should no longer pay for building upgrades. Tenants should also no longer pay the property tax. A fund should pay heating costs for poor tenants.

The Left wants to set up a state-owned housing construction company. It would complement cooperatives and municipal housing companies and create homes that stay permanently under social housing restrictions.

The Left wants the state to start its own housing company. It should build cheap homes. These homes should stay social housing for good. The company should work together with cooperatives and cities.

The Left wants to add considerably more state money to the federal "Junges Wohnen" (housing for young people) program so that apprentices also get dorm places. The platform notes that fewer than ten percent of students get a place and that no new dorm rooms have been built since 2013.

The Left wants more dorms for students and apprentices. The state should give much more money for this. The rooms should stay reserved for young people for good. The platform says there are too few places today.

The Left wants to fund a new urban redevelopment program through 2035 to reduce vacancies and upgrade existing buildings. It favors reuse, moderate densification, and climate-neutral construction, and rejects new building on undeveloped land at the edge of towns. A law would penalize the misuse of housing for other purposes.

The Left wants a new program to rebuild cities through 2035. Empty buildings should be used again or torn down. Old apartment blocks should become nicer. People who misuse homes should be punished. Misuse means a home is not used for living.

The Left wants to guarantee single parents 24 months of Elterngeld (parental allowance) and to grant the Unterhaltsvorschuss (state advance on child support) unconditionally to everyone who needs it. It cites the high poverty risk of single-parent families, most of which are headed by women.

The Left wants to help single parents more. They should get parental allowance for 24 months. Everyone who needs the child support advance should get it. This is money from the state when the other parent does not pay. The party says single parents are poor especially often.

The Left wants to abolish parental fees for daycare and give every child an unrestricted entitlement to ten hours of care per day. A free lunch in daycare centers and family daycare is to be added.

The Left wants parents to pay nothing for daycare anymore. Every child should have a right to 10 hours of care a day. Lunch should be free for all children. The state should cover the costs.

The Left wants more staff per child in nurseries and kindergartens and a new funding system for daycare. Planning and funding are to rest with the counties and independent cities, and the municipalities' share is to be dropped.

The Left wants more staff in daycare centers. In nurseries one staff member should care for 3 children. In kindergarten it should be 7.5 children. Municipalities should no longer pay a share. The state should cover the extra costs.

The Left calls for a Kindergrundsicherung (basic child benefit) of at least 630 euros a month for every child, without sanctions and as a stand-alone benefit. According to the platform, family planning should not depend on income.

Every child should get money from the state. The Left wants at least 630 euros a month. No one should be allowed to cut this money. Applying should be easy.

The Left wants parents to be able to apply for Elterngeld (parental allowance) with the midwife's birth confirmation, and wants foster parents treated equally for this benefit. It also calls for uniform grants for foster families and a round table for single parents.

Parents should be able to apply for parental allowance faster. The midwife's certificate should be enough. Foster parents should also get parental allowance. Single parents should have a say in politics.

The Left wants better staffing at youth welfare offices, ombuds offices in every county and statewide minimum standards for youth services planning. The aim is to protect children better and let them grow up under comparable conditions everywhere.

The Left wants to protect children better. Youth welfare offices should get more staff. Every county should have an ombuds office. Families get help there in disputes with the office. The same rules for youth services should apply across the state.

The Left wants help for children and families to arrive early and reliably. It proposes an easily reachable first point of contact, fixed deadlines and binding handovers between youth services, the public health service, schools and family courts. In cases of domestic violence, protecting the child would come first.

The Left wants to protect children better. Families should get help fast. There should be one place that is easy to reach. Offices, schools and courts should work together better. Children should get medical care even without health insurance.

The Left wants to anchor child and youth work, with minimum standards, as a legal entitlement in the state's child and youth services law. State funding would rise and grow automatically each year. Staff would be paid according to public-sector pay scales, because the platform sees their situation as often insecure.

The Left wants to secure youth work by law. All young people should have a right to it. The state should give more money for it. The money should go up every year. Staff should be paid better and have secure jobs.

The Left wants to secure youth clubs and other open meeting places with fixed opening hours and stable staffing. Vacant buildings would be turned into youth spaces together with young people. School camps and vacation programs would be open to everyone regardless of how much money a family has.

The Left wants more places for young people. Youth clubs should be open in the evenings and during school breaks too. Empty buildings should become meeting places. Vacation trips should not depend on parents' money. Nobody should have to show an ID.

The Left wants to disclose each year which services exist for children and where the gaps are. A children's rights budget would show in the state budget which funds improve participation. Binding prevention chains would settle responsibilities and deadlines so that families are not sent from office to office.

The Left wants a report every year on services for children. The report should show where something is missing. The budget should show which money helps children. Money should go where the need is greatest. Offices should have clear duties and deadlines.

The Left wants to provide considerably more money for civic education. Every young person should be able to visit a memorial site of the Nazi dictatorship at least once during their school years. The program justifies this in part by the growing importance of dealing with right-wing extremism and antisemitism.

The Left wants to spend more money on civic education. There, people learn how democracy works. Every young person should be able to visit a memorial site once. A memorial site reminds people of the crimes of the Nazi era. There should be more programs in rural areas and online.

The Left wants teams made up of different professions in all daycare centers and schools. They are meant to support children and families early on and make joint teaching of children with and without special needs possible.

The Left wants teams from many professions in daycare centers and schools. These include teachers, childcare workers, social workers and psychologists. The teams should support children and families early. This way all children can learn together.

The Left wants to anchor and expand social work in daycare centers and schools permanently by law. Instead of time-limited projects paid from EU funds, a state program is to carry the financing.

The Left wants social work in daycare centers and schools to be permanent. So far there are only projects for a limited time. In the future the state should pay for it for good. There should be one social work job for every 150 students.

The Left wants to give all children and young people fast internet and digital devices in daycare and school. They are to learn to use media, algorithms and artificial intelligence critically and independently.

The Left wants fast internet in daycare centers and schools. All children should be able to use digital devices there. They should learn how media and computer programs work. Artificial intelligence should help with learning but not replace thinking for yourself.

The Left wants all children with and without disabilities to be able to learn together in regular schools. Truancy is no longer to be punished with fines or youth detention, and grades for behavior are to be dropped.

The Left wants all children to learn together in regular schools. There should be more trained staff for this. Students who skip school should not get fines or detention. They should get help instead. The Left wants to end grades for behavior.

The Left wants longer joint learning and to make the Gemeinschaftsschule (comprehensive community school) the second pillar next to the Gymnasium. This includes ten years of compulsory full-time schooling and an end to school-track recommendations.

The Left wants children to learn together for longer. Later there should be only community schools and Gymnasium schools. This should happen voluntarily. Everyone should go to school for 10 years. Parents get advice but no longer a recommendation for a school type.

The Left wants to make vocational training more attractive: all training programs are to be free of charge, and necessary technology such as laptops or software is to be provided. Vocational schools are to be modernized through a state program.

The Left wants to improve vocational training. Every training program should be free. Trainees should get laptops and software at no cost. The state should help with travel and housing costs. Trainees should get a few days off before exams.

The Left wants after-school care centers (Horte) to be governed by the school law again while keeping the variety of providers. All-day offerings are to grow as needed at all general secondary schools.

The Left wants after-school care centers back in the school law. These centers look after primary school children after class. The different providers should stay. Secondary schools should also get more all-day offerings.

The Left wants to abolish minimum enrollment numbers for first-year classes at public schools so that locations are not closed because of fluctuating numbers. A state school construction program and higher transfers to municipalities are to make building and renovation possible.

The Left wants to protect schools from closing. There should no longer be a minimum number of students for new classes. School authorities should decide on locations themselves. The state should help with building and renovating schools.

The Left wants to give students more of a say and allow schools to make more of their own decisions. In the program's view, schools should be places where democracy is practiced.

The Left wants students to have more say at school. Schools should be allowed to decide more on their own. This covers money, organization and teaching. Schools should get their own budget.

The Left wants to address the teacher shortage with fixed staffing ratios in the school law, restructured teacher training and more university places. Teachers are to be relieved and career changers better supported.

The Left wants to get more teachers for schools. The school law should say how many staff each school gets. Training should follow the age of students, not the type of school. Magdeburg should get 200 new university places. Teachers should have less paperwork.

The Left wants to strengthen adult education centers, educational associations, and other adult education providers and fund their programs reliably with state money. The platform treats education for older people as a distinct part of lifelong learning.

The Left wants to strengthen education for adults. This includes adult education centers. The state should pay for these programs in the long run. Older people should get help with digital technology.

The Left wants to guarantee universities reliable funding and rule out cuts, even if fewer people enroll. Core funding is to grow so that universities depend less on project money. Both medical faculties are to be kept, and the university hospitals are to remain publicly owned.

The Left does not want to give universities less money. This also applies if fewer people study. Universities should get more fixed funding. The two university hospitals should stay in public hands.

The Left wants studying in Saxony-Anhalt not to depend on parents' income. It plans a social pact for universities with affordable housing and stable cafeteria prices, free learning materials, and cheaper transportation. It rejects tuition fees and wants to push at the federal level for BAföG (student aid) paid regardless of parental income.

The Left wants to make studying cheaper. Housing and cafeteria meals should be affordable. Learning materials should be free. The transit pass should later cost 9 euros and one day nothing. There should be no tuition fees.

The Left wants to make it easier to get through a degree: anyone who completes a bachelor's in the state is to get a guaranteed master's place. Standard study periods are to be extended, and support services are to be available in one place.

The Left wants to make studying easier. After a bachelor's degree, everyone should get a place in a master's program. Students should have more time to finish. Help should be available in one single place.

The Left wants to make careers for early-career researchers more reliable and make tenure track, the fixed route to a permanent professorship, the norm. The state's graduate funding program is to offer more and higher scholarships. Women in academia are to receive targeted support.

The Left wants secure career paths in research. Young researchers should know early whether they can stay. There should be more scholarships for doctoral students. A scholarship is money for the time of training. Women should get special support.

The Left wants to secure basic research, make collaborations transparent, and make universities more digitally independent. Research results are to be freely accessible and reach the regions more directly through real-world labs and practical semesters.

The Left wants to strengthen research in the state. Universities should use their own digital services. Research results should be open to everyone. Universities should work more closely with towns, hospitals, schools, and businesses.

The Left wants to fund teacher training reliably and link it more closely to everyday school life. The quality of practical semesters is to be secured, including in rural areas. Career changers entering teaching are to get targeted support and further qualification.

The Left wants to improve teacher training. The money for it should flow permanently. Students should get more practice in schools. People from other jobs should be able to become teachers more easily.

The Left wants to keep every daycare center, school and after-school care site in the state. It also wants to adjust staffing ratios in daycare and hire more trained educational staff for schools and after-school care.

No daycare center, school or after-school site should close. The Left wants more staff in daycare. Schools and after-school care should also get more trained staff.

The Left wants hospitals funded according to need and quality and wants to replace per-case flat rates with a cost-covering system. It also calls for legally required, fully funded staffing levels for all hospital professions.

Today hospitals get money for each treatment case. The Left wants to change that. Hospitals should get the money they really need. A law should set how many staff are needed.

The Left wants to found a group of municipal hospitals with a permanent state stake and bring private hospitals back under public ownership. In the party's view, private operators run their hospitals for returns and close sites when returns fail to appear.

Many hospitals in the state belong to private companies. The Left wants to bring them back into public hands. Municipal hospitals should join together in one group. The state should take a share and provide money.

The Left wants an emergency room at every hospital site except psychiatric hospitals. Rescue and emergency room staff would also get mandatory training on rare diseases.

Every hospital should have an emergency room. Only psychiatric hospitals are left out. Rescue workers should learn more about rare diseases. Emergency ID cards should be respected the same way across the state.

The Left wants to improve pay and working conditions in health and nursing professions and bring wages up to the western German level. It backs the unions in pushing for collective agreements across the sector. The platform attributes staff overload to past austerity policies.

The Left wants better pay in hospitals and in care work. Wages should be as high as in western Germany. Collective agreements should apply to everyone. A collective agreement sets pay and working hours. Nursing training should also get better.

The Left wants to reduce prejudice in health care toward people with HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, people with mental illness, and trans people. To that end, medical staff in particular are to be educated, and prevention, counseling and treatment services expanded.

Some sick people face prejudice at the doctor's office. The Left says this affects people with HIV, people with mental illness and trans people. The Left wants to change that. Doctors and nurses should be better informed. There should be more free tests and more counseling.

The Left calls for a state rescue fund of 300 million euros for hospitals. It is meant to make up for missing investment funding and prevent further insolvencies and closures. The state is to meet its obligation to finance hospital investments.

The Left wants the state to rescue hospitals with money. It wants 300 million euros for this. This should stop more hospitals from going bankrupt or closing. The state should also invest in hospitals regularly.

The Left wants outpatient and inpatient care to be planned together and linked, especially in rural areas. Hospitals are to become combined outpatient-inpatient centers and later health centers covering both sectors. That way they could also replace doctors' practices that disappear.

The Left wants to change hospitals in rural areas. They should also do the work of doctors' offices. This creates health centers for the region. Sick people get help there even when doctors' offices are missing. The state and towns should be able to become co-owners.

The Left wants to fund municipal care centers as central points of contact and secure accessible outpatient care in cities and rural areas alike. To counter the doctor shortage, it relies on additional rural-doctor quotas, more medical school places and broader powers for other health professions.

The Left wants enough doctors everywhere in the state. Towns should get their own health centers. More young people should be able to study medicine. There should be reserved places for future rural pediatricians and dentists. Rural pharmacies should also stay open.

The Left wants to prevent private capital companies, especially private equity firms, from buying into nursing facilities and medical care centers (MVZ) on a large scale. Instead, it wants to support MVZ that are run by their owners.

Some companies buy medical centers and nursing homes to make a profit. The Left wants to stop this. It wants to support medical centers owned by the doctors themselves. Big corporations should not come first.

The Left wants it to be mandatory that abortion services are available close to where people live. In addition, the topic is to become a fixed part of medical training.

Women should be able to end a pregnancy near where they live. The Left wants to make this a requirement. Future doctors should learn about it in training. That should be required too.

The Left calls for federal long-term care insurance that covers all care-related costs, so that out-of-pocket payments disappear. To pay for it, the income cap on contributions is to be scrapped and capital income is to be subject to contributions as well. The platform argues that care costs push many people into poverty.

Care in a nursing home costs people a lot of their own money. The Left wants to change that. Care insurance should pay all care costs. People with high incomes should pay in more for this. Contributions should also be due on income from investments.

The Left wants to introduce a state care allowance (Landespflegegeld) of at least 1,500 euros a year in Saxony-Anhalt. The state is also to cover the investment costs of nursing facilities in full. Nursing facilities are to be transferred to public or nonprofit ownership.

The Left wants state money for people who need care. It should be at least 1,500 euros a year. The state should also pay for building and equipping nursing homes. Nursing homes should no longer belong to private companies.

The Left wants to draw up a state strategy for digital health care. In the platform's view, digital services should ease the shortage of medical care in rural areas and the strain on the health system.

Rural areas often have too few doctors. So the Left wants more appointments by video or phone. At least every second family doctor's office should offer this. Clinics and doctors' offices should be able to share data better.

The Left wants queer refugees who apply for asylum to be granted it. Permanently funded counseling services are to be created for them and for trans, intersex, and nonbinary people, and women and queer people should be able to live outside reception centers.

The Left wants to protect queer refugees. Anyone who is queer and seeks asylum should get it. There should be more counseling for these people. Women and queer people should be able to live in their own apartments.

The Left wants to support students, especially those from abroad, from the start of their studies to their first job in Saxony-Anhalt. Help with language, recognition of qualifications, and residence status is meant to lead them to stay as skilled workers after graduating.

The Left wants to welcome students from other countries. They should get help with language and residence permits. The state should support them until their first job. That way they stay in Saxony-Anhalt after their studies.

The Left considers labor migration necessary because of demographic change and wants to make it fair. Temporary agency work, contracts for work, and subcontractors would be monitored more strictly, foreign vocational qualifications recognized faster, and exploitation punished more severely.

The Left says Saxony-Anhalt needs workers from abroad. These people should be paid fairly. The state should check temp work and subcontractors more strictly. Foreign job qualifications should be recognized faster. There should be advice centers for these workers.

The Left calls for abolishing Frontex, the European border protection agency. It places the demand in the context of a united, democratic and social Europe.

Frontex is the EU agency that guards the outer borders. The Left wants to abolish this agency. It wants a social and democratic Europe.

The Left sees immigration as an opportunity to counter population decline and labor shortages. It wants to reform the state's reception law (Aufnahmegesetz) and set up an integration budget for municipalities. Dealings with authorities would be bundled in one-stop shops.

Fewer and fewer people live in Saxony-Anhalt. So the Left sees immigration as a chance. Towns and cities should get money for integration. Immigrants should be able to handle everything at one office.

The Left wants to give all immigrants immediate access to language courses, whatever their residence status. Foreign vocational qualifications would be recognized within six months. Welcome centers would connect municipalities, initiatives and authorities.

All immigrants should be able to learn German right away. This applies to every age and every residence status. Job qualifications from abroad should be recognized within six months. Courses should also exist in rural areas.

The Left wants to abolish the Bezahlkarte (payment card) for refugees, which it considers discriminatory. It would be replaced by a mandatory basic bank account so that those affected can manage their own money.

Refugees today often get benefits on a payment card. The Left thinks this is unfair. It wants to abolish the card. Instead, people should get their own bank account.

The Left wants public authorities and institutions to lead by example on integration. People with a migration background would be given priority in public-sector hiring, and staff would receive intercultural training.

The Left wants more diversity in public offices and schools. The state should hire more people with a migration background. Staff should get courses on other cultures and languages. There should also be more teachers with a migration background.

The Left wants children from immigrant families to receive language support as early as daycare so that they start school without a deficit. This is to be complemented by mentoring programs, parental involvement and curricula that reflect cultural diversity. The platform justifies this with equal starting chances for children who will stay in the state permanently.

The Left wants to help children from immigrant families early. They should learn German well in daycare. Parents should take part. Mentors should guide people who are new in the country.

The Left wants to launch a state program that brings together immigrants, authorities and employers to help people take up work. Work permits are to be issued more easily and foreign qualifications aligned through bridging courses. The platform attributes high unemployment among people with foreign passports to structural discrimination.

The Left wants to make it easier for immigrants to find work. The state should start a new program for this. Work permits should be easier to get. Skilled workers from abroad should be able to take a one-year course.

The Left declares the right to asylum, protection from deportation and family reunification to be untouchable. It sides with people seeking protection, arguing that flight results from coercion and a lack of alternatives. In its view, migration policy should not be guided by people's economic usefulness.

The Left wants to protect the right to asylum. Refugees should be safe from deportation. Families should be allowed to live together. The party says: No one flees without need.

The Left wants to improve women's opportunities in the public sector and in business and to develop the state's Frauenfördergesetz (women's advancement act) into an equality act. Jobs in daycare centers, schools, hospitals, and nursing homes should be better paid because, in the party's view, they keep society running.

The Left wants better career chances for women. Women should apply for important jobs more often. Work in daycare, schools, and nursing should be paid better. The women's advancement law should become a new equality law.

The Left wants to secure equal access for women to university study and research positions, including in university leadership. It also wants to expand research that takes differences between the sexes into account, for example in how medications work.

The Left wants equal chances for women at universities. This applies to studying and to research jobs. Women should also be equally represented in university leadership. Research should pay more attention to differences between the sexes.

The Left wants to strengthen counseling centers for women and abolish the personal contribution for staying in a women's shelter. Anti-violence projects are to receive permanent institutional funding, and shelter places and safe apartments are to be expanded.

The Left wants to protect women better from violence. Women should no longer pay anything to stay in a shelter. Counseling centers should get more support. There should be more places in women's shelters. Projects against violence should get lasting funding.

The Left wants to make paid work, family work, and civic engagement easier to combine for women and men alike. People who care for relatives should be financially secure and supported when returning to work; daycare and after-school care are to be expanded.

The Left wants to value care work more. Care work means things like nursing relatives or looking after children at home. People who provide care should not be worse off. Men and women should share this work better. There should be more daycare and after-school places.

The Left wants to create a legal entitlement to help for all victims of violence that does not depend on gender, origin, or residence status. It also plans mobile counseling, an action plan against violence, and a coordination office.

The Left wants a right to help for all victims of violence. It should apply to every person. Counselors should reach out to victims themselves. An action plan should give the issue a firm place.

The Left wants to use the Bundesrat (the chamber of the states) to have the Basic Law also protect against discrimination based on sexual and gender identity. In the state, it wants to renew the action program for LGBTI+ acceptance, better protect CSD pride events, and anchor queer topics in education.

The Left wants to protect queer people better. The constitution should explicitly protect them from discrimination. Queer means, for example, lesbian, gay, or trans. Pride events should get more protection and money. Schools should cover queer topics.

The Left calls for accessibility in Saxony-Anhalt to become a binding obligation rather than an optional rule. There would be a mandatory upgrade program for all public transit stops. The party points to the ban on discrimination against people with disabilities in the Basic Law, Germany's constitution.

People with disabilities often run into obstacles. The Left wants to change that. Accessibility should be required. All transit stops should be rebuilt. Homes and websites should also be usable for everyone. The people affected should help decide.

The Left aims for electricity in Saxony-Anhalt to come solely from renewable sources and for a climate-neutral heat supply. Energy is to be treated as an essential public service and placed more in citizens' hands. The platform rejects a return to nuclear power, arguing that such debates raise false expectations.

The Left wants power only from wind, sun and similar sources. Heating should no longer harm the climate either. The party rejects nuclear power. Citizens should have more say in energy.

The Left wants a mandatory low-cost base tariff for electricity and heat as well as a legal ban on power and gas shutoffs. Government oversight of electricity prices is to return. The platform argues that high energy prices hit people with low incomes hardest and that energy is an essential public service.

The Left wants a fixed low price for basic power and heat needs. No one should have their power or gas cut off. The state should check power prices again. People with energy debts should get help.

The Left wants to cut grid fees substantially, lower the electricity tax to 0.1 cents per kilowatt-hour and transfer energy grids to public ownership. The platform argues that people in Saxony-Anhalt pay more for power than those in other German states.

The Left wants cheaper electricity. Fees for the power grid should go down. The tax on electricity should drop a lot. The grids should belong to the public.

The Left wants to keep expanding wind and solar power while safeguarding nature protection, transparency and local participation. Its plans include a solar requirement for new buildings and a larger financial share for municipalities and residents.

The Left wants more power from wind and sun. New buildings should have to get solar panels. Public buildings should get them too. Towns and neighbors should benefit. Nature should stay protected.

The Left wants to place energy supply more firmly in public and cooperative hands. The state energy agency is to become a state energy company, and municipal utilities, rural utilities and energy cooperatives are to receive support.

The Left wants energy to belong more to local people. The state should get its own energy company. City utilities and co-ops should get help. Digital power meters should cost tenants nothing.

The Left wants to extend the energy transition to heating, storage and industry. Plans include more heat networks and large heat pumps, passive-house standards for new buildings, support for green hydrogen and strict conditions for gas power plants.

The Left wants clean energy for heating too. There should be more heat networks. New buildings should need very little energy. Gas power plants should run only for a transition period. The chemical industry should get green hydrogen.

The Left wants to set a binding carbon budget for the state that leads to climate neutrality by 2035. Every political decision is to be checked in advance for its climate impact; the party frames climate protection as a matter of justice.

The state should be climate neutral by 2035. That means it emits no more harmful gases than are absorbed. There should be a fixed limit for CO₂. New laws should be checked for their effect on the climate first.

The Left wants to oblige cities and towns to pursue climate protection and to fund this permanently through the state's fiscal equalization system. Social hardship from renovations and heating replacements is to be cushioned, and the state is to lead with its own buildings.

Cities and villages should be required to protect the climate. The state should give them lasting money for this. People with little money should get help with heating and renovation. State buildings should get solar panels.

The Left wants to redesign cities along the sponge city principle, so rainwater is stored, seeps away or evaporates. Sealed surfaces are to be opened up and infrastructure planned with water and green elements. A state subsidy program is to support municipalities.

Cities should cope better with heat and heavy rain. They should store rainwater instead of draining it away. Paved areas should be opened up again. There should be more green in cities. The state should give towns money for this.

The Left wants to support keepers of grazing animals with state-funded herd protection and fast compensation. Individual wolves may be killed under narrow conditions, but the party rejects fixed population caps or blanket shooting quotas.

The Left wants to protect sheep, goats and cattle on pastures better. The state should pay for this protection. If a wolf kills animals, owners should get money quickly. Single wolves may be killed only in certain cases. The Left does not want a fixed maximum number of wolves.

The Left wants to support beekeepers, angling clubs and allotment garden associations because, in the platform's view, they contribute to nature conservation and village life. Allotment gardens are to be preserved and not converted into building land.

The Left wants to help beekeepers. Fishing clubs should get help too. Small community gardens should stay. They should not be turned into building land.

The Left wants to speed up the conversion of Saxony-Anhalt's forests into mixed woodland that can better withstand drought, heat and pests. The platform points to the heavy damage of recent years, which it says hit monocultures hardest.

Heat and beetles have damaged many forests in the state. The Left wants forests with many kinds of trees. Mixed forests cope better with dry weather. The change should happen faster.

The Left wants to give the public forestry administration more staff and better pay and to rule out selling state-owned forest. The platform argues that sustainable management requires reliable public structures.

The state has its own forestry service. The Left wants to hire more people there and pay them well. The state should not sell its forest. Small forest owners should get help.

The Left wants wood used primarily as a building material and for durable products, with burning as the last option. Wind turbines in forests are to be allowed only on land of low ecological value, and protection against forest fires is to be improved.

Wood should first be used for building and furniture. Burning it should be the last choice. Wind turbines should only stand on bare forest land. Fire crews should be better equipped for forest fires.

The Left wants to revise hunting law so that hunting follows ecological goals and animal welfare while remaining workable in practice. The platform sees hunting as a tool against crop damage, for forest conversion and against animal diseases.

The Left wants new rules for hunting. Hunting should help nature and cause little suffering. Wild boar should be hunted more. Hunters, farmers and conservation groups should work together.

The Left wants permanent public funding for animal shelters and stronger state structures for animal welfare. According to the platform, associations and volunteers currently carry out tasks that should really be the state's responsibility.

Animal shelters take care of lost animals. The Left says this is the state's job. So the state should pay shelters on a lasting basis. There should also be programs for cats and pigeons.

The Left wants to give animal welfare organizations standing to sue so that violations of animal welfare law can be brought to court. It also calls for mandatory registration of pets, an end to breed-specific dog lists and a ban on animals in circuses.

Animals cannot go to court themselves. So animal welfare groups should be allowed to sue for them. All pets should be tagged and registered. Circuses should no longer be allowed to show animals.

The Left wants to better resource nature conservation in the state, including through a state nature fund and stronger agencies. The platform counts intact nature as part of essential public services and does not want tasks shifted onto volunteers.

The Left wants to protect nature in the state better. Conservation offices should get more money and staff. A new fund should pay for conservation over the long term. Drained bogs should be made wet again.

The Left wants to turn Saxony-Anhalt into a leading location for recycling and raw material recovery. Waste management is to be run publicly as an essential service, and waste imports into the state are to stop. The program cites dependence on imported raw materials such as rare earths and the strain on climate and environment.

The Left wants more recycling in Saxony-Anhalt. Old materials should become raw materials again. Waste services should belong to the public. Waste from other regions should no longer come into the state. Repairs should become cheaper.

The Left wants to meet the requirements of the EU Water Framework Directive quickly and in full, with more state funding. Drinking water and wastewater are to remain a public task, and privatizing springs is ruled out. In conflicts over water use, drinking water and ecosystems are to take priority.

The Left wants to protect rivers, streams and lakes better. The state should spend more money on this. Drinking water should belong to the public. Companies should not be allowed to buy springs. When water is scarce, drinking water comes first.

The Left wants to tie large industrial projects to a sound water plan and charge large users more through the water extraction fee. Industry's growing demand is not to come at the expense of residents and the environment. The party rejects the planned diversion of Elbe water into the Spree.

Big factories need a lot of water. The Left wants them to present a water plan first. Those who take a lot of water should pay more. People should not be worse off because of this. Water from the Elbe river should not be sent to the Spree river.

The Left wants to keep wastewater treatment in public hands and fund its modernization with state and federal money. The cost of stricter treatment standards under the new EU wastewater directive is to be borne, through a levy, by the producers of the polluting substances. This is meant to keep charges affordable for municipalities and households.

The Left wants sewage plants to stay public. The state and federal government should pay for new technology. Companies put harmful substances into the water. These companies should pay for the cleaning. That keeps costs low for people.

The Left wants to secure access to farmland for those who actually work it. An agricultural structure law is to cap land prices and prevent land concentration, and share deals — buying stakes in farm companies to acquire their land — are to be banned.

The Left wants farmers to get land more easily. A new law should limit land prices. Outside investors should not be allowed to buy farms through company shares. The state should buy land and lease it to young farmers.

The Left wants to secure higher producer prices for farms and strengthen regional supply chains. Public institutions should be able to give preference to regional and sustainable food, and the market power of the big supermarket chains is to be curbed.

The Left wants farmers to get fair prices. Daycare centers, schools and hospitals should be able to buy food from the region. Big supermarket chains should no longer push prices down so hard.

The Left wants to move livestock farming toward humane and regional structures. It wants to fund barn conversions, end very large slaughterhouses and export-oriented meat production, and use the Bundesrat to push for caps on herd sizes.

The Left wants animals to be kept better. Farmers should get money for better barns. Giant slaughterhouses should end. There should be a maximum number of animals per farm.

The Left wants to raise the share of organically farmed land from around 10 to at least 30 percent. In addition, farming is to be adapted to climate change, land consumption reduced and biodiversity promoted.

The Left wants much more organic farming. Its share should rise from 10 to 30 percent. Soil should stay fertile and be built over less. Wild bees should get more places to live. A fund should help farmers after climate damage.

The Left wants to simplify application procedures for farms and commit funding for several years at a time. At the same time, subsidies are to be reliably tied to animal welfare, environmental, climate and social standards.

The Left wants less paperwork for farmers. Applications should be simple and digital. Funding should be promised for several years. The money should be tied to rules for animals, the environment and workers.

The Left wants to expand local public transit and adapt it to the needs of older people. It plans accessible stops and vehicles, discounted tickets for seniors and more on-demand buses in rural areas.

Many older people need buses and trains. The Left wants more buses and trains. Stops and vehicles should be free of obstacles. Older people should get cheaper tickets. There should be more on-demand buses in rural areas.

The Left wants young people to be able to reach school, training and leisure places easily without a car. Buses and trains would run to match those needs, including evenings and weekends, and stay permanently cheap for young people. The platform names a youth ticket or free travel as the goal.

The Left wants young people to get around easily. Buses and trains should also run in the evening and on weekends. Travel should be cheap for young people. In the end it might cost nothing at all. Bike paths and routes to school should become safer.

The Left wants to expand public transit as an essential public service and connect every municipality to it. Funding is to rise noticeably, and transit is to become a funded mandatory task of local governments. Car and truck traffic should decline, though cars should stay affordable for villages without transit access.

The Left wants more buses and trains across the state. Every town should get a connection. The state should spend more money on this. In villages without a bus, cars should stay affordable.

The Left wants to offer public transit fare-free across the state in the medium term, arguing that cost is decisive for whether people use it. As a first step, there would be low-cost tickets for schoolchildren, apprentices, students, volunteers and people with low incomes. The federal government is to pay more, and the state is to legally permit new financing models.

The Left wants buses and trains to be free later on. First there should be cheap tickets. For example for students, apprentices and people with little money. Single tickets should not get more expensive every year.

The Left wants to preserve and expand the rail network instead of closing more lines and stops. Disused routes are to be protected in state planning, stops reopened, and long-distance connections in the state kept and extended. In the platform's view, past cutbacks contradict climate protection and leave rural regions behind.

The Left wants no more rail lines to be closed. Old lines and stops should be able to reopen. There should be more trains, running more often. More freight should go by rail instead of by truck.

The Left wants to make building bike paths between municipalities a state responsibility and close gaps in the cycling network. Road money is to go primarily to maintenance and be tied to expanding bike and pedestrian paths. The platform sees this as part of an ecological transport transition and points to projects stalled for lack of funds.

The Left wants to build more and wider bike paths. The state should be in charge of this. Road money should mainly keep old roads in shape. New roads should only come in certain cases. Sidewalks should get better too.

The Left wants a nationwide speed limit on autobahns and more 30 km/h stretches in cities and villages. Municipalities should be able to decide on lower speeds themselves. The platform cites Vision Zero, the goal that no one dies in road traffic anymore.

The Left wants a speed limit on all autobahns. Towns should have more 30 km/h zones. Cities and villages should decide this themselves. That way fewer people should die in crashes.

The Left rejects further expansion of Leipzig/Halle Airport as well as any military use. The night flight ban is to be enforced consistently, with an exception for strictly necessary express freight. The platform cites stressful working conditions and harmful nighttime aircraft noise at the logistics hub.

The Left does not want to make Leipzig/Halle Airport bigger. Hardly any planes should fly there at night. The military should not use the airport. People living nearby should be better protected from noise.

The Left wants to improve data protection and data security for the electronic patient record. The record is to be used only to improve treatment. In addition, open-source applications are to receive public funding and digital health apps are to be scientifically evaluated.

There is a digital record for patients. The Left says the data in it is not safe enough. It wants to protect the data better. The record should only be used for treatment. Experts should check health apps.

The Left wants to make it easier for older people to keep up with the digital world. Socially disadvantaged seniors would get free devices and internet access, along with training and personal support. The platform argues that many older people feel shut out by rapid technological change.

Many older people find computers and the internet hard to use. The Left wants to help them. Poor older people should get devices and internet for free. There should be more classes. Young people and volunteers should help them learn.

The Left sets out a vision for the municipality of the future: digital administration, maintained infrastructure, climate protection and close cooperation between municipalities. Jointly developed digital solutions and open-source software are to become the norm.

The Left wants to make towns and cities more modern. Public offices should offer more online. Roads, schools and bike paths should be repaired. Towns should work together and share software. Local climate protection should grow too.

The Left wants to better protect state and municipal IT against attacks and deploy more staff for this. It points to the 2021 cyberattack on the district of Anhalt-Bitterfeld and rejects software such as Palantir on data protection grounds.

The Left wants to protect public offices better against online attacks. The state should have twice as many IT security experts. Every office should have an emergency plan. The party does not want surveillance software like Palantir.

The Left wants to examine and simplify administrative procedures and rules before they are digitized. In the program's view, poor paper-based processes must not simply be carried over into digital ones.

The Left wants to check how public offices work first. Unneeded tasks should be dropped. Technology comes only after that. Artificial intelligence should help with simple tasks. Staff then have more time to advise people.

The Left wants the consequences to be assessed before any use of AI in publicly funded state institutions. The effects on those concerned, liability for wrong decisions and the risk of discrimination are to be clarified in advance.

The Left sees risks in artificial intelligence, or AI. Public offices should only use AI after a check. A public list should show all AI systems in use. People should be able to complain to an office.

The Left wants public administration to use only open-source AI models whose workings can be verified. Decisions in which AI plays a part are to be labeled and explained in plain language.

Government offices use artificial intelligence, or AI, more and more. The Left wants only AI that people can check. The office should say when AI helped decide. It should also explain the decision clearly.

The Left wants to give all public-sector employees an entitlement to digital training. IT specialists are to get their own career tracks with better pay, because in the platform's view the public sector cannot compete on salaries.

People who work for the state should get at least seven days a year for digital courses. Computer experts should earn more money in state jobs. This way the Left wants to attract more young experts. There should also be scholarships. A scholarship is money for studying.

The Left wants to end the state administration's dependence on US tech corporations and switch to open-source and European solutions. The platform sees this dependence as a political and security risk because US authorities could access data under the Cloud Act.

Government offices often use programs from US companies today. The Left sees this as a danger to citizens' data. It wants to use programs from Europe and open programs. Open means anyone can see how the program is built. The state should build its own data storage.

The Left wants the federal government, states and municipalities to develop and coordinate their digital administrative systems together. The platform criticizes that each level currently uses its own software, which it calls costly and a barrier to data exchange.

Every state and every city uses different computer programs today. The programs often do not work together. The Left wants shared rules and shared programs. Saxony-Anhalt should take over finished programs from other states. This should save money.

The Left wants to create a legal right to affordable internet access with capped prices and to support people with little money or little tech knowledge. At the same time it rejects mandatory digital-only services: dealings with authorities are to remain possible offline.

The Left wants everyone to be able to afford internet. People on welfare should pay at most 20 euros a month. Poor families should get tablets or laptops. Towns should have places with devices and help. No one should be forced to deal with offices by computer.

The Left wants violent parents to automatically lose custody and visitation rights for at least six months. Police and the judiciary would get mandatory training, and restraining orders could be monitored digitally in high-risk cases.

The Left wants stricter action against violence in families. A violent parent should not see the children for at least six months. Police and courts should have to take training. In very risky cases, technology should check that a restraining order is obeyed.

The Left wants to gear police and courts toward cybercrime, white-collar crime and AI-driven manipulation. Specialized units are to be created and prosecutors' offices given more staff. For hate crime, there are to be dedicated contact officers within the police.

The Left wants to fight new kinds of crime better. These include attacks on the internet and business fraud. There should be special teams for this. Prosecutors should get more staff. Victims of hate should have a fixed contact person at the police.

The Left wants to create an independent police complaints office with its own investigative powers. Citizens are to be involved in security policy questions, and the state parliament is to get stronger oversight rights. Security laws are to be reviewed regularly and repealed if they prove ineffective or violate fundamental rights.

The Left wants better oversight of the police. An independent office should look into complaints about the police. Citizens should have a say on security issues. The state parliament should get more oversight rights. Security laws should be checked regularly.

The Left wants to create 500 additional police positions by 2030 to increase presence and closeness to residents. It also backs individual identification, body cameras when firearms or Tasers are used, and an independent reporting system for far-right incidents in the agencies. Officers' weekly working time is to be reducible to 38 hours.

The Left wants 500 new police jobs by 2030. Officers should have more time for people. They should wear an ID marking. A body camera should film automatically when shots are fired. Officers should work only 38 hours a week.

The Left rejects facial recognition for mass surveillance and automated data analysis software such as Palantir for the police. Encryption is to be promoted rather than weakened, and people are to be told what data is stored about them and how to have it deleted. Artificial intelligence is to help solve cybercrime, not monitor uninvolved people.

The Left does not want mass surveillance. Cameras should not recognize faces on a mass scale. The police should not use software like Palantir. This software analyzes huge amounts of data automatically. People should know what data is stored about them.

The Left considers the Verfassungsschutz (domestic intelligence agency) superfluous in its current form and wants it to reset its priorities. In the long run, an agency for democracy and human rights is to take its place. It would mainly strengthen democracy work and civic education.

The Verfassungsschutz is the state's domestic intelligence service. The Left thinks it is not needed in its current form. It wants no more secret informants. Later, an agency for democracy and human rights should replace it. That agency should strengthen civic education.

The Left wants to protect the constitution through education and public information rather than covert surveillance. Paid informants are to be phased out, following the example of Thuringia, and replaced by exit counseling.

The Left wants to protect the constitution in a different way. There should be more education, for example in schools. The state should stop using paid informants. Informants are people who secretly report from inside a group. Instead, there should be counseling for people who want to leave extremist groups.

The Left wants to strengthen the relief agency and rescue services with modern equipment, more staff and regular training. Dispatch centers are to stay decentralized, and disaster-response training is to be expanded.

The Left wants to strengthen rescue services and the relief agency. They should get modern equipment and enough staff. Dispatch centers should stay in the region. A dispatch center takes emergency calls and sends help. There should be a new training ground.

The Left wants to reform, and in the long run scrap, the rule under which municipalities pay for official assistance during disasters. It argues that natural disasters are a task for society as a whole and that the costs must be shared in solidarity.

Sometimes towns need help from the army or the THW relief agency. This happens during floods or forest fires. Towns often have to pay a lot for this help. The Left wants to change that. Later, towns should pay nothing for it.

The Left wants to prepare the population better for crises and make coordination with operators of critical infrastructure public. Especially vulnerable facilities such as hospitals, schools and care homes are to receive targeted support.

The Left wants everyone to be ready for a crisis. There should be info events and free first-aid courses. Towns should have fixed places to go in an emergency. Companies for power, water and phones should make their emergency plans public. Hospitals, schools and care homes get special help.

The Left wants to fund fire departments through fixed, earmarked state allocations to municipalities instead of individual grant programs. A dedicated state program is meant to keep small rural fire departments from closing.

The Left wants to give fire departments steady money. The state should pay it to towns under clear rules. Towns decide for themselves what to buy. Small fire departments in rural areas get their own support program. No fire department should have to close.

The Left wants to improve conditions for volunteer and career firefighters. This includes guaranteed time off from work, full wage replacement, more training places and counting years of service toward pensions.

The Left wants more people to join the fire department. Volunteers should get time off work for call-outs. They should keep their full pay. Time in the fire department should count toward their pension. After hard call-outs, there should always be mental health support.

The Left wants to prepare fire departments for forest fires, floods and heat waves as consequences of climate change. It plans investment in prevention and equipment and close links with other relief organizations.

Climate change brings more forest fires, floods and heat. The Left wants to prepare fire departments for this. There should be wells for firefighting water. Forest roads should be usable for fire trucks. Fire departments should work closely with other helpers.

The Left treats investment in education, youth work and social services as crime policy, because in its view crime grows out of injustice and a lack of prospects. Rural areas are also to get mobile police and support services.

The Left wants to stop crime early. There should be more youth clubs and street social work. Victims of violence at home should find safe places. Rural areas should get mobile police stations and counseling. The Left says: People who can live well commit fewer crimes.

The Left wants to create specialized prosecutor's offices for far-right crimes and for gender-based violence. It points to a record level of politically motivated crime in 2024 and to recurring deadly violence against women.

The Left wants to set up special prosecutor's offices. One kind deals with far-right crimes. Another deals with violence against women. A femicide is the killing of a woman because she is a woman. Such crimes should be prosecuted more strictly.

The Left wants to initiate a criminal law reform at the federal level. Dumpster diving, riding without a ticket and abortion would no longer be crimes, while tougher rules would apply only to serious offenses. This is meant to relieve police and courts.

The Left wants to change criminal law. Riding without a ticket should no longer be a crime. Taking thrown-away food should also be allowed. Abortions should become legal. This gives police and courts less work.

The Left wants to support people who have experienced violence faster and with less red tape. To that end, the state's victim support fund is to grow and the victim protection clinics are to be secured and expanded.

The Left wants to help victims of violence better. The state should give more money for quick help. Medical exams after a violent crime should be free. Victims' addresses should be better protected.

The Left wants to abolish Ersatzfreiheitsstrafen (jail time in place of unpaid fines) via the Bundesrat and expand community service instead. Prisons are to focus more on reintegration, which the program says reduces reoffending and thereby also protects victims.

Today, people who do not pay a fine often go to jail. The Left wants to end that. These people should do community work instead. Prisoners should get more pay and more help. This should keep them from committing new crimes.

The Left wants juvenile criminal law to rely on prevention and education and to avoid confinement wherever possible. The aim is for young people to reoffend less often and integrate better into society.

The Left wants to lock up young people less often. They should learn and get support instead. The party rejects "warning shot" detention. That is a short detention on top of a suspended sentence. Schools should explain what is a crime.

The Left wants to make popular initiatives, petitions for referendums, referendums and local citizen participation easier. Signature and approval thresholds are to be lowered and conditions for organizers improved. The party considers the current legal basis for participation inadequate.

The Left wants people to vote on political questions more often. Fewer signatures should be needed for this. It should also get easier in towns and cities. A group of 1,000 people should be able to bring a topic to the state parliament.

The Left wants young people to be able to vote in local and state elections from the age of 14. The demand is part of the party's plans to increase political participation.

The Left wants to lower the voting age. Young people should be allowed to vote at 14. This should apply to local elections. It should also apply to the state election.

The Left wants to pass a law to strengthen volunteering and set up a volunteering fund as well as a budget for municipalities. In the party's view, voluntary work needs a more reliable basis and more support from paid staff.

Many people help as volunteers, for example in the fire department or in sports clubs. The Left wants a law for these people. There should be money for projects. Towns should also get money to support volunteers.

The Left wants to fight right-wing extremism not with more surveillance but with stronger democratic structures in municipalities. Mobile counseling teams, stronger associations and help with building participation are meant to contribute. Local politicians and engaged citizens are to be better protected.

The Left wants to act against right-wing extremism. It does not rely on more surveillance. It wants to make democracy in towns stronger. Advisers should help the towns. Clubs and associations should get more support. Mayors and volunteers should get protection.

The Left wants to create the office of a citizens' ombudsperson in addition to the state parliament's petitions committee. The office is to receive and handle complaints about public administration. In the party's view, this will strengthen trust in democracy.

The Left wants to create a new office: a citizens' ombudsperson. People can complain there about government offices. The ombudsperson then takes care of the problem. The petitions committee in the state parliament will stay.

The Left wants a parity law for Saxony-Anhalt. It would ensure that at least every second member of the state parliament and of the state government is a woman.

The Left wants a parity law. Parity means women and men are equally represented. At least half of the state lawmakers should be women. The same should apply to the state government.

The Left wants a new state higher education act that gives all groups at universities more of a say. At the same time, freedom of research and teaching is to be protected against political and financial pressure.

The Left wants a new law for universities. Students and staff should have more say in decisions. Research and teaching should stay free. The state should protect researchers from pressure and lawsuits.

The Left wants to ban discrimination based on age and anchor this in the Basic Law (Germany's constitution), for the young as well as the old. Urban planning should also secure services close to where people live.

No one should be treated worse because of their age. This applies to young and old people. The Left wants to write this into the constitution. Shops, pharmacies and doctors should also be nearby.

The Left wants to write children's rights into the state constitution and set binding rules for young people's participation. Youth parliaments would be elected online in municipalities and receive their own rights and a budget. Before major decisions, the state and municipalities would have to set out what those decisions mean for children.

The Left wants to put children's rights into the state constitution. Children and young people should have more say. Youth parliaments should get their own money for projects. They should be allowed to make proposals and speak in local councils. Anyone who files a complaint should get an answer quickly.

The Left wants to create a children's commission as a subcommittee of the state parliament. It would represent children's concerns in parliament and spot problems earlier.

The Left wants a children's commission in the state parliament. This is a group of lawmakers. It should look after the concerns of children. It should talk with organizations regularly.

The Left wants the state to cover the share that municipalities currently have to pay themselves for projects under the federal program "Demokratie leben!" (Live Democracy!). In the party's view, democracy education for children and young people should not fail because municipalities are short of money. Age-appropriate civic education would also be expanded.

There is a federal program for democracy projects. Towns have to pay part of the cost themselves. The Left wants the state to pay that part. This way, projects can also happen in poor towns. Children and young people should experience democracy there.

The Left wants to give municipalities and their associations legally anchored rights to take part when the state makes laws. This applies above all when tasks are decided that municipalities later have to carry out.

The Left wants towns and cities to help decide on state laws. Today they can often only give an opinion. The state should talk to them early. Their feedback should really change something.

The Left wants to support and fund forms of direct participation in towns and cities, including citizens' assemblies and participatory budgets. Municipalities that try out new forms of participation are to receive special support as model municipalities.

The Left wants people to have more say where they live. For example, there should be citizens' assemblies. These are groups of citizens who make proposals. Citizens should also help decide how some of the money is spent. The state should help pay for this.

The Left wants to upgrade the Ortschaftsräte (village and district councils): they are to be heard on all matters of their own and get their own budget. Larger cities are also to be allowed to set up neighborhood advisory councils with their own funds.

The Left wants to strengthen the councils in villages and districts. They should get their own money. Then they can change things in their area themselves. Big cities should also be allowed to set up councils for their neighborhoods.

The Left wants everyone to be able to obtain justice quickly, regardless of income or where they live. Legal aid is to remain uncut, local courts are to be kept, and proceedings shortened.

The Left wants everyone to be able to get justice in court. This should not depend on money. Help with court costs should not be cut. Courts should stay close to where people live. People who win against a public agency should get all their costs back.

The Left wants to ease the overload in the justice system with a long-term staffing strategy and swift hiring. Better working conditions and additional support and IT staff are meant to speed up proceedings.

The courts have too much work and too few staff. The Left wants to change this with a long-term plan. Open jobs should be filled quickly. There should be more assistants and IT experts. Work should fit better with family life.

The Left wants to comprehensively digitize courts and judicial authorities in Saxony-Anhalt. The aim is to make proceedings faster, more transparent and easier for citizens to access.

The Left wants to modernize the courts. Hearings should also be possible by video. People should be able to file requests online. This should make court cases faster.

The Left wants to expand mediation as an alternative to lengthy court proceedings and have the state pay for it. According to the program, many disputes can be resolved faster and with less strain this way, easing the burden on courts.

In mediation, a neutral person helps solve a conflict. The Left wants the state to pay for this. Then fewer people have to go to court. The courts will have less work.

The Left wants to ensure that digitalization and cutting red tape do not lead to job cuts in public administration. Positions freed up by automation are to be moved into direct citizen services.

Computers take over more and more tasks in government offices. The Left still does not want to lay anyone off. Staff should then have more time for citizens. Rural areas should get more mobile offices.

The Left wants to make the EU more democratic. The European Parliament would gain weight relative to the Council and the Commission, as would direct-democratic elements. The Committee of the Regions would take part in decisions.

The Left wants more democracy in the EU. The European Parliament should get more power. People should decide directly more often. The regions should also have more say in the EU.

The Left wants the EU to spend more on social rights and social conditions instead of raising military spending from its budget. It rejects turning the EU into a military actor and wants to develop it as a force for peace and international law.

The Left does not want higher EU military spending. The money should go to social needs. The EU should stand for peace and international law. It should treat poorer countries as partners.

The Left opposes higher military spending and a step-by-step return of conscription. It also objects to the military use of land and sites in the state. In the program's view, rearmament does not make the state safer and takes money away from social security, education and industrial change.

The Left does not want to spend more money on the military. It is against conscription. Conscription means young people must join the army. The party also wants less military use of places in Saxony-Anhalt. It wants the money to go to social programs and schools instead.

The Left wants to add a civil clause to the state's higher education act. Such a clause commits universities to research for civilian purposes only. The platform says this is meant to strengthen civilian research.

The Left wants a civil clause in the university law. This is a rule for research. Universities would then only do research for peaceful purposes. There should be no research for the military there.

The Left links climate protection to peace policy and wants state subsidies directed primarily to civilian rather than arms production. In the platform's view, wars and rearmament drive up emissions and tie up money needed for social and environmental purposes.

The Left says wars harm the climate. State money should go to civilian companies rather than weapons makers. The military should report its CO₂ emissions openly. Politics should rely on talks and disarmament.

The Left wants to set up a state program for cultural participation and diversity and to give long-term funding to initiatives on remembrance culture and democracy. Visits to memorial sites are to become a binding part of the curriculum in lower secondary school. The party also sees cultural policy as a field of action against far-right ideologies and wants to protect cultural institutions from intimidation.

The Left wants a new funding program for culture. Many people should be able to take part in culture. School classes should have to visit memorial sites. Culture made by people with a migration background should also get money. The party wants to protect culture from far-right attacks.

The Left wants to introduce binding minimum fees for artists, especially in publicly funded projects. Collectively agreed pay raises at cultural institutions are to be covered by state funding that rises automatically. To pay for this, the state's culture budget is to grow.

Artists should be paid better. The Left wants a fixed minimum fee. A fee is the payment for a job. Museums should have to pay artists for exhibitions. The state should spend more money on culture.

The Left wants to give children free admission to museums and to secure cultural offerings in rural regions. Smaller municipalities are to receive an additional flat-rate culture grant from the state. The party regards culture as part of basic public services.

Children should be able to visit museums for free. There should also be culture in the countryside. Small towns should get extra money from the state for this. Cultural venues should be reachable without barriers.

The Left wants to give culture a firmer legal basis, for example through laws on music schools, libraries and conservators. Funding should be long-term and institutional rather than tied to short projects. In the party's view, this creates reliability and secures cultural diversity.

The Left wants new laws for culture. For example for music schools and libraries. Cultural institutions should get money reliably and for a long time. They should not have to keep applying for short projects. Clubs should also get lasting money from the state.

The Left calls for a progressive broadcasting fee based on income, similar to the tax system. Households earning up to 30,000 euros a year should pay no more than 10 euros a month. The party argues that the flat fee of 18.36 euros places a disproportionate burden on low earners.

Today almost all households pay the same for public radio and TV. The Left thinks this is unfair. People who earn little should pay less. With a low income, it should be 10 euros a month at most. First there should be a test in two counties.

The Left wants an anti-concentration law that caps any single media company's market share at 30 percent. A state journalism foundation and municipal media funding are meant to support independent local journalism. According to the platform, the background is that a single publisher dominates the daily newspaper market in Saxony-Anhalt.

In Saxony-Anhalt, the daily newspapers belong to one publisher. The Left wants to change that. No media company should hold more than 30 percent of the market. A new foundation should help local journalists with money. By 2030 there should be at least 3 independent daily newspapers.

The Left wants to cap the salaries of public broadcasting directors and introduce quotas for leadership positions. The regional programming of MDR (the public broadcaster for central Germany) is to be expanded and its spending published online. The party sees a lack of transparency, high executive pay and a lack of diversity as reasons for low trust in the broadcasters.

The heads of public broadcasters should earn less. About 180,000 euros a year at most. Half of the leaders should be women. MDR should report on Saxony-Anhalt for longer each day. All MDR spending should be shown online.

The Left wants to strengthen media education in schools with a media literacy initiative and to expand public broadcasting for children and teenagers. The ban on the children's channel KiKA broadcasting after 9 p.m. is to be lifted, and a public children's radio station is to be created. In the party's view, young people are increasingly influenced by algorithm-driven platforms while media education is lacking.

Children and teenagers should learn to use media well. Schools should get more money for this. The children's channel KiKA should be allowed to broadcast after 9 p.m. There should be a children's radio station. There should also be programs in several languages.

The Left wants citizens to have a say in all public broadcasters. An editorial statute is meant to protect journalists' independence, and media funding is to be publicly traceable and set up for the long term.

The Left wants people to have more say in public broadcasting. Journalists should decide freely about their content. Newsrooms should get fixed rules for this. Everyone should be able to see online which media get state money.

The Left announces a 100-million-euro program to strengthen media diversity in Saxony-Anhalt. Measurable goals are to be met by 2030, such as three independent daily newspapers and high public trust in media.

The Left wants to spend 100 million euros on media in Saxony-Anhalt. There should be three independent daily newspapers. Half of the media workers should come from eastern Germany. By 2028, everyone should be able to use all media without barriers.

The Left wants all religious communities to be able to shape their community life on equal terms and without fear. Religious instruction is to be open to all communities in the same way. At the same time, the party stands by its demand to end the state's historical payments to the churches and wants to fight religious fundamentalism.

The Left wants equal rights for all religions. This applies to Christians, Jews and Muslims. All should be able to offer religion classes. The state pays the churches money every year. The Left wants to end these payments. The party also wants to act against religious extremism.

The Left wants every child to be able to swim safely by the end of primary school. To that end, swimming lessons with enough capacity should be available close to home. The platform points out that one in three children currently cannot swim safely when leaving primary school.

The Left wants all children to learn to swim. This should happen by the end of primary school. There should be swimming lessons close to home. The swimming vouchers should be redesigned.

The Left wants to clear the renovation backlog at pools, gyms and sports grounds through long-term investment programs. Funding for club-owned sports facilities should also be large enough for necessary projects to go ahead. The party rejects making membership in the Landessportbund (state sports federation) a condition for funding.

Many swimming pools and gyms are in poor condition. The Left wants them repaired. The state should give towns and cities money for this. Sports clubs should also get more money for their facilities. They should not have to join the state sports federation for this.

The Left wants to make sure children and teenagers from low-income families are not kept out of sports by cost. It plans subsidies for membership fees and a closer link between education and participation benefits and club sports. The platform argues that children from poorer families use club offerings far less often.

Sports cost money, for example for the club and the equipment. Some families cannot pay for that. The Left wants to help these families. There should be subsidies for club fees. Schools, daycare centers and clubs should work together more.

The Left wants to do more to support volunteers in sports, including a statewide volunteer card and secure funding for voluntary service programs. Sports offerings for specific groups such as older people, people with disabilities or queer people are to receive special support. Clubs should get help to operate with few barriers and without discrimination.

Many people help out in sports clubs for free. The Left wants to support these people more. There should be a volunteer card for the whole state. Sports should be open to everyone. This includes older people and people with disabilities.