Linke on democracy and the state

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.

Thresholds for popular initiatives, petitions for referendums and referendums are to be lowered further in part. Organizers of such procedures are to get better conditions for reaching the required support. A new instrument, the residents' initiative, is planned: if at least 1,000 residents demand it, the state parliament's specialist committees must deal with the matter. At the local level, residents' motions should need no more than one percent of eligible residents, and citizens' petitions no more than five percent of eligible voters. The approval threshold for local referendums is also to be lowered.

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 change concerns the right to cast a vote, not the right to run for office. It is to apply to elections in municipalities and to the election of the state parliament. The program places the demand within its goal of involving people in the state more closely in political decisions.

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 improved basis named in the program includes simple reimbursement of expenses, coverage in case of damage, more recognition and more help from paid staff. The volunteering fund is meant to support individual measures and projects. The municipal budget is meant to create local structures that support civic engagement. The party wants to improve opportunities for women and people with disabilities to take part in volunteer roles. Volunteer members of local councils are to receive public funds through their council groups, along with adequate equipment and staff.

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.

Mobile counseling teams are to support municipalities in dealing with right-wing extremist activity and protect local structures against radicalization. Every municipality is to get help in building democratic participation. Associations and federations are to be strengthened so that antidemocratic groups find no room. Mayors, volunteers and engaged citizens are to be protected by more than personal security alone. The program also relies on laws and on police and courts standing by them.

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 ombudsperson is meant to serve as a direct link between the public and the administration. The office takes up concerns and suggestions and sets measures in motion. It is to handle both individual requests and systemic problems in the administration. The program describes the state's existing petition system as citizen-friendly and wants to strengthen the petitions committee and the ombudsperson together.

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 party justifies the plan with the goal of filling political leadership positions on an equal basis. The law would cover both the seats in the state parliament and the makeup of the cabinet. In each case, women would hold at least 50 percent.

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 plan calls for four-way parity wherever possible: professors, students, academic staff, and other staff would then have equal votes in governing bodies. It adds one vice-rector post each for students and for staff, inclusion officers with voting rights, and stronger equal opportunity officers. Student bodies are to get better access to information and resources. The Left wants to defend the statutory student body and its mandate to speak on general political issues. Researchers facing intimidation lawsuits are to get quick protection.

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 ban would cover every form of disadvantage based on age. Urban planning would provide for shops for daily needs, pharmacies and doctors' offices close to home, in villages as well as in city neighborhoods. The platform justifies this with the lack of infrastructure and limited mobility that hit older people in rural areas especially hard.

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.

Statewide minimum standards for participation would apply, with fixed response deadlines that are publicly accessible. Short child impact assessments would be published before important decisions. Independent complaint channels by phone, online and in person would be made visible, including in refugee housing. On matters affecting children and young people, youth parliaments would have the right to submit motions, speak and veto in city, municipal and county councils, and would get staff support. Councils of young people living in residential care would be strengthened, up to a statewide council. All procedures would be open regardless of residency status.

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 commission would regularly consult with specialist organizations, including the network against child poverty, the Kinder- und Jugendring (children and youth council) and the state association for cultural youth education. This is meant to make problems visible sooner and help develop solutions. The state's commissioner for children would be a permanent advisory member of the commission.

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 state's share would rise by the amount of the municipal co-payment so that projects under "Demokratie leben!" or a successor program can be carried out. The platform argues that municipalities are where young people first encounter democratic processes. The Left also supports a strong federal program and more civic education offerings suited to each age group.

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.

Municipalities are to be heard as early as the drafting stage and get enough time for their comments. A shared participation portal is to provide all documents. Before a law is passed, joint negotiation meetings are planned where requests for changes can be made. The state is to support municipalities with staff, technology, access to data and training. Comments, justifications and implementation steps are to be publicly visible.

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.

Funding is planned for regional forums, citizens' assemblies at every level, workshop talks, citizens' budgets, participatory budgeting and other hands-on projects. Municipalities with innovative forms of participation are to become model municipalities. Regional participation teams drawn from administration, politics, civil society and academia are to check whether targets for satisfaction, speed and cost are met. They are to give municipalities and the state advice on corrections.

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.

Village councils are to be heard on everything that affects their locality, and their objections are to be taken into account. Their own budget is meant to let them shape things together with residents. Cities with 70,000 or more inhabitants are to be able to set up neighborhood advisory councils with their own budget. The program names the rules in Saxony as the model.

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.

Anyone who successfully sues a public body is to have their costs fully reimbursed. A recourse model is to make agencies that lose a case share in the costs of the proceedings. At the federal level, the Left wants to push for socially appropriate fees. Local courts and citizen-oriented justice centers are to be kept and strengthened. Dessau is to be strengthened as a judicial location through the central court for payment orders.

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 program describes high caseloads, overtime and rising sick leave as the cause of longer proceedings. Staff planning is to factor in retirements and demographic change early and promote new recruits. Remote work, flexible hours, modern equipment and clear promotion paths are meant to make the justice system a more attractive employer. Coaching and health programs for employees are also planned.

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 program calls for video conferencing in courtrooms to cut travel and speed up hearings. Judges and court staff are to get specialized software that also works from home, along with powerful networks and hardware. It also lists online filings, automated deadline checks, online appointment booking, multilingual information portals and online dispute resolution. Digital skills are to be taught during legal training and the Referendariat (legal clerkship).

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.

A new "mediation aid" is meant to let people use mediation for free or at a much lower cost. Counseling centers with uniform quality standards and central coordination are to be set up statewide, supplemented by online and phone services. Mediators are to be professionally trained. The program justifies this by pointing to overburdened courts and ever longer proceedings.

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 platform rules out layoffs due to digitalization. A reallocation program is to steer freed-up capacity to places such as citizen service offices, advice centers and immigration offices. Mobile administrative services are to be expanded for rural areas. People who are less comfortable with technology are to be able to keep getting all services in person. In the party's view, personal contact builds trust in the state.