Linke on democracy and the state

The Left wants more direct democracy at the state and local level, including on questions that affect the budget. Employees are also to have a greater say in their workplaces. The party presents this as a response to declining trust in politics.

The Left wants citizens to vote directly more often. This should also apply to questions about money. It should apply in the state and in towns. Workers should also have more say in their companies.

The platform describes a crisis of democracy: people are losing trust in politics and institutions and withdrawing into private life. Social cohesion suffers as a result, it says. In response, the Left names popular votes that may also cover budget-related matters and more workplace co-determination. The party stresses that democracy is only alive if all genders can take part.

The Left wants to prevent the AfD from gaining access to state power and parliamentary majorities in Thuringia. It calls the party and its state leader Höcke fascist and pledges to defend democracy, human rights and freedom of expression.

The Left does not want the AfD to govern in Thuringia. It calls the AfD and Mr. Höcke fascist. The Left wants to protect democracy. It also wants to protect human rights and free speech.

The platform recalls the 1920s in Thuringia and the former Buchenwald camp and derives from this a duty to stop the far right from gaining power. The Left accuses the AfD of reinterpreting history and putting racism at the center of its politics. Anyone who wants to break up the EU, it says, endangers farming, municipalities and the economy, which benefit from EU funds and the single market. The party charges the Thuringian CDU with not drawing a clear enough line to the right.

The Left wants to develop the existing law on older people's participation into a full senior co-determination act. Senior advisory councils would become mandatory in municipalities with 5,000 residents or more, instead of 10,000. In addition, the AGATHE program against loneliness in old age would be extended to all of Thuringia.

Older people should have more say in politics. Senior councils exist for this. The Left wants to make them required in towns with 5,000 people or more. A program against loneliness in old age should run everywhere in Thuringia.

Senior representatives are to be involved in political processes on a more binding basis and get better local support. The state senior citizens' council is to be adequately funded. The party wants to secure and expand funding for volunteer councils, officers and regional senior offices, and anchor this work more firmly in law. The AGATHE state program, aimed mainly at older people living alone, is to cover all regions with permanent funding.

The Left wants to write the UN children's rights into the Thuringian constitution and supports adding them to the federal Basic Law. Children and young people are to have a binding say, including through mandatory youth parliaments in the counties. In the party's view, early participation makes democracy more resilient.

The Left wants to write children's rights into Thuringia's constitution. Children and young people should have more say. Every county should have a children's and youth parliament. There should also be a children's commissioner.

Local participation by young people is to gain the force of law, as senior participation already has, and be made mandatory in the municipal code. Smaller municipalities could choose among formats such as dedicated assemblies, officers or advisory boards. Plans include a state participation council for self-representation, a children's commissioner, and funding programs for self-organized participation that do not depend on the local political mood. The scientific youth check on the state government's bills is to become permanent and involve young people more directly.

The Left wants a law to strengthen volunteering that cuts red tape and lets volunteers get around regardless of income. The state volunteering foundation is to receive more money, and volunteer agencies are to be set up statewide. The party sees volunteering as what holds society together.

Many people help for free in clubs or the fire brigade. The Left wants to make a law for these people. There should be less paperwork. Volunteers should be able to get around even with little money.

The law is meant to cover all areas, from sports clubs and volunteer fire brigades to senior representation. It provides for volunteering assistance for people with disabilities and municipal action plans with locally tailored approaches. Coordination of volunteer work is to receive financial support. Parents who hold volunteer posts in local politics are to be relieved through childcare services. The party also intends to push for better conditions at the federal level.

The Left wants to push at the federal level for everyone living in Germany to be allowed to vote and stand for election. According to the platform, this would promote political participation by all groups in the population and strengthen democracy.

Today, mostly only Germans may vote. The Left wants to change that. Everyone who lives in Germany should be allowed to vote. They should also be able to run for office. The Left says this makes democracy stronger.

The demand is aimed at the federal level and covers both the right to vote and the right to stand for election. The party links it to the goal of having all groups in the population identify with the political community. Immigrants who organize themselves to stand up for their interests are also to be supported and funded.

The Left wants to add a Thuringian lobby register to the existing record of who influences legislation. In addition, state parliament committees are to meet in public as a rule, and anti-corruption work is to be modernized.

The Left wants a lobby register for Thuringia. It shows who tries to influence politics. Committees in the state parliament should meet in public. The party also wants to do more against corruption.

The existing database at the state parliament shows which organizations and individuals contributed which proposals to laws. The lobby register is meant to go further and reveal influence on parliament, lawmakers, parliamentary groups and the state government outside of lawmaking. All committee deliberations are to be public as a rule. To fight corruption, a register is to be created for the awarding of public contracts.

The Left wants to expand direct democracy and drop the ban on popular initiatives that affect the budget. It also wants a residents' petition at state level that people without a German passport can file as well.

The Left wants more direct democracy. Citizens should also vote on topics that cost money. That is not allowed today. All residents should be able to send requests to the state parliament, even without a German passport.

The so-called finance taboo currently rules out popular initiatives and referendums on issues with financial consequences and is to be removed. A residents' petition at state level would oblige the parliament to debate concerns of everyone living in Thuringia. Municipalities are to become participatory municipalities, for example with citizens' budgets and participation councils. Participation is also to grow in schools, broadcasters and through advisory boards at public companies and special-purpose associations.

The Left wants to modernize Thuringia's constitution and set up a constitutional committee again in the new parliament. Among other things, stronger children's rights and clauses against fascism, racism and antisemitism are to be added.

The Left wants to change Thuringia's constitution. Children should get more rights in it. The constitution should clearly oppose fascism, racism and hatred of Jews. A committee in the state parliament should work on this.

The constitutional committee is to deal with unfinished bills from the 7th legislative term and with new topics. The clauses are to follow the model of Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt. Further basic rights and state objectives are to be added, for example on housing, work, mobility, education and free learning materials. The party also plans a commission of inquiry on equal living conditions, rural regions, sustainability and municipalities' capacity to act.

The Left wants to broaden voting rights: anyone who has lived in Thuringia for more than five years should be able to vote in local elections, whatever their passport. The party also pursues a voting age of 14 at local and state level.

The Left wants more people to be allowed to vote. People who have lived in Thuringia for over five years should vote in local elections. Their passport should not matter. Young people aged 14 and up should also be allowed to vote.

The right to vote in local elections is to be tied to where a person lives rather than to citizenship. At local level, a minimum age of 16 already applies to elections and votes. The party wants to keep pursuing a further reduction to 14 for local and state elections. In participatory municipalities, special attention is to be paid to involving young people.

The Left stands for an institutional separation of church and state. It wants to end the state payments to the churches and rejects limited rights for employees of church-run institutions.

The Left wants a clear split between state and church. The state still pays the churches money regularly. These payments should end. Church employees should have the same rights as other workers.

The platform regards religious and philosophical communities as a natural part of public life. Staatsleistungen are regular payments by the states to the churches for historical reasons; they are to be redeemed and ended. The party rejects the special church labor law with fewer employee rights. Churches' social work is to be supported, but no more than that of other organizations.

With many retirements ahead, the Left wants to hire new judges and prosecutors step by step and digitize the justice system. It also wants to strengthen independence and co-determination within the judiciary.

Many judges and prosecutors will retire soon. So the Left wants to hire new young people. Courts should work with computers instead of paper. Judges should have more say in their own affairs.

Enough budget funds are to be available for new hires, and attractive legal traineeships are to continue. Electronic filing and electronic case files are to get the technical basis quickly and be linked with other states, without making access to justice harder. The judicial selection committee and co-determination rights are to be strengthened, including through a change to Article 89 of the state constitution. The profession of Rechtspfleger (senior court officers) is to be upgraded and their training redesigned. A case-progress statistic is to show, for example, whether motives found in investigations are reflected in sentencing. Judges are to be required to take further training, for instance on domestic violence and child protection.

The Left wants to push in the Bundesrat for fee rules that are socially fair for people seeking justice and viable for lawyers. Legal aid and out-of-court dispute resolution are to be strengthened.

The Left wants everyone to be able to get justice. People with little money should get more help with court costs. Disputes should be settled without a court more often. The state should give money for this.

Thuringia is to advance a reform of lawyers' fees and more legal aid in the Bundesrat. Mediation and other out-of-court procedures are to receive financial support to relieve the courts. Volunteer arbitrators in municipalities are to be strengthened and the arbitration procedure made better known. In the Bundesrat, the party also wants to work for better quality in legal guardianship.

The Left wants a state law to secure funding for democracy initiatives over several years. The state program for democracy, tolerance and openness is to be developed further, and memorial sites are to be secured.

The Left wants a law to promote democracy. Democracy projects should get money for several years. Then they do not have to worry about funding every year. Memorial sites should also get secure funding.

The law is meant to free the organizations from recurring uncertainty about their funding. The existing state program is to be revised continuously in its content. Sites commemorating the victims of German fascism and the anti-fascist resistance are to be supported and financed. The party also wants to end what it describes as the discrediting of anti-fascist activists and the downplaying of neo-Nazis through false equivalence.