SPD: program for the 2026 Baden-Württemberg state election

The SPD wants companies to receive state support only if they commit to keeping their sites and jobs. According to the platform, the economic transformation is currently being carried out one-sidedly at workers' expense.

Companies sometimes get money from the state. The SPD wants to set a condition. Companies must keep their sites. They must also protect the jobs.

The SPD wants an active industrial and structural policy that promotes growth, future technologies and jobs. It plans a one-billion-euro transformation fund, regional advisory councils, model regions and an innovation drive. The aim is to bring the state back to the top in economic growth.

The SPD wants to give industry in the state more support. It plans one billion euros for this. The money is for roads, networks and new ideas. In the regions, unions and companies should plan together.

The SPD wants to bar new state rules that create additional bureaucracy for businesses for two years. Permit procedures would also be streamlined and sped up. Rules on workers' rights and on fair competition during the transformation are exempt.

The SPD wants a stop on new red tape. For two years, the state should make no new rules that mean more paperwork for companies. Permits should come faster. The stop does not apply to workers' rights.

The SPD wants to set up a state fund that takes temporary stakes in companies and start-ups whose products focus on sustainability. Supported firms would have to invest in the state and secure jobs. Returns would fund further state investment.

The SPD wants to start a state fund. The state gives companies money for a limited time and becomes a part owner. The companies must invest in the state and protect jobs. The state uses profits for new investments.

The SPD wants to make industry's supply of raw materials and semiconductors a top-level government priority. The platform sees dependence on individual, geopolitically risky suppliers as the greatest threat to the state's future viability.

Industry needs raw materials and computer chips. Many come from a few risky countries. The SPD wants to change that. Companies should produce more in the region and buy together.

The SPD wants to provide more financing for new companies, in both the founding and the growth phase, and to expand regional founder centers. Funding would be tied to fair working conditions. The platform argues that the state lags behind Bavaria, Berlin and North Rhine-Westphalia in start-up rankings.

The SPD wants to help new companies more. There should be more money for start-ups. In return, the companies must treat their workers fairly. Women and non-binary people should also become more visible as founders.

The SPD wants to support tourism infrastructure together with municipalities and set up a fund for conventions and trade fairs. The Black Forest in particular would be strengthened as a destination, including by modernizing historic inns and huts.

The SPD wants to do more for tourism. There should be a fund for trade fairs and conventions. Old inns and hiking huts in the Black Forest should be modernized. Jobs in tourism should be good jobs.

The SPD wants to make it easier for municipalities to take on tasks such as energy, water, transit or housing themselves. The current priority for private providers would be dropped. The platform argues that profits then stay local and decisions remain under democratic control.

The SPD wants to strengthen public utilities and other town-owned companies. Today, private companies often come first. The SPD wants to change that. Towns should not be allowed to sell important networks. The state will help with money and loan guarantees.

The SPD wants to revise the state's law on collective-agreement compliance and minimum wages so that public contracts are awarded only on the basis of collective agreements. A separate minimum wage for public procurement would be added. It rejects privatizing public enterprises.

The state and towns give contracts to companies. The SPD wants these companies to pay union-negotiated wages. There should also be a minimum wage for such contracts. Public companies should not be sold.

The SPD wants to invest more in continuing education and skills, creating a 20-million-euro fund for employees of small and medium-sized businesses. Unskilled workers and the long-term unemployed would also receive training.

The SPD wants to spend more money on job training. A fund of 20 million euros should help workers in small and medium-sized companies. People without job training should also be able to learn. People in training should get financial help.

The SPD wants to create a permanent state labor market program, backed by law, to move the long-term unemployed into jobs with social insurance coverage. The subsidized 'social labor market' would be strengthened. Programs that help young people start their careers would be expanded.

Many people in the state have been out of work for a long time. The SPD wants a state program to get them jobs. A law should secure the program. Young people should also get more help starting work.

The SPD wants older people to have more say in political decisions at state and local level. A reduced-fare ticket for seniors in need and community buses are to improve mobility. A state strategy is to reduce loneliness in society.

Older people should have more say in politics. Poor seniors should get a cheap ticket for buses and trains. Rural areas should get more community buses. The SPD wants a plan against loneliness. There should be more places to meet.

The SPD wants targeted support for groups at risk of poverty, such as single parents, children and older people. All children are to get a state-funded lunch at daycare and school. The state is again to publish its own poverty and wealth report every five years.

The SPD wants less poverty in the state. All children should get a free lunch at daycare and school. The state should pay for the meals. There should be enough advice for people in debt. A report on poverty should come out every five years.

The SPD supports a right for young people to do voluntary service. The state is to increase its funding to make these programs more attractive. People doing voluntary service are to ride public transit for free.

Young people should have a right to do voluntary service. The state should give more money for it. Volunteers should ride buses and trains for free. There should be more places to serve.

The SPD wants to expand energy, transport and telecommunications networks and issue a state bond to pay for it. Investors would put money into transport projects and electricity and hydrogen grids without public infrastructure being privatized.

The SPD wants to expand roads, railways and networks. The state should issue a bond for this. That means investors lend the state money. The infrastructure should still belong to the state.

The SPD wants the state to cover the full cost of new tasks it assigns to municipalities. An amendment to the state constitution is meant to make this legally clear and avoid court disputes.

The state often gives towns and cities new tasks. The SPD wants the state to pay for these tasks in full. To do this, it wants to change the state constitution.

The SPD wants to give municipalities considerably more state money: about 300 million euros a year by ending state deductions, plus another 500 million euros a year through an investment fund. The state would also take on debt for this. Grant programs would be bundled.

The SPD wants to give towns and cities more money. They should get 300 million euros more each year. On top of that come 500 million euros a year for investments. The state may borrow money for this.

The SPD wants to found a state-owned housing company called BWohnen that builds affordable rental housing together with municipalities and keeps it permanently in state ownership. Housing subsidies are to be realigned so that the state matches federal funds one to one. The party regards housing as a basic public service.

The state should build homes itself again. The SPD wants to create a new company for this. It is called BWohnen and belongs to the state. The homes should be affordable and stay with the state. Dorms for apprentices and students should get funding too.

The SPD wants any city or district to be designated a tight housing market as soon as the local building authority finds that affordable housing is lacking. A state land fund would buy plots and pass them on to nonprofit-oriented developers. In the party's view, land belongs under public responsibility.

Cities should find it easier to say: we lack affordable homes. Then they get more powers. For example, they can buy land first. The state should buy land too. It then passes the land to builders of affordable homes.

The SPD wants to extend the Mietpreisbremse (rent brake) and the ban on converting rentals to condos to more municipalities, and to cap inflation-indexed rents. Subsidized apartments would normally stay price-controlled for 30 years. The party's stated goal is that no one has to spend more than 30 percent of net income on rent.

The SPD wants stronger limits on rents. The rent brake should apply in more towns. It limits how high new rents can be. Subsidized homes should stay cheap for 30 years. No one should pay more than 30 percent of income for rent.

The SPD wants to tighten the ban on misusing housing for other purposes, raise fines and help municipalities set up vacancy registers. Where homes stay empty long-term with no prospect of use, municipalities would be able to start purchase or expropriation proceedings as a last resort.

Homes should not sit empty. The SPD wants higher fines for that. Owners may rent homes to guests for only five weeks a year. Today it is ten weeks. If a home stays empty very long, the city can take it over as a last step.

The SPD wants to refund the real estate transfer tax to families buying their first home. A program called “Jung kauft Alt” (Young Buys Old) would also make it easier to buy and renovate old houses in rural areas. The party aims to promote home ownership and village development this way.

Families should find it easier to buy a home. On their first purchase they get a tax back. It is the tax on buying property. People who buy an old house in a village should get help. There will be grants and advice.

Following Hamburg's example, the SPD wants to simplify building rules and technical standards enough to cut construction costs by up to a third. New housing should, where possible, come from adding stories and densifying, without sealing more land.

Building is expensive. The SPD wants fewer and simpler building rules. That should lower costs by up to one third. New homes should often go on top of existing buildings. That keeps more land open.

The SPD wants to promote sustainable building materials, make new public buildings climate-neutral and make energy retrofits the focus of state subsidies. The sponge city principle is to guide residential neighborhoods so that cities can cope with heavy rain, heat and drought.

The SPD wants building to harm the climate less. New buildings of the state and cities should be climate-neutral. Often they should be made of wood. Cities should store rainwater like a sponge. That helps in heat and heavy rain.

The SPD wants a state action plan to end homelessness in Baden-Württemberg by 2030. A broad support system with specialist offices in every city and county is to be built. The "Housing First" approach, under which people get a home first, is to be expanded considerably.

The SPD wants no one to be homeless by 2030. The state should make a plan for this. Every county should have offices that help. Homeless people should get a home first. Shelters should be decent places.

The SPD wants to strengthen child protection with uniform standards for all youth welfare offices and protection plans in all daycare centers and schools. Every school is to have access to youth services, and the state is to pay half the cost of school social work. More places are to be created in child and adolescent psychiatry.

The SPD wants to protect children better. All youth welfare offices should follow the same rules. Every daycare and school should have a child protection plan. The state should pay half of school social work. There should be more places for children with mental illness.

The SPD wants education to be free of fees from daycare to the highest qualification, for both academic and vocational paths. It also calls for a legal guarantee that scheduled lessons take place. According to the platform, a person's background should not determine their opportunities.

The SPD wants education without fees. This should apply from daycare to a master's degree or master craftsman title. A law should also guarantee school lessons. Then no lessons should be canceled anymore.

The SPD wants to remove all fees for Meister (master craftsman) training and other advanced vocational qualifications, to put vocational education on par with academic education. For the skilled trades, it calls for doubling the start-up grant for master craftsmen to 20,000 euros. Part-time apprenticeships would also be promoted more.

People who want to become master craftsmen should no longer pay fees. This should also apply to similar qualifications, such as technician. Master craftsmen who start a business should get 20,000 euros. The SPD also wants more people to know about part-time apprenticeships.

The SPD wants to abolish daycare (Kita) fees for all children and guarantee every child a place close to home. The final daycare year would become compulsory as shared preparation for school. All-day programs at daycare centers and schools would be expanded.

The SPD wants free daycare for all children. Every child should get a place near home. The last year of daycare should be required. There should be more all-day care. School meals should be healthy and free.

The SPD wants a legal guarantee that scheduled classes actually take place. To that end, more teachers are to be trained and substitute coverage better organized. The platform bases this on every child's right to an education under the state constitution.

The SPD wants classes to stop being canceled. This should be written into law. There should be more teachers. When a teacher is sick, a substitute should come quickly.

The SPD wants to simplify the school system into two equal tracks: the Gymnasium (academic high school) and an integrated second track built on the Gemeinschaftsschule (comprehensive school). Both would lead to the Abitur, the university entrance diploma. The party argues that a permeable system boosts motivation and equal opportunity.

The SPD wants only two kinds of secondary school. One is the Gymnasium. The other builds on the comprehensive school. Students can earn the top diploma at both. Vocational schools should get stronger too.

The SPD wants children with and without disabilities to learn together as the rule, backed by staff, rooms and reliable structures. Children with limited German are to get suitable language support from day one. The party treats inclusion as a human right and language support as a condition for integration.

Children with and without disabilities should learn together. That should be normal. Schools should get more staff and suitable rooms. Children who speak little German should get help right away. More people should be able to learn sign language.

The SPD wants to make digital education mandatory in all school types and subjects and set uniform rules for artificial intelligence in class. At the same time, private smartphone use in grades 1 through 6 would be banned by law. The party sees digital skills as part of a modern general education.

All students should learn how to use digital media. This should be required in all subjects. There should be the same rules for AI in class everywhere. In grades 1 to 6, private phones should be banned.

The SPD wants to use the federal renovation program specifically to modernize and build schools, and to match the federal money with an equal amount of state funds. According to the platform, many school buildings are run-down, not accessible or waste energy.

Many schools are in bad shape. The SPD wants to repair them or build new ones. The federal government gives money for this. The state should add the same amount. Schools should be modern and accessible.

The SPD wants teachers at elementary and lower secondary schools to be paid at the A13/E13 pay grade as well. Mixed professional teams, more school social work and smaller classes are meant to relieve teachers so they can focus on teaching.

Teachers at elementary schools should earn more. They should earn as much as other teachers. More experts should help at schools, for example social workers and IT staff. Classes should be smaller. Teachers should have less paperwork.

The SPD wants to secure reliable one-third funding for the Volkshochschulen (adult education centers) and raise the state's share of music schools' teaching staff costs to 15 percent. The platform regards both as key places for lifelong learning and cultural education.

Adult education centers should get secure funding. The state should pay one third of the costs. Music schools should get more money from the state. Adults should find it easier to earn school diplomas later in life.

The SPD wants to expand Baden-Württemberg as a hub for top-level research and attract researchers from around the world. Those fleeing authoritarian states should be able to continue their academic work in the state. University spin-offs are to be made easier.

The SPD wants more research in the state. Researchers from other countries should be able to come more easily. This also applies to researchers fleeing unfree countries. People who start a company at a university should get more help.

The SPD wants to scrap the fees for international students and for second degrees. In its view, the fees hurt the state as a place to study, make access to education harder and worsen the shortage of skilled workers.

Some students pay fees in Baden-Württemberg. These are students from abroad and people doing a second degree. The SPD wants to end these fees. The state should replace the missing money.

The SPD wants reliable funding for the student services organizations and to double the share of students with a dorm place by 2031. When BAföG (federal student aid) applications take a long time, most of the expected amount would be paid out automatically.

The SPD wants to help students more. There should be twice as many dorm places. Students who wait a long time for BAföG get a large part of the money early. BAföG is state aid for students. There should also be enough counseling for mental health problems.

The SPD wants to clear the renovation backlog at universities and university hospitals, using the reformed debt brake and federal money. The share of core funding in university budgets is to rise again.

Many buildings at universities and university hospitals are old. The SPD wants to repair and renew them. It also wants to use federal money for this. Universities should get more fixed money from the state. Planning and building should go faster.

The SPD wants more permanent positions in academia and a collective agreement for student employees. Students would get a greater say, and protection plans are meant to prevent abuse of power at universities.

Many university staff only have temporary contracts. The SPD wants more permanent jobs. Student assistants should get a collective pay agreement. Students should have more say at their university. There should be better protection against abuse of power and sexual violence.

The SPD wants to strengthen the universities of applied sciences with more research money and broader rights to award doctorates. Dual study programs at the DHBW (cooperative state university) are to grow with additional courses.

There are universities of applied sciences, called HAW. Students there learn close to practice. The SPD wants to give them more money for research. They should be able to award doctorates more often. Dual study programs should also offer more subjects.

The SPD wants every child to be able to swim safely by the end of elementary school at the latest. Daycare centers and elementary schools would also have to offer daily exercise sessions. The platform regards swimming as part of basic education.

The SPD wants every child to learn to swim in elementary school. The goal is the bronze swimming badge. Children in daycare and elementary school should move every day. There will be fixed times for this.

The SPD wants to raise state funding for hospital investment by 60 percent and plan hospitals so that basic hospital care is no more than a 30-minute drive away. It opposes closures it considers irresponsible. Outsourced hospital work is to be brought back in-house.

The SPD wants to spend more money on hospitals. Everyone should reach a hospital within 30 minutes by car. There should be maternity care everywhere in the state. Outsourced jobs should return to the hospitals.

The SPD wants to secure local outpatient medical care and make filling vacant statutory-insurance physician positions a top priority. The physicians' on-call service is to be reachable within a 30-minute drive everywhere. Urgent care practices threatened with closure in 2025 are to be kept or reopened.

The SPD wants more doctors in local areas. The on-call doctor service should be 30 minutes away by car at most. Threatened urgent care practices should stay open or reopen. A foundation should support doctors' offices.

The SPD wants people with mental illness to get outpatient or inpatient treatment faster. Local services and community psychiatry are to be strengthened. For mentally ill people who pose a danger, it supports court-ordered outpatient treatment.

People with mental illness often wait a long time for help. The SPD wants to make this wait shorter. There should be more help close to home. Some ill people are a danger to others. For them, treatment with medication could be ordered.

The SPD wants to promote prevention and health education in municipalities, daycare centers and schools. The public health service is to be reoriented and given more staff. In socially disadvantaged areas, health kiosks are to be set up as easily accessible points of contact.

The SPD wants to do more for prevention. Schools should have first aiders. Public health offices should get more staff. Poorer neighborhoods should get health kiosks. People can get advice there on illness and care.

The SPD wants to create 500 additional medical school places through the rural doctors program and abolish tuition fees for training in the therapy professions. Skilled and assistant staff for health care and nursing are to be actively recruited, including abroad. Foreign professional qualifications are to be recognized free of charge and faster.

The SPD wants 500 new places to study medicine. People training for therapy jobs should no longer pay school fees. The state should bring in care workers from other countries. Foreign qualifications should be accepted quickly and at no cost.

The SPD wants to pay family caregivers a salary that is subject to social insurance contributions. Residents' own share of costs in nursing homes and assisted shared housing is to fall, with the state again funding investment costs. Home care, day care, short-term care and hospices are to be expanded.

Many people care for relatives at home. The SPD wants to pay them a salary for this. Care in a nursing home should cost residents less. The state should give money to nursing homes for this. There should be more hospices.

The SPD wants better funding for addiction prevention and counseling, especially for young people. People with addictions are to receive health care, including clean equipment, drug analysis and supervised consumption rooms. According to the program, the aim is less drug use without punishing users.

The SPD wants more money for addiction counseling. Young people in particular should get help. People who use drugs should be able to have them tested. There should be rooms for safer drug use. Smoke should not bother anyone outside restaurants.

The SPD wants gynecological care close to home without long waits and reliably funded maternity care. Abortions are to be free of charge and available within reasonable distance everywhere in the state. The party bases this on women's right to self-determination.

Women should find good gynecologists close to home. Midwives and birth centers should get more support. An abortion should cost nothing. It should be possible everywhere in the state. Counseling should also be offered online.

The SPD commits to the individual right to asylum and to fair proceedings under the rule of law. Municipalities are to keep organizing accommodation but receive permanent funding from the state for it. Integration management is to be anchored in law.

The SPD wants to keep the right to asylum. Every refugee should get a fair procedure. Towns and cities house refugees. The state should give them steady money for this.

The SPD wants to build additional, better-equipped state initial reception centers and reorganize the immigration authorities. A state immigration office is to be created for this purpose. People without a right to stay could remain in the reception centers until departure instead of being distributed to municipalities.

The SPD wants to build more reception centers for refugees. They should offer small living groups, counseling and language courses. A new state office should handle immigration. Refugees should find it easier to work and train for a job.

The SPD wants to consistently enforce the obligation to leave the country, especially for people who have committed serious crimes. At the same time, the state should again follow most recommendations of the Härtefallkommission (hardship commission). Well-integrated people would thereby gain a prospect of a residence permit.

Some people must leave Germany. The SPD wants to enforce this, especially after serious crimes. But well-integrated people should be allowed to stay. A hardship commission looks at such cases. The state should mostly follow its advice again.

The SPD wants to make it easier for foreign skilled workers to move to the state and to recognize foreign qualifications faster. Integration management, promotion of naturalization and the involvement of clubs are to be expanded. The platform calls Baden-Württemberg a country of immigration and integration important for the economy.

The SPD wants more skilled workers from abroad. Foreign degrees should be recognized faster. The state should promote becoming a citizen. Clubs should get money when they help newcomers settle in.

The SPD wants to keep implementing the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and improve opportunities for people with disabilities in education, housing and work. Deafblind and deaf people are to receive a regularly adjusted cash allowance to offset disadvantages. Integration assistance is to be improved.

People with disabilities should decide about their own lives. The SPD wants more homes without barriers. More people with disabilities should get regular jobs. Deafblind and deaf people should get money from the state. The money should rise with prices.

The SPD wants an action plan to eliminate the pay gap between women and men, which the program says is larger in Baden-Württemberg than in any other German state. More women are to reach leadership positions, supervisory boards and decision-making bodies. To that end, exemptions in the state's Equal Opportunities Act are to be removed.

Women in the state earn less than men. The SPD wants a plan to change this. Pay should be more open. More women should become bosses. The SPD will change the equal opportunities law for this.

The SPD wants to implement women's legal right to protection from violence in the state and create more counseling centers, shelters and violence protection clinics. The Istanbul Convention is to be applied consistently. Offenses are to be prosecuted more strictly and electronic ankle monitors used consistently.

The SPD wants to protect women better from violence. There should be more women's shelters and counseling centers. Offenders should be prosecuted more strictly. Some offenders should wear an electronic ankle monitor. There should also be counseling for offenders.

The SPD wants to secure the state action plan for acceptance and equal rights through a state law and create a state-level commissioner for queer affairs. Schools are to become safer for queer children and teenagers. The party justifies this with growing threats from the right.

The SPD wants to support queer people. Queer means, for example, lesbian, gay or trans. A law should secure the action plan for equal rights. The state should get a commissioner for queer people. Schools should be safer for queer children.

The SPD wants to introduce a state anti-discrimination law that protects people from unequal treatment by public bodies. Hate crime is also to be prosecuted and recorded more thoroughly. The platform argues that people are especially vulnerable when dealing with authorities and enforcement officers.

The SPD wants a new law against discrimination. Discrimination means someone is treated unfairly. The law should protect people when they deal with public offices. People should be able to get compensation. Victims of hate violence should be able to report it easily.

The SPD wants to protect Jewish life in Baden-Württemberg and fight antisemitism through prosecution, education and victim counseling. It bases this on a historical and values-based responsibility of state and society. It wants to keep working closely with churches and religious communities.

The SPD wants to protect Jewish people in the state. Hatred of Jews should be punished. Schools should teach more about it. Victims should get counseling. The SPD wants to keep working with the churches.

The SPD wants transport planning to take greater account of the different mobility needs of women and men. In the platform's view, today's transport system treats these needs unequally.

Women and men often travel differently. The SPD wants transport planning to take this into account. More women should work and lead in the transport field. Money and staff are to be provided for this.

The SPD stands by the goal that newly registered cars be fully climate-neutral and sees electric mobility as the most economically sensible path. As a transition, it wants to allow certain plug-in hybrids and vehicles with range extenders if they meet climate criteria. Suppliers would receive funding for the switch.

New cars should no longer harm the climate. The SPD keeps this goal. It backs electric cars. For a transition period, some hybrid cars should be allowed. Supplier companies get money for the switch.

The SPD wants to reach climate neutrality by 2040 and an 80 percent renewable share of electricity generation by 2030. To get there, the land target for wind power and photovoltaics is to rise to 3.2 percent of the state's area.

The SPD wants much more power from wind and sun. By 2030 it should be 80 percent. For this, more land is to be set aside for wind turbines and solar panels. By 2040 the state should no longer harm the climate.

The SPD wants to invest in power grids, energy storage and charging infrastructure. The state itself is to take part in grid expansion because, according to the platform, this lowers grid fees and thus electricity prices.

The SPD wants to build more power lines. The state should take part in this itself. This is meant to keep electricity cheap. There should also be more storage for electricity. And there should be charging stations for electric cars everywhere.

The SPD wants hydrogen to be available everywhere in Baden-Württemberg within a few years. It sees hydrogen as key for industry and for preserving jobs.

Hydrogen is a gas that provides energy. The SPD wants hydrogen to be available across the state soon. This is meant to help industry. That way, jobs should be kept.

The SPD wants municipal and cooperative heating networks to be the core of the heating transition. Low-interest loans, guarantees and income-based subsidies are meant to make the switch manageable for people with little money as well.

The SPD wants to build more heating networks. A heating network brings heat through pipes to many homes. Cities and cooperatives should run the networks. People with little money should get more help.

The SPD wants to shape the energy transition as a joint project and involve citizens in it. It relies on community energy, cooperatives, tenant electricity models and municipal participation.

The SPD wants people to be able to take part in energy projects. For example, in a cooperative. Renters should also be able to get power from their own roof. Permits should come faster.

The SPD wants to expand the state's biodiversity strategy, rewet peatlands, make forests climate-resilient and increase forest area. It says it relies on participation, compensation and investment rather than bans.

The SPD wants to protect animals and plants better. Peatlands should become wet again. The forest should grow and cope better with heat. People who care for nature should be paid for it. The SPD does not want bans here.

The SPD wants active inspections of animal transports and animal husbandry and a registration requirement for dogs and cats. Animal shelters are to get help housing stray animals through a funding program.

The SPD wants to protect animals better. Authorities should check animal transports and barns more often. Owners should have to register dogs and cats. Animal shelters should get more money.

The SPD wants to enshrine in law that drinking water supply takes priority over industry and irrigation. Water is to remain a public good and the infrastructure is to be made crisis-proof.

The SPD wants drinking water to always come first. This also applies when factories or fields need water. This should be written into law. Water should belong to everyone.

The SPD wants to preserve the state's diverse, small-scale agriculture, cut red tape and protect farms against extreme weather with a dedicated fund. Farmers should be able to make a good living from their work.

The SPD wants to help farms. Farmers should have less paperwork. A fund should help when storms destroy the harvest. A fund is a pot of money. Young people should be able to do a voluntary year on a farm.

The SPD wants to close gaps in public transit across the state by 2030 and make transit a mandatory municipal task that the state helps fund. It also aims for a single transit association covering all of Baden-Württemberg.

The SPD wants buses and trains to run everywhere. In cities every 15 minutes, in the countryside every 30 minutes. Towns should have to offer this. The state should pay for it. There should be only one transit association in the state.

The SPD wants to secure the Deutschlandticket (nationwide transit pass) for the long term and add a statewide discounted ticket for people on low incomes. The youth ticket is to cost 365 euros a year again.

The SPD wants to keep the Deutschlandticket. People with little money should get a cheaper ticket. Young people should ride for one euro a day. Buses and trains should not get more expensive.

The SPD wants to prioritize repairing bridges, tunnels and roads over building new ones. This is meant to secure mobility without sealing additional land.

The SPD wants to fix broken roads and bridges. That matters more to it than new roads. Planning should go faster. A driver's license should stay affordable.

The SPD wants to invest in bike paths, build bike highways faster and link different modes of transport better. This is meant to make getting around without a car easier, especially where regular transit falls short.

The SPD wants to build more bike paths. Bikes, buses and trains should fit together better. Community buses should get money. Cable cars should also become part of local transit.

The SPD wants to move more freight onto rail and waterways to relieve the roads. It rejects a truck toll on state and county roads because, in its view, this would mainly burden mid-sized companies and the regional economy.

The SPD wants more goods to travel by train and ship. That way, fewer trucks should be on the roads. The SPD does not want a truck toll on state and county roads. A toll is a fee for driving on roads.

The SPD wants to draw up an aviation plan covering all airports in the state. The airports are to be net greenhouse gas neutral by 2040.

The SPD wants to make a plan for all airports in the state. By 2040 the airports should no longer harm the climate. The SPD does not want to promote short flights. People should be better protected from aircraft noise.

The SPD wants a comprehensive state AI strategy with clear rules for the public sector and more say for employees. The state should also become less dependent on non-European tech corporations. Companies would get access to quantum computers and high-performance computing.

The SPD wants a plan for artificial intelligence, or AI. There should be clear AI rules for agencies, police and schools. Workers should have a say on AI at work. The state should depend less on big foreign tech companies.

The SPD wants to expand telemedicine services and make sure they are accessible. Health data is to be shared more securely. A digital platform is to help match people with available care places.

The SPD wants more doctor visits over the internet. Everyone should be able to use these services. Care workers should keep records digitally. A website should show free places in care homes.

The SPD wants every household and business to have access to a fiber connection by 2030 and to treat fiber as a basic public service. For mobile service, 4G is to be available everywhere, and statewide 5G is the aim.

The SPD wants fast internet for everyone. By 2030 every home should be able to get fiber. Fiber is a very fast cable for the internet. Cell phone service should also work everywhere. People in rural areas should no longer be worse off.

The SPD wants to put the most-used government services online within five years and enforce uniform digital standards across state and municipal administrations. Digital sovereignty is to become a guiding principle, and a separate ministry for digital affairs and municipalities is planned.

The SPD wants people to handle government errands online. For example, ID cards, driver's licenses or parental benefits. This should work within five years. Anyone who needs help gets it in person. The state should not depend on single software companies.

The SPD wants to set up a dedicated Ministry for Digital Affairs and Municipalities to coordinate digitalization across the state government. It also wants to permanently reserve two percent of the state budget for digital projects.

The SPD wants a new ministry. It will handle digital matters and local governments. The state should spend a fixed amount on digital projects every year. That amount should be two percent of the state budget.

The SPD wants to give the state Office for the Protection of the Constitution (domestic intelligence agency) more staff and better technology. At the same time, parliamentary oversight is to be expanded with a permanent commissioner. Premises where hate or violence is incited are to be closed.

The domestic intelligence agency watches enemies of democracy. The SPD wants to give it more staff and better technology. The state parliament should also be able to check the agency more closely.

The SPD wants to raise allowances for police officers and improve promotion prospects to the higher service grade. The police should reflect the diversity of society, so women and people with a migration background are to be recruited in a targeted way. A service regulation is to address sexual harassment within the police.

The SPD wants to pay police officers better. More women and people with migrant roots should join the police. Police staff should get help with mental stress. There should be clear rules against sexual harassment.

The SPD wants to secure shorter emergency response times and invest in new ambulance stations. For disaster protection it plans a central state office, a state emergency fund and a siren network run by the state. The platform cites the rise in extreme weather caused by climate change.

Ambulances should reach emergencies faster. The SPD wants to pay for new ambulance stations. The state should prepare better for disasters like floods. A new office should manage fire and disaster protection. There should be more sirens.

The SPD wants to hire 80 additional public prosecutors and extend fast-track criminal proceedings across the state. All local courts (Amtsgerichte) are to be kept. The justice system is to pay better and be modernized digitally.

The SPD wants to hire 80 new prosecutors. Criminal cases should move faster. All local courts in the state should stay. The courts should get better computer technology. Young lawyers should earn more money.

The SPD wants to create Häuser des Jugendrechts (juvenile justice centers) in all 17 regional court districts, where authorities work together on youth crime. In the prison system, more staff, more rehabilitation and renovated facilities are to follow. The platform points to overcrowding, drug smuggling, mental illness and radicalization in prisons.

The SPD wants juvenile justice centers across the state. There, police, prosecutors and youth services work together. Prisons should get more staff. Prisoners should be better prepared for a life without crime. Old prisons should be renovated.

The SPD rejects the use of Palantir's analysis software by police and security agencies. Analysis platforms should only be used if their use can be audited and the state alone has control over the data.

Police can use programs that analyze large amounts of data. The SPD sets strict rules for this. Humans must always check the analysis. Only the state may control the data. The SPD rejects software from the company Palantir.

The SPD wants to expand civic education and extremism prevention and give civil society projects stable funding. A new state program called "Wehrhafte Demokratie" (defensive democracy) is meant to do this. The platform argues that prevention and education are the best safeguard against extremist crime.

The SPD wants more civic education. Groups that work for democracy should get steady money. A new state program should pay for this. Local politicians should also get better protection.

The SPD wants to use the Bundesrat to get the federal and state governments to collect evidence for proceedings to have the AfD declared unconstitutional. If the evidence is sufficient, a petition should be filed with the Federal Constitutional Court. The platform points to the federal domestic intelligence agency's classification of the AfD as right-wing extremist.

The SPD sees the AfD as a danger to democracy. The federal and state governments should collect evidence against the AfD. Experts should check the evidence. If it is strong enough, the highest court should decide on a ban.

The SPD wants to protect the courts and the state constitutional court against extremist influence. People with a final conviction for incitement to hatred or for using unconstitutional symbols could lose the right to stand for election. Local self-government is also to be protected from enemies of the constitution.

The SPD wants to protect courts from extremists. The choice of lay judges should be more open. People convicted of inciting hatred should no longer be able to run for office. Nobody should be able to block the state constitutional court.

The SPD announces an administrative reform that will examine which levels of government are needed and remove overlapping responsibilities. Cities and municipalities themselves would be left untouched.

The SPD wants to reorganize the state's administration. It wants to check which levels are really needed. Only one office should be in charge of each task. Towns and cities stay as they are.

The SPD wants to extend citizen participation tools to the county level and have county chief executives (Landräte) elected directly. Local election law would be revised to encourage stable majorities.

The SPD wants more local say for citizens. People should elect the county head themselves. Counties should also have citizen votes. It should be possible to vote out mayors who do not do their job.

The SPD wants binding rules for the political participation of young people in municipalities, counties and at the state level. Larger municipalities would have to set up youth councils, and youth bodies would get the right to speak and submit motions.

The SPD wants young people to have more say. Larger towns must have a youth council. Smaller towns must have youth forums. Young people may speak in the town council and make proposals.

The SPD wants to expand ties with France, Austria and Switzerland, especially in transport, education and research. Border controls should not become permanent. It calls on Switzerland to set firm shutdown dates for its nuclear plants and to give the state a say on the waste repository.

The SPD wants to work more closely with neighboring countries. Trains across the border should get better. The Deutschlandticket should be valid there too. Border checks should not stay forever. Old nuclear plants in Switzerland should be shut down.

The SPD wants to maintain and strengthen the state's development cooperation, relying on existing structures. The government-level partnership with Burundi would be suspended because of serious human rights violations.

The SPD wants to keep helping poorer countries. The state should strengthen this work. But the partnership with Burundi's government will pause. The reason is serious human rights violations.

The SPD wants a state fund to support local newsrooms and nonprofit journalism. It backs a digital levy on large platform companies and wants to strengthen film and games funding as well as the state media authority.

The SPD wants to help local newsrooms. The state should set up a fund for this. A fund is a pot of money. Big internet companies should pay a levy. Schools should teach how to deal with media and news.

The SPD wants reliable funding for the arts and more transparent grant rules. A new fund would pay for investments in cultural institutions, such as renovating venues. The platform justifies this by pointing to the financial pressure on the state's cultural sector.

The SPD wants to give more money to the arts. There will be a new fund for investments. It can pay for repairs to theaters, for example. The SPD says the arts in the state do not have enough money.

The SPD wants more support for local customs and amateur arts groups in the state. Volunteer-run clubs would be relieved of red tape and costs, including by having the state cover their GEMA (music licensing) fees as a lump sum.

The SPD wants to support local traditions and clubs. These include choirs, music clubs and shooting clubs. The state will pay the GEMA fees for these clubs. These are fees for playing music in public.

The SPD wants to improve working conditions for people in the arts. Employees should be paid according to collective agreements, and adequate fees should become a condition for projects that receive state funding.

The SPD wants better pay for people who work in the arts. Staff at theaters and orchestras should get union-scale pay. Freelance artists should get fair fees. This should apply to projects with state money.

The SPD wants free admission to the permanent exhibitions of the state museums and a culture pass for young people. The aim is to give everyone access to art and culture.

The SPD wants entry to state museums to be free. This applies to the permanent exhibitions. Young people will get 100 euros once for culture. This is called the culture pass.

The SPD wants a broad renovation drive for municipal and club-owned sports facilities, with significantly higher state funding. Sports clubs would also be relieved of red tape. The platform points to the poor condition of many gyms, clubhouses and fields.

The SPD wants to repair sports facilities. The state should give more money for this. Everyone should be able to use the facilities. Sports clubs should have less paperwork.

The SPD wants to better protect athletes from sexualized violence and abuse. Prevention, education and investigation of past cases would be strengthened, and independent contact points would be set up.

The SPD wants to protect people in sports from sexual violence. There will be clear rules for behavior. People must be able to report incidents. Coaches should take regular training.