SPD: program for the 2024 Brandenburg state election

The SPD wants to bring new industrial companies to Brandenburg and to modernize existing ones and make them climate-neutral. To do this, the state's economic development agency would be strengthened. Small businesses, skilled trades and tourism would also continue to receive support.

The SPD wants to bring more industry to Brandenburg. Existing companies should become modern and stop harming the climate. The state should help companies more. Small companies and tourism should also get help.

The SPD wants to make planning and permitting procedures for the transformation of the economy much faster. To do this, agencies would get more staff, red tape would be cut and maximum deadlines would apply to permits.

Companies often need a permit from an agency. This often takes a long time. The SPD wants it to go faster. Agencies should get more staff. There should be fixed deadlines for processing.

The SPD wants to push at the federal level for master craftsman training to become free of charge. This would put the master qualification on an equal footing with a university degree. Skilled trades would also get support with digitalization and recruiting young talent.

People who want to become a master craftsman must pay for it. The SPD wants to end these costs. Studying at a university is free too. The state should also help the skilled trades in other ways.

The SPD wants more employees in Brandenburg to be paid under collective bargaining agreements. Public contracts would go only to companies that comply with such agreements. According to the platform, the lack of collective bargaining coverage hurts wages and working conditions.

The SPD wants more union wage agreements in Brandenburg. These agreements set pay and working hours for many companies. Only companies that follow them should get state contracts. The SPD says this means better pay for workers.

The SPD wants to raise the minimum wage that applies to state public contracts to 15 euros an hour in two steps. The platform sees this as a tool for fairer pay and as a push for the statutory minimum wage.

State contracts have their own minimum wage. It is 13 euros an hour. The SPD wants to raise it to 15 euros. This would happen in two steps.

The SPD wants to coordinate public holidays in Brandenburg and Berlin. This is meant to help commuters who work in one state and rely on childcare in the other. The number of holidays would not go down.

Brandenburg and Berlin have some different public holidays. The SPD wants to make them match. This helps people who commute between the two states. The number of holidays should not go down.

The SPD wants to tackle the shortage of labor and skilled workers with a broad approach that also covers housing and social infrastructure. Plans include a recruitment drive, more dormitory places for trainees with capped rent, and immigration of skilled workers from abroad.

Brandenburg does not have enough workers. The SPD wants to bring more skilled workers to the state. Some should come from other countries. Trainees should get more dorm places. The rent there should be limited.

The SPD wants to create citizen service points or social offices that advise on all social benefits in one place. Poverty, especially among children, is to be tackled further. Participation in old age and for people with disabilities also remains a goal.

The SPD wants to set up social offices. There, people get advice on all state benefits. They no longer need to visit many offices. The SPD also wants to keep fighting child poverty.

The SPD wants to expand social housing subsidies according to need and keep funding housing construction with more than 200 million euros a year. The platform describes affordable housing as one of the major challenges of the coming years, to be tackled jointly by the federal government, the state and municipalities.

The SPD wants more low-cost homes. The state should keep paying to help build homes. It will spend more than 200 million euros each year. This also covers dorms for trainees and students.

The SPD wants to change the rules on the Mietpreisbremse (rent brake) so that more municipalities in Brandenburg can apply it. Existing rental housing is also to be better protected by making it possible to block conversions into condominiums.

The rent brake limits how high rents can be in new leases. The SPD wants more towns to be able to use this rule. Rental homes should also stay rental homes. It should be possible to stop them from being turned into owned apartments.

The SPD wants to eliminate the parental fees that still exist, first in the Krippe (nursery for under-threes) and then in the Hort (after-school care). This is meant to ease the burden on families and, in the program's view, is a further step toward fully free education.

The SPD wants parents to stop paying for nursery care. After that, after-school care should also be free. This should save families money. Meals in daycare and school should stay affordable.

The SPD wants to help municipalities build daycare centers through an investment program, so that places from nursery to after-school care are available close to home everywhere. The legal entitlement to all-day care in elementary school is to be implemented, and family centers are to be kept and strengthened.

The SPD wants to give towns money for new daycare centers. There should be enough places nearby everywhere. Elementary school children should be able to get care all day. Family centers should keep advising parents.

The SPD wants to expand youth work and have the state cover a larger share of staff costs. It also wants to make voluntary service more attractive and give children and young people more say in local politics.

The SPD wants to spend more on youth work. The state should pay a quarter of staff costs. Young volunteers should get more pocket money. Children and teenagers should have more say in their town.

The SPD wants to strengthen dual vocational training, which combines on-the-job training with vocational school. It wants to ensure that trainees pay nothing for their training and are paid fairly.

In dual training, people learn at a company and at a vocational school. The SPD wants to strengthen this training. Training should cost nothing. Trainees should get fair pay.

The SPD wants to gradually improve staffing ratios in child daycare and recruit more skilled workers. To do so, new training places are to be created, training shortened and career changers given easier entry. Daycare law is to become simpler, with fewer rules.

The SPD wants more staff for daycare centers. There should be 500 new training places. Training should take 4 years instead of 5. Daycare teachers should be allowed to work full time. There should be fewer rules for daycare centers.

The SPD wants to address the teacher shortage with more training, qualified career changers and the return of retired teachers. University places at both teacher training sites are to keep growing, and the dual teaching degree is to be expanded.

The SPD wants more teachers for Brandenburg. There should be more university places. People from other jobs should find it easier to become teachers. Older teachers should be able to keep teaching after they retire.

The SPD wants to do more to promote reading, writing and math in elementary schools and introduce more binding curricula. Schools are to get administrative positions and school social work, and schools with particular needs are to receive more staff and money based on a social index.

The SPD wants more lessons in German and math in elementary schools. Curricula should become more alike everywhere. Every school should have a school social worker position. Schools with many children in difficult situations should get more help.

The SPD wants to continue the municipal investment program for education and speed up school construction by allowing approval of standardized building types. Schools are to receive more uniform devices and software, and the use of AI in class is to be defined.

The SPD wants schools to be built faster. For this, there should be ready-made building designs that can be reused. Schools should get more computers and software. All students should be able to use a program for learning languages.

The SPD wants to continue joint learning for children with and without special educational needs. In addition, young people without a next step lined up are to get more support at Oberstufenzentren (vocational school centers), and schools are to prepare students better for practical life matters.

The SPD wants children with and without disabilities to learn together. Young people without a training place should get more help. Schools should teach more about everyday life, such as rental contracts. Brandenburg should train its own vocational school teachers again.

The SPD wants to increase the universities' core funding by 5 million euros each year. This is meant to give them planning security. It also wants to keep supporting universities with new buildings and renovations.

The SPD wants to give universities more money. Each year, 5 million euros should be added. This helps universities plan ahead. The state also helps with building and repairs.

The SPD wants to establish a state-run university medical center in Cottbus. It is meant to strengthen Brandenburg as a research location and improve medical care in the Lausitz region. The Medizinische Hochschule Brandenburg (Brandenburg Medical School) would also continue to receive support.

Cottbus should get a state-run university medical center. Future doctors will study there. Research will happen there too. The SPD wants this to improve care in the Lausitz region.

The SPD wants to expand and connect science parks and fund new ones so that research results reach practical use. Small and medium-sized businesses should get easier access to knowledge from universities. Climate, energy and environmental research is also to be strengthened.

The SPD wants to expand places for research and new ideas. These include science parks in Potsdam, Cottbus and Wildau. Small companies should get knowledge from universities more easily. Research on climate and energy should grow too.

The SPD wants to significantly expand civic and democracy education in schools. Students and parents are to be supported in using their participation rights, because in the program's view a strong democracy needs good civic education.

The SPD wants more democracy education in schools. Students and parents should be able to have a say more easily. Democracy projects should get more money. The "newspaper in school" offer should return, this time in digital form.

The SPD wants to raise the state's annual hospital funding from 110 to 200 million euros. This is meant to secure broad inpatient care across the state. Municipal hospitals are to join together in networks.

The SPD wants to give hospitals much more money. So far they get 110 million euros a year. In the future it should be 200 million euros. This should keep hospitals open across the state.

The SPD wants an investment program to fund health centers and polyclinics, especially in rural areas. This should help municipalities secure primary care. It also wants more digital services, a stronger public health service and shorter waits for psychotherapy.

The SPD wants to pay for health centers in towns and villages. Several doctors work together there. This should help rural areas most. People should also get a therapy spot faster.

The SPD wants to continue the Landärztestipendium (rural doctor scholarship) and extend it to dentistry to counter the shortage of doctors in rural regions. Foreign qualifications should be recognized faster. The Agnes program for community nurses should be open to everyone with health insurance.

Rural areas lack doctors. So the SPD wants to keep giving scholarships. A scholarship is money for studying. In return, students must later work in Brandenburg for five years. Experts from abroad should also be allowed to work sooner.

The SPD wants to prevent care costs from pushing people into poverty. The state is to cover a larger share of investment costs so that people in care pay less themselves. The “Pakt für Pflege” (care pact) is also to continue permanently.

A place in a care home costs a lot. The SPD wants people in care to pay less themselves. The state should cover more of the costs. Care at home should also get more support.

The SPD stands by the right to asylum but welcomes the stepped-up federal police checks at the Polish border. It calls for swift implementation of the European asylum compromise and for migration agreements that enable returns and open up legal labor migration.

The SPD wants to keep protecting people in need. But it supports more checks at the border with Poland. Germany should make deals with other countries. Then people with no right to stay can go back. Others may come to work.

The SPD wants to introduce a payment card for asylum seekers as quickly as possible. All benefits under the Asylum Seekers' Benefits Act would be paid through it. This is meant to relieve municipalities and rule out transfers abroad.

Asylum seekers should get a payment card. Their state benefits go onto the card. They cannot send money abroad with it. Local offices should have less work this way.

The SPD wants to get refugees and asylum seekers into work or training as early as possible because, in its view, this builds acceptance of immigration and eases the burden on social funds. A new state integration law is to bundle benefits and obligations under the principle of “support and demand.”

Refugees should start working or training quickly. They should not have to wait long for language classes. They can learn German alongside work. A new law should set out the rights and duties of immigrants.

The SPD wants to eliminate the difference in pay between women and men. To that end, both sexes would have equal access to all fields of training and work, from daycare through working life.

Women earn less than men on average. The SPD calls this unfair. It wants to change that. Girls and boys should be able to learn any job.

The SPD wants to promote women's participation in the workforce and equal career opportunities. Women are to carry less unpaid care work and find it easier to work full time, with equal pay for equal and equivalent work.

The SPD wants to support women at work. Women should have the same career chances as men. They should have to do less unpaid work for family and care. Equal work should get equal pay.

The SPD wants to achieve real equality between women and men and advocates fair pay. To implement the Istanbul Convention, there should be enough women's shelters, counseling centers and prevention services. It supports the Aktionsprogramm Queeres Brandenburg (Queer Brandenburg action program).

Women and men should truly have equal chances. The SPD wants fair pay for all. Women in danger should find enough shelters and advice. The SPD also supports queer people.

The SPD wants the strong expansion of wind and solar power in Brandenburg to pay off financially for people in the state. It calls for a nationwide balancing of grid fees and relies on citizen power models, participation schemes and levies paid by plant operators to municipalities.

The SPD wants power to get cheaper for people. The costs of the power grids should be shared fairly across Germany. Towns should get money when wind turbines stand on their land. Citizens should be able to own a share of such plants.

The SPD wants to keep expanding renewable energy, storage and the hydrogen economy. The aim is for the Berlin-Brandenburg region to become largely energy independent and for industrial plants in the state to keep producing.

The SPD wants more power from wind and sun. It also wants more storage and more hydrogen. Berlin and Brandenburg should make most of their own energy. That way factories in the state can keep working.

The SPD wants to carry out the phase-out of coal-fired power as it is laid down in law. Lusatia is to remain an energy and industrial region and gain new industrial jobs covered by collective agreements.

The SPD sticks to the end of coal as the law sets it. Lusatia should still stay a place for industry. New jobs with union wage agreements should be created there. The federal government should help reliably.

The SPD wants Brandenburg's economy to be climate neutral by 2045 and also wants to carry out strategies for adapting to climate change. It relies on persuasion, funding and incentives, and on public administration setting an example.

The SPD wants Brandenburg to be climate neutral by 2045. Climate neutral means that, on balance, no more harmful gases go into the air. The SPD wants to convince and support people. Moors and forests should help with this.

The SPD wants to convert the heating supply on the path to climate neutrality without overburdening people financially. Municipalities are to receive state support for their climate protection tasks.

The SPD wants heating to become climate-friendly. Nobody should get into money trouble because of this. Towns and villages should get help with climate protection. At the federal level, the SPD wants to watch the social effects.

The SPD wants to make water a priority of state policy and bring the related strategies together centrally. The aim is to hold water across the land, renew installations and better protect waters and fish.

The SPD wants to take great care of water. Water should stay in the land longer. To do this, it wants to renew and build ditches, reservoirs and weirs. It also wants to protect rivers, lakes and fish better.

The SPD wants to strengthen the Lower Oder Valley National Park, promote biodiversity in towns, and preserve and replant tree-lined avenues. Operators of power plants and open-pit mines are to keep paying for restoring mining land in Lusatia.

The SPD wants to protect nature better. A national park should get more powers. More species should be able to live in parks and gardens. Coal companies should pay themselves to restore old mining land.

The SPD considers the current wolf rules unsuitable for protecting grazing animals and regulating the population, and calls for an approach geared to population size. It also wants to convert forests to more mixed woodland and clearly reduce game numbers in some places.

The SPD wants new rules for the wolf. It says today's rules do not protect sheep and cattle well enough. Forests should get more kinds of trees. In some places there should be fewer wild animals.

The SPD wants to preserve Brandenburg's mix of large and small, conventional and organic farms. Farmers are to get reliable conditions and less red tape, and the compensatory allowance for disadvantaged areas is to stay.

The SPD wants to keep large and small farms. That goes for organic farms and other farms. Farmers should have less paperwork. A payment for farms in difficult areas should stay.

The SPD wants more livestock to be kept in Brandenburg again because it sees animal farming as fundamental to value creation in rural areas. A focus is to be on grazing animals.

The SPD wants more animals on farms again. It says animal farming brings money and work to the countryside. Animals on pasture matter most to it. It also wants to do more against animal diseases.

The SPD wants to push ahead with the i2030 rail expansion program and add a rail master plan for all of Brandenburg. Every station in the state is to be served by at least one train per hour. The aim is better frequencies, shorter travel times and barrier-free stations.

The SPD wants to build more and better rail lines. A train should leave every station at least once an hour. Stations should become barrier-free. That means people in wheelchairs can use them easily too.

The SPD wants to put the statutory minimum service standards for local public transport into practice together with municipalities and transit companies. Every municipality is to have at least an hourly connection to larger towns and train stations. People doing voluntary service are to get the Deutschlandticket (nationwide transit pass) for free.

The SPD wants more buses and trains across the state. Every town should have a connection every hour. This should apply on every day of the week. People doing voluntary service should get the Deutschlandticket for free. That is a pass for local transit in all of Germany.

The SPD continues to push for a ban on night flights between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. It also continues to reject a third runway at BER airport.

The SPD wants no planes flying at night. This should apply from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. BER airport should not get a third runway. Protection against noise should continue.

The SPD wants to promote rail freight and combined transport so that fewer trucks are on the roads. It also wants to do more to maintain state roads, build park-and-ride facilities and help municipalities expand charging stations.

The SPD wants more goods to travel by train. That way fewer trucks will be on the roads. State roads should stay in good condition. There should be more charging stations for electric cars.

The SPD wants to develop a cycling plan for the whole state together with the municipalities and Berlin. The result is to be a statewide network of bike routes.

The SPD wants to make a plan for cycling across the whole state. A network of bike routes should be built. People should be able to park bikes safely at train stations and bus stops.

The SPD wants to comprehensively digitize the state administration and ensure broadband coverage throughout the state. It also wants to press for improvements in mobile coverage. The program sees digital participation as a precondition for everyone taking part in society.

The SPD wants fast internet across the whole state. Cell phone coverage should get better too. State offices should work digitally. People should be able to do more things online.

The SPD wants to raise the target number of police positions from 8,500 to 9,000 and deploy more visible police on the streets and in rural areas. It justifies this with growing demands and the public's sense of safety.

The SPD wants more police officers. There should be 9,000 positions instead of 8,500. More patrols should be out on streets and squares. Rural areas should get more local police officers.

The SPD wants to add staff to the criminal police and build up capabilities for online investigations. It points to mobile offender groups operating across regions and to new forms of crime; cooperation with the Polish police is also to grow.

The SPD wants more staff for the criminal police. Police should be better at investigating online too. German and Polish police should work together more closely. Police and local offices should meet to talk about safety.

The SPD wants only people loyal to the constitution to become civil servants and intends to remove those who do not offer that assurance from state service. Extremist organizations are to be monitored more closely, and the domestic intelligence agency will keep receiving support.

Civil servants must stand by democracy and the constitution. Those who do not should not work for the state. The SPD wants to dismiss such civil servants. The Verfassungsschutz should watch extremist groups more closely. The Verfassungsschutz is an agency meant to protect democracy.

The SPD wants to create a dedicated state office for fire and disaster protection to support fire departments and aid organizations statewide. It also plans a second site for the state firefighting school in Wünsdorf and further funding for equipment.

The SPD wants a new state office for fire and disaster protection. The office should support fire departments and aid groups. A second site of the firefighting school is planned in Wünsdorf. The state will give 40 million euros for buildings, vehicles and equipment.

The SPD wants to make fighting forest fires a priority because, in the program's view, such fires can push emergency crews to their limits. It plans a wildfire competence center, more equipment and more prevention.

The SPD wants to fight forest fires better. It wants to set up a special center for forest fires. Fire crews should get more special vehicles. Old ammunition should be cleared from the forests.

The SPD wants to hire more judges, prosecutors and other court staff to speed up proceedings. It also plans a single justice act, a victim protection office and safeguards meant to shield the judiciary from extremist influence.

The SPD wants to hire more judges and prosecutors. Courts should decide faster. The rules for the justice system should be in one single law. There should be a special office for victims of crime.

The SPD wants to continue the state's financial support for municipalities and relaunch municipal investment programs. This is meant to let towns adapt their infrastructure, especially for social services and education, to a growing population.

The SPD wants to keep giving towns and villages a lot of money. There should be new programs for investment. Towns can use them to build schools and daycare centers, for example. The state also wants to help towns with computer work.

The SPD wants to review all state tasks and legal provisions in Brandenburg in order to remove what it sees as unnecessary bureaucracy. For this, the state parliament is to set up a special committee.

The SPD wants less red tape. Red tape here means many rules and forms. All state rules should be checked. A special group in the state parliament should do this. In the end there should be fewer rules than today.

The SPD wants to strengthen the "Tolerantes Brandenburg" (Tolerant Brandenburg) action plan and fund projects against right-wing extremism permanently. The program calls right-wing extremism and racism the greatest danger to democracy in the state.

The SPD wants to strengthen the "Tolerant Brandenburg" program. It works against right-wing extremism and for democracy. Projects for this should get money permanently. Local groups should also get more help.

The SPD wants to keep pushing for more East Germans in leadership positions. The program argues that acceptance of democracy also depends on identification and that East German perspectives are often missing at the top levels.

The SPD wants more East Germans in leading jobs. The SPD says there are too few of them so far. That should change. Then more people can see themselves in democracy.

The SPD wants to anchor cooperation with Poland in all ministries and expand Brandenburg's role in the EU. It sees the state as a bridge between East and West and wants to defend the EU and have domestic companies protected from heavily subsidized cheap imports.

The SPD wants to work more closely with Poland. There should still be a commissioner for Poland. Towns and villages should be able to use EU money more easily. The EU should protect companies from very cheap imports. More young people should take part in exchange programs.

The SPD wants to keep supporting and preserving Babelsberg as a film location. The platform justifies this with the international profile the studio gives the state and with the investment generated by the media industry.

Babelsberg has a famous film studio. The SPD wants to keep supporting this location. The studio makes Brandenburg known around the world. The media industry also brings a lot of money to the state.

The SPD sees culture as a public good that should be open to everyone and must not be subordinated to commercial goals. It wants to keep funding cultural institutions, cover collective wage increases for funded institutions from the state budget, and strengthen cultural offerings in rural areas.

The SPD says culture is for everyone. The state should keep funding theaters, orchestras, music schools and art schools. When wages go up, the state pays for this at funded institutions. Rural areas should have cultural offerings too.

The SPD wants to agree on a state treaty with the Central Council of Jews that could also make teacher training possible. The platform calls churches and religious and philosophical communities important partners; it also wants to support the culture of the Sorbs and Wends and the Low German language.

The SPD wants to sign a treaty with the Central Council of Jews. The treaty should also make it possible to train teachers. The SPD wants to work with churches and religious groups. It also wants to keep the language of the Sorbs and Wends alive.

The SPD wants a fundamental reform of public broadcasting that pays attention to stable license fees and funding. It also wants to safeguard press freedom and keep supporting local journalism from the state budget.

The SPD wants to reform the public broadcasters. The broadcasting fee should stay stable. Pay for top managers should be limited at all public broadcasters. Journalists should be protected. Local media should keep getting money from the state.

The SPD wants to strengthen cohesion in all parts of the state and implement the regional development strategy together with the regions. It intends to counter vacancies in town centers and to work more closely with Berlin.

The SPD wants to strengthen all regions in Brandenburg. Villages and small towns should keep getting money for community projects. Fewer shops in town centers should stand empty. Brandenburg should work more closely with Berlin.

The SPD wants to further raise the sports funding fixed in state law, bringing it into line with the growing number of club members. Sports facilities in municipalities are also to keep receiving support.

The SPD wants to give more money to sports. More people are in sports clubs today than before. So the funding should go up. Sports fields and gyms in towns will keep getting money too.

The SPD wants to bundle support for volunteering and develop it into a statewide strategy for civic engagement. The Ehrenamtskarte (volunteer card) is to become more attractive and be available as an app.

The SPD wants to support volunteering more. Volunteering means people help freely and without pay. There should be a plan for the whole state. The volunteer card should get better and come as an app.