SPD: program for the 2025 federal election

The SPD wants German carmakers to be spared fines under the EU's CO2 fleet limits for now. It says the money is needed for climate-friendly vehicles and jobs. The targets themselves are to stay.

The EU has limits for CO2 from new cars. Companies that miss them pay a fine. The SPD wants German carmakers to pay no fines right now. They should spend the money on new cars and jobs. But the goals should stay.

The SPD wants to set up a Deutschlandfonds (Germany Fund) in which the state and private investors jointly finance investments. It would start with €100 billion and fund things like grids, charging stations and housing construction.

The SPD wants to start a new fund. It is called the Deutschlandfonds. The state and private investors both put money in. It should start with 100 billion euros. The money pays for things like power grids and homes.

The SPD wants tax relief for partnerships and sole proprietorships when they reinvest profits. A new legal form, the "Gesellschaft mit gebundenem Vermögen" (company with tied assets), is also meant to ease succession in mid-sized firms.

Some companies belong to individual people. If they put their profit back into the company, they should pay less tax. The SPD also wants to allow a new type of company. It makes it easier for employees, for example, to take over a firm.

The SPD wants to further shorten planning and approval procedures and to merge, simplify and digitize reporting obligations. The rights of workers and consumers and environmental goals are to be preserved.

The SPD wants less red tape. Permits should come faster. Companies should have to write fewer reports. Much should be done digitally. The rights of workers and consumers stay protected.

The SPD wants to supply industry with raw materials through the Rohstofffonds (raw materials fund), more domestic extraction and a coordinated EU strategy. The circular economy strategy is to be implemented pragmatically.

Industry needs raw materials. The SPD wants to extract more of them in Germany. The EU should have a shared plan for raw materials. Also, more materials should be reused.

The SPD wants to simplify the EU's carbon border adjustment and add export support so that climate-friendly production is not a competitive disadvantage. A European resilience strategy is also meant to bring key industries back to Europe.

Companies that produce in a climate-friendly way should not be worse off. The EU charges a CO2 price on some goods at the border. The SPD wants to make this rule simpler. Companies should also get help with exports. Key industries should produce in Europe again.

The SPD wants to agree on international standards for decent work with living wages and stands by the EU supply chain directive. At the UN level, too, it demands binding rules on business and human rights.

Companies buy goods and raw materials from all over the world. The SPD wants firm rules for this. Workers everywhere should earn enough to live on. Companies should respect human rights. These rules should apply worldwide.

The SPD wants the EU to design trade and investment agreements more simply and conclude them more quickly. Because, in the platform's view, individual member states too often slow down negotiations, a qualified majority in the Council of Ministers is to be enough in the future.

The EU makes trade deals with other countries. This often takes long because single EU countries slow things down. The SPD wants to change that. In the future, a large majority of EU countries should be enough. The deals should also protect the environment and human rights.

The SPD wants to tackle the skilled-labor shortage with better vocational training, more upskilling and continued immigration of skilled workers. It rejects longer working hours or weaker protections for employees.

Germany lacks skilled workers. The SPD wants to spend more on training. Young people without a degree should get a chance. Women in part-time work or mini-jobs should be able to work more if they want. Skilled workers from abroad should keep coming too.

The SPD wants to secure employment during economic upheaval through training, short-time work and direct job-to-job placement. People who take training while unemployed would be able to draw unemployment benefits for longer as a result.

The SPD wants to protect jobs. People who lose a job should find a new one fast. People who are jobless and learn new skills get unemployment pay for longer. The time spent learning will not count.

The SPD wants to reform the Works Constitution Act and give works councils full co-determination rights in several areas. Employee rights on supervisory boards are also to be strengthened and workarounds stopped.

Works councils speak for the workers in a company. The SPD wants to give them more rights. For example, they should help decide on staffing and on artificial intelligence. People who obstruct works councils should be punished more easily.

The SPD wants to abolish fixed-term employment contracts that lack an objective reason. It also wants to expand health protection at work and keep sick pay in place.

Some job contracts end after a set time for no reason. The SPD wants to ban that. It also wants to protect health at work better. People who are sick should keep getting paid.

The SPD wants every employment relationship to be covered by social insurance and wants to make it easier to move from mini-jobs into insured work. In the platform's view, mini-jobs lead to poverty in old age. The SPD also backs equal pay for equal work and work of equal value.

Mini-jobs have little social protection today. The SPD wants to change that. Every job should pay into social insurance. There are exceptions for some groups, such as retirees. Women and men should earn the same.

The SPD wants to make every recipient of Bürgergeld (citizen's income) a suitable offer and put more money into active labor market policy. It keeps the duty to cooperate, saying Bürgergeld is not an unconditional basic income.

People who get Bürgergeld should receive a suitable offer of work. Job centers should get more money and staff. People still have to cooperate. The SPD says Bürgergeld comes with conditions.

The statutory minimum wage is to rise to 15 euros by 2026 at the latest. The SPD bases this on the European directive, under which it should reach at least 60 percent of the median income.

The minimum wage is the lowest pay allowed. The SPD wants to raise it to 15 euros an hour. That should apply by 2026 at the latest. A European rule serves as the yardstick.

The SPD wants to bring considerably more employees under collective agreements. A Bundestariftreuegesetz (federal collective-wage compliance law) would tie federal contracts to collectively agreed pay. In the platform's view, collective agreements mean higher pay and better working conditions.

Collective agreements set pay and working rules for many workers. The SPD wants more companies to pay by these agreements. The federal government should give contracts only to such companies. The right to strike should stay as it is.

The SPD wants to organize the welfare state around people's life situations rather than agency responsibilities. Applications would be simplified, benefits combined and central contact points created. Certain benefits would be paid without an application.

The SPD wants to make getting help from the state easier. There should be one place for all questions. Nobody should have to go from office to office. Child benefit should come automatically. People would not need to apply.

The SPD wants to keep the pension level permanently at no less than 48 percent, since the current safeguard ends in mid-2025. It rejects a higher retirement age, and people with 45 contribution years would still be able to retire two years early without deductions.

Pensions should not fall behind wages. The SPD wants to keep the pension level at 48 percent or more. The retirement age should not go up. People with 45 working years may still retire earlier. People who work past retirement age should get benefits.

In the long run, everyone in work is to belong to the statutory pension insurance, starting with the self-employed. The SPD wants to give more support to occupational and private pensions so that low earners in particular can save additionally.

The public pension should later cover everyone who works. First, the SPD wants to cover self-employed people. Company pensions should get more support. State money for private savings should mainly help people with low pay.

The SPD wants to support company investments in machinery and equipment with a tax refund of 10 percent of the purchase price. It rejects across-the-board tax cuts for all companies and relies on targeted incentives.

Companies should invest more in Germany. If a company buys machines or equipment, it gets 10 percent of the price back. The money comes through its taxes. The SPD does not want a tax cut for all companies.

The SPD wants to change the debt rule in the constitution so the state can borrow more for investment. It says today's rule does not fit current challenges, and that paying for long-term investment with credit spreads costs fairly across generations.

The debt brake limits new government debt. The SPD wants to change this rule. The state should be allowed to borrow more money to invest. For example in schools, railways and defense. The states should also be allowed to borrow.

The SPD proposes a pact between the federal government, states and municipalities to give all levels more fiscal room for investment. A solution is to be found for municipalities' legacy debts that also takes eastern German municipalities into account.

Many cities and towns have little money and old debts. The SPD wants to solve this problem. The federal government, states and towns should work together. Funding programs should become simpler.

The SPD wants to fight tax evasion, financial crime and money laundering harder and build up a dedicated agency for it. A uniform minimum corporate tax of 15 percent is to apply across Europe.

Some people and companies do not pay their taxes. The SPD wants to fight this harder. An agency should take care of it. Across Europe, companies should pay at least 15 percent tax.

The SPD wants to keep levying the solidarity surcharge and use it to fund the country's transformation. The group of people paying it is not to grow beyond today's.

The Soli is an extra tax. Today only people with very high incomes and companies pay it. The SPD wants to keep the Soli. But no more people should pay it than today.

The SPD wants to tax very large fortunes again and introduce minimum taxation of large business assets under the inheritance tax. It says work is taxed more heavily than wealth today; the states are to spend the extra revenue on education.

Very rich people should pay more tax. The SPD wants a tax on very large fortunes again. People who inherit a big company should pay at least a fixed share. The family's own home stays tax-free. The money should go to schools.

The SPD wants to tax investment income at regular income tax rates and introduce a financial transaction tax. Gains from selling property the owner does not live in would no longer be tax-free even after ten years.

Profits from investments should be taxed like wages. The SPD also wants a tax on trades in stocks and securities. People who sell a rented house at a profit should always pay tax. Today that is tax-free after ten years.

The SPD wants to lower income tax for about 95 percent of taxpayers and, in return, draw more on very high incomes and wealth. It argues that work is currently taxed comparatively heavily and wealth comparatively lightly.

Most people should pay less income tax. Very rich people should pay more. Tax returns should become simpler. The tax office fills them in beforehand. Extra pay for overtime should be tax-free.

The reduced value-added tax rate on food is to drop from seven to five percent. After years of rising prices, the SPD wants to relieve low-income households in particular and have the market power of large retail chains watched more closely.

Food has become much more expensive. The SPD wants to lower the tax on food. It would fall from seven to five percent. That helps people with little money the most. Agencies should check big retailers' prices more closely.

The SPD wants to distribute the tax burden within couples more fairly while taking existing life choices into account. Tax classes III and V are to be merged as soon as possible into the factor method of class IV. Single parents would get more effective tax relief.

The SPD wants to change taxes for families. For couples, the tax should be shared more fairly. Tax classes 3 and 5 would go away. Single parents should be able to subtract an amount directly from their tax.

The SPD wants to advance a worldwide tax on billionaires together with other countries. The very rich are to contribute more to funding the common good, the UN Sustainable Development Goals and climate action; the international financial system is also to become fairer.

The SPD wants a new tax for billionaires. Many countries should introduce it together. The money should help all people and the climate. Poor countries with high debts should get relief.

The SPD wants to make the Mietpreisbremse (rent brake), which expires at the end of 2025, permanent and extend it to buildings first occupied up to 2019. Loopholes are to be closed and tenants better protected against rent gouging and displacement.

The rent brake limits the rent in new leases. It ends in late 2025. The SPD wants it to stay for good. It should also cover newer buildings. The SPD wants to stop tricks that get around it.

In tight housing markets, rents would be allowed to rise by no more than six percent over three years, and only up to the local reference rent. The SPD wants to halt rent growth in metropolitan areas and also ease tenants' burden from utility costs and property tax.

Rents are rising fast in many cities. The SPD wants to limit that. There, rent could go up by six percent at most in three years. Landlords should not pass the full property tax on to tenants.

The SPD wants students and apprentices to pay no more than about 400 euros for a room in a shared flat. To that end, more dormitories are to be built, the rent brake made easier to enforce, and the housing allowance in BAföG (student aid) raised regularly.

Rooms for students and trainees are often expensive. The SPD wants a shared-flat room to cost 400 euros at most, where possible. It wants more dorms to be built. A website should help lower rents that are too high.

The SPD wants to keep investment in social housing permanently high, set up a federal housing company and pursue a socially oriented land policy. At the same time, construction costs are to fall and procedures to speed up. The platform treats housing as a public good that should not be left to the market alone.

There are too few cheap homes. The SPD wants more money for social housing. The federal government should start its own housing company. Cities should find it easier to buy land. Building should become faster and cheaper.

The SPD wants to make buying a home easier, especially for young families in small towns and municipalities. The "Jung kauft Alt" (young buys old) subsidy program is to be made permanent and expanded. According to the platform, home ownership serves housing supply, wealth building and security in old age.

Many people dream of owning a home. The SPD wants to help. Young families should get cheap loans for older houses. Towns should be able to sell building land more cheaply to local people.

The SPD wants to lengthen Elterngeld (parental allowance) from 14 to 18 months, with six months reserved for each parent. A new two-week paid leave for fathers or partners after a birth is also planned. The aim is more family time and a more equal split between partners.

Parents should get parental allowance for longer. It would be 18 months instead of 14. Each parent has six months just for them. After a birth, fathers or partners should get two weeks off. They keep getting their pay during that time.

The SPD advocates fee-free education from daycare onward and a free, healthy lunch in daycare centers and schools. An annual family budget would subsidize household help. Parents should thus be able to rely on childcare and get relief in daily life.

Daycare and school should cost families nothing. All children should get a healthy lunch there without paying. Families should get money each year for help at home. Families in hard situations should get support for longer.

Low-wage families, especially single parents, should get by on child benefit, child supplement and housing benefit without topping up with Bürgergeld (citizen's income). The SPD also wants to expand education and participation services and sees these as steps toward its basic child allowance.

Some parents work and still have too little money. The SPD wants to help them with child benefit, child supplement and housing benefit. Then they no longer need citizen's income. Applying should get easier. Daycare centers and schools in poor areas should get more help.

The SPD wants to put funding for voluntary service programs on a new footing through an agreement between the federal government and the states. The platform argues that in many places there are more applicants than places.

Young people can do a year of voluntary service. Often there are too few places. The SPD wants to secure more money for this. The federal government and the states should arrange it together.

The SPD wants to expand research funding, especially for basic research in key industries and green technology. Universities are to keep receiving public funding, and academic careers are to become more predictable.

The SPD wants to give more money to research. Researchers should get funding more easily. Universities keep getting money from the state. Jobs in science should be more secure. Ideas should turn into products faster.

The SPD wants to continue the vocational training guarantee and hold companies more responsible for training, for example through levies. It names a right to further training and a fresh career start at every stage of life as its goal.

Every young person should be able to get vocational training. Companies should train more people. Where too few are trained, companies should pay into a shared fund. Everyone should have a right to further training.

The SPD wants a binding agreement with all states on a staffing drive for daycare centers and schools. It adds mandatory checks of children's development, a Startchancen (equal start) program for daycare centers, a continued Digitalpakt for schools and the all-day care entitlement.

Daycare centers and schools need more staff. The SPD wants a firm agreement on this with all states. Children should be tested and supported early. Daycare centers in poorer areas should get more money.

The SPD wants to adjust BAföG (student aid) regularly to living costs, make more students eligible and gradually turn it back into a full grant. The minimum pay for trainees is also to rise.

BAföG is money from the state for students. The SPD wants more students to get it. It should rise with prices. Later, students should not have to pay anything back. Trainees should get more pay.

The SPD wants a levy on manufacturers of sugary drinks and binding targets for less sugar, salt and fat in food. Stricter rules are to apply to energy drinks, alcohol, disposable e-cigarettes and new nicotine products.

The SPD wants less sugar, salt and fat in food. Companies should pay a levy on sweet drinks. There should be stricter rules for alcohol and nicotine. This is meant to protect children and teenagers above all.

The SPD wants to bring statutory and private health insurance together into a single Bürgerversicherung (citizens' insurance) system in which everyone takes part. The aim is equal access to care for all and stable contributions.

Today there is public and private health insurance. The SPD wants one shared system for everyone. It is called citizens' insurance. Everyone should get the same treatment. People who earn more should pay more.

The SPD wants health funds and the associations of statutory health insurance physicians to guarantee doctor's appointments. People with statutory insurance should get an appointment as quickly as privately insured patients.

Many people wait a long time to see a doctor. The SPD wants an appointment guarantee. People with public insurance should be seen as fast as people with private insurance. If that fails, they should pay lower contributions.

The SPD wants further structural reforms to secure medical care, especially in structurally weak regions. Emergency care and ambulance services are to be strengthened and the barriers between practices and hospitals removed.

The SPD wants good doctors and hospitals everywhere. This matters most in areas with few services. Ambulance services should become stronger. Doctors' practices and hospitals should work together better.

The SPD wants to strengthen prevention and early detection and to expand the electronic patient record for that purpose. Mental health, care for disadvantaged groups and gender-sensitive medicine are also to receive more attention.

The SPD wants to stop illnesses early. The electronic patient record should help with that. People should get a therapy place faster. Medicine should pay more attention to differences between women and men.

The SPD wants to improve supply security for all medicines and bring more production to Germany and Europe. Local pharmacies are to be strengthened as points of contact.

Sometimes medicines are missing. The SPD wants to change that. More medicines should be made in Germany and Europe. Local pharmacies should be strengthened.

The SPD wants a thorough review of how the state handled the COVID-19 pandemic, including through a citizens' assembly. Lessons are to be drawn for future crises.

The SPD wants to look closely at the COVID years. A citizens' assembly should help. That is a group of randomly chosen people. The state should learn from this for new crises.

The SPD wants to cap residents' own share of nursing home care costs at 1,000 euros a month. Statutory and private long-term care insurance are to be merged into one jointly financed system so that needing care does not lead to poverty.

Care in a nursing home costs a lot of money. The SPD wants to set a limit. People should pay at most 1,000 euros a month for care themselves. There should also be just one care insurance for everyone.

The SPD wants to support family caregivers with family care leave and a family care allowance modeled on Elterngeld (parental allowance). Care at home is to be strengthened because people in need of care want to stay in familiar surroundings as long as possible.

Many people care for relatives at home. The SPD wants to give them more time for this. They should also get money, much like parents get parental allowance. There should be more advice and more day care for people who need care.

The SPD wants to tackle the shortage of skilled staff in health and care with better pay, working hours and wider powers. Needs-based staffing levels are to apply nationwide for all groups of employees.

There are too few skilled workers in care and hospitals. The SPD wants to make these jobs better. There should be good pay and enough staff. Training should be free. Skilled workers from abroad should join too.

The SPD wants to create the conditions for a cannabis legalization that complies with EU law. This is meant to improve health and youth protection and weaken organized crime.

The SPD wants to make cannabis legal. This should fit the rules of the EU. The SPD says this protects health and young people better. Criminal gangs should also earn less this way.

The SPD wants to develop the Skilled Immigration Act further, make it simpler to recognize foreign qualifications and digitize procedures. Refugees should be allowed to work as early as possible. Immigration must not lead to wage dumping, the platform says.

Germany needs skilled workers from abroad. The SPD wants to make the rules simpler. Foreign qualifications should be accepted more easily. Refugees should be allowed to work early. There should be more German classes.

The SPD wants to expand integration courses and fund them reliably. A new Partizipationsgesetz (participation law) is to use binding rules to ensure equal participation, for example in education, work and political decision-making.

The SPD wants to offer more integration courses. In them, immigrants learn German and how life in Germany works. The courses should get enough money. A new law should remove barriers. Immigrants should be able to take part equally everywhere.

The SPD wants skilled workers to be able to immigrate more easily and quickly because, in its view, the aging society needs immigration. Well-integrated refugees without protection status and without a criminal record are to be allowed to switch into skilled-worker immigration.

The SPD says Germany needs skilled workers from abroad. They should be able to come more easily and quickly. Their degrees should be recognized faster. Some refugees do not get protection. If they work and commit no crime, they should be allowed to stay.

The SPD wants to make asylum procedures much faster, both at the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees and in the administrative courts. Decisions are to be made within six months. Processes after arrival are also to become more centralized, digital and simple.

Asylum procedures should go faster. A decision should come within six months. For that, offices should work digitally. The immigration offices should get more support. People should be able to handle many things in one place.

The SPD stands by the individual right to asylum and wants to implement the Common European Asylum System with humanitarian standards and a distribution based on solidarity. It rejects border closures and blanket turn-backs at internal borders. Family reunification for people with subsidiary protection is to remain in place.

The SPD wants to keep the right to asylum. All EU countries should take in refugees. No one should be turned away wholesale at German borders. Border checks inside the EU should be an exception. Families of people with limited protection may still join them.

The SPD wants tighter control of the EU's external borders and consistent returns of people required to leave, preferably through voluntary departure. At the same time, rule-of-law and humane standards are to apply: it rejects pushbacks and moving asylum procedures to third countries.

The EU's outer borders should be controlled better. People who may not stay should leave. Ideally on their own. Otherwise the state deports them quickly, above all criminals. But asylum procedures should stay inside the EU.

The SPD wants to shield sea rescue from prosecution and also have the EU organize it as a state task. Safe and legal escape routes, admission programs and migration agreements are meant to prevent dangerous crossings. More development cooperation is to reduce the causes of flight.

The SPD wants people in distress at sea to be rescued. Rescuers should not be punished for it. The EU should rescue people too. There should be safe routes for refugees. Germany should help poor regions so fewer people have to flee.

The SPD wants women to stop earning less than men. To that end, the EU Pay Transparency Directive is to be transposed into German law by 2026 and the Entgelttransparenzgesetz (pay transparency act) developed into a pay equity law.

Women often earn less than men. The SPD wants to change that. A law should make pay easier to see. Germany would put an EU rule into practice for this. Social care jobs should get more recognition.

The SPD wants to improve accessibility in the public and private sectors and to require private providers to take part. People with disabilities should find it easier to work in the regular labor market, and workers in sheltered workshops should earn more.

People with disabilities should be able to take part everywhere. The SPD wants to remove barriers. Private companies must do so too. People with disabilities should find jobs more easily. In sheltered workshops they should get more money.

The SPD wants a nationwide legal entitlement to protection and counseling for people affected by violence. At the same time, the Gewaltschutzgesetz (Protection Against Violence Act) is to be tightened, for example with electronic ankle monitors and mandatory training for offenders.

The SPD wants to protect victims of violence at home better. Victims should have a right to a place in a women's shelter. They should also have a right to counseling. Offenders should be watched more closely, for example with an electronic ankle monitor.

The SPD wants to fight antisemitism and all group-focused hostility, and to promote and protect Jewish life in Germany. It bases this on Germany's special responsibility.

The SPD wants to fight hatred of Jews. Jewish people should be able to live safely in Germany. That applies on the street, online and at universities. The memory of the murder of the Jews should stay alive.

The SPD wants to make gender equality a guiding principle for all ministries and put the federal equality strategy on a statutory footing. Laws, measures and the federal budget are to be assessed for their effects on equality.

The SPD wants women and men to have equal chances by 2030. All ministries should pay attention to this. Every new law should be checked for it. The SPD also wants to act against hostility toward women.

The SPD wants abortion to no longer be regulated in criminal law, except where it happens against or without the pregnant woman's will. Abortion is to be part of basic medical care.

The SPD wants abortion to no longer be a crime. It stays a crime only if the woman does not want it. Abortion should be part of normal medical care.

The SPD wants a parity law to ensure women and men are equally represented in the Bundestag. Supervisory and executive boards are also to reach parity by 2030.

The SPD wants as many women as men in the Bundestag. A new law should ensure this. Company leadership should also have as many women as men by 2030. Later there should be an equality law for private companies.

The SPD wants to add sexual orientation and gender identity to Article 3 of the Basic Law. Queer families are to be treated fully equally in family and parentage law, and the Selbstbestimmungsgesetz (Self-Determination Act) is to stay.

The SPD wants to protect queer people better. The constitution should ban discrimination based on sexual orientation. Families with two mothers or two fathers should get equal rights. The Self-Determination Act should stay.

The SPD wants to strengthen protection against discrimination, racism and exclusion. To do so, the General Equal Treatment Act is to be broadened and the office of the anti-racism commissioner made permanent.

The SPD wants to protect people better from racism. The law against unequal treatment should cover more cases. There should be more counseling centers. The office of the anti-racism commissioner should stay for good. There should be a new plan against racism.

The SPD wants to first stabilize the fees for the long-distance power grid and then cap them at 3 cents per kilowatt-hour. This is meant to halve the average burden on households and businesses and provide planning certainty.

Everyone pays a fee for the big power grid. The SPD wants to limit this fee. It should be 3 cents per kilowatt-hour at most. Then power gets cheaper for homes and companies.

The SPD wants more electricity-intensive companies to get relief on grid fees and through electricity price compensation. The reduced electricity tax is to become permanent.

Some companies need a lot of power. The SPD wants more of them to pay less for it. The tax on power is lower right now. That should stay that way for good.

The SPD is betting on electrification and hydrogen in industry. It wants to create lead markets for green steel made in Germany with fixed purchase quotas, and to build a hydrogen network and storage.

Industry should become climate-friendly. For that it needs hydrogen. The SPD wants to build a network and storage for hydrogen. Green steel from Germany should have guaranteed buyers. For example, the railway should use a fixed share of it.

The SPD wants climate policy to rely more on collective solutions such as heating networks and to treat climate neutrality as part of public services. Subsidies would go mainly to people who could not otherwise afford to switch.

The SPD wants everyone to be able to afford climate action. The state should build shared solutions, such as heating networks. A heating network heats many houses at once. Money from the state should go mainly to poorer people.

The SPD commits to Germany's and the EU's climate targets and to the European Green Deal. It does not want to weaken rules already adopted, partly because in its view businesses need planning certainty.

The SPD wants to keep the climate targets. That applies to Germany and to Europe. It does not want to loosen rules already agreed. Companies should be able to rely on them.

The SPD sees the carbon price for households and small businesses only as a supplementary tool. Once the European scheme applies from 2027, measures such as a Klimageld (climate payment) are meant to keep people from being financially overburdened.

Anyone who emits CO2 has to pay for it. That makes heating and fuel more expensive. The SPD wants to protect people from paying too much. One example is a climate payment. That is money the state pays to citizens.

The SPD wants to keep expanding wind power, solar energy and storage and make sure the low generation costs reach consumers. This includes stable grid fees, price oversight for district heating and help for poorer households.

Electricity from wind and sun is cheap. The SPD wants more of it. The cost of the power grid should not keep rising. The state should check prices for district heating. Poorer households should be able to rent a heat pump.

The SPD wants an urban development funding program that helps municipalities adapt to climate change. Cities are to become greener and more resilient to heat.

Cities get very hot in summer. The SPD wants to give cities money. They should use it to create more green spaces and water. This is meant to make cities cooler.

The SPD wants above all to avoid greenhouse gases rather than capture CO2 afterward. It considers the nuclear phase-out right and wants to speed up the search for a final repository.

The SPD wants fewer greenhouse gases to be produced. For that, wind and solar power should grow faster. The nuclear plants stay off. Nuclear waste needs a safe storage site. The search for it should go faster.

The SPD wants to implement the Paris Climate Agreement and provide a fair German contribution to international climate finance. It points out that the poorest countries are often hit hardest by climate change and are the least prepared.

Climate change hits poor countries especially hard. The SPD wants to help these countries. Germany should provide money for this. Private funders should join in too. Germany should work with other countries on climate protection.

The SPD wants to protect nature and ecosystems in line with European and international obligations. To do so, existing protected areas are to become more effective and ecologically valuable land is to be linked together.

The SPD wants to protect nature better. Protected areas should work better. Valuable land should be connected. Money should go to forests, bogs and green spaces in cities. In the sea, there should be areas where animals are left in peace.

The SPD wants to reform farm subsidies. From 2028, under the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), farms that protect the environment, species and the climate are to receive more money. At the same time, the rules are to become much simpler.

The SPD wants to hand out farm money differently. Farmers who protect water, soil and air get more. Protecting animals and the climate should also pay off. The change should come step by step. The rules should get simpler.

The SPD wants to speed up the rollout of EV charging and require gas stations to offer fast charging. Public charging is to become as easy as refueling and cheaper than it.

Electric cars need charging points. The SPD wants to build more of them fast. Gas stations must then offer fast charging too. Charging should be easy and cost less than gas.

The SPD wants to support purchases of German-built electric cars for a limited time through a tax deduction. Nearly new used cars, leasing and commercially used vehicles are also to benefit.

The SPD wants to support buying electric cars. People who buy one made in Germany get money back through their taxes. This is only for a limited time. Nearly new used cars and leasing count too. Electric cars stay free of the vehicle tax until 2035.

The SPD wants to continue high investment in rail so that trains run on time again. Deutsche Bahn is to remain an integrated, state-owned company; the platform rules out privatization.

Trains are often late. The SPD wants to put a lot of money into the tracks. Important routes should be fully renewed. The railway should belong to the state and not be sold.

The SPD wants to offer the Deutschlandticket (nationwide transit pass) permanently at its current price and fund it together with the states. A cheaper version is planned nationwide for certain groups, and local public transit is to receive more money overall.

The SPD wants to keep the Deutschlandticket. The price should not go up. It should be cheaper for some people, such as families and seniors. Buses and trains should get more money.

The SPD wants to reform driver training so that it becomes safer, more efficient and noticeably cheaper. Young people would also receive a 500-euro mobility credit. The program points to rising prices, which it says cause problems especially in rural areas.

A driver's license costs too much for many young people. The SPD wants to change driver training and make it cheaper. Young people should get 500 euros for getting around. They can use it for a license, train tickets or a bike.

The SPD wants to keep reforming road traffic law so that all road users are treated equally, and to expand cycling and walking. At the same time, highways and especially bridges are to be repaired and a new federal mobility plan drawn up.

The SPD wants to do more for bikes and for people on foot. There should be fast bike routes across the country. Highways and bridges should be repaired. A new plan should look at all transport routes together.

The SPD wants to set a general speed limit of 130 km/h on federal highways. In its view, this protects lives, reduces traffic jams and accidents, and benefits the climate, nature and nearby residents.

The SPD wants a speed limit on highways. Cars could then go no faster than 130 km/h. The SPD says this saves lives. There would be fewer traffic jams and accidents. It is also good for the climate.

The SPD wants to subsidize climate-friendly trucks and local buses and make aviation climate-neutral under uniform EU-wide rules. Germany's air travel tax would be replaced by a European climate levy paid by all airlines. Waterways, ports and ship fleets are also to be modernized.

The SPD wants to support cleaner trucks and buses. Flights should carry a climate fee across all of Europe. All airlines should pay it. Truck drivers should get better working conditions. Ports and ships should also become more modern.

The SPD wants to revise the federal AI strategy with a focus on systemic innovation. Plans include AI ecosystems for individual industries, generative language models for specific fields, and investment in computing capacity at universities.

AI means artificial intelligence. The SPD wants to renew the government's plan for AI. There should be AI projects for single industries. Universities should get better computers and more know-how. Projects for the common good should get money too.

The SPD wants to speed up the digitization of public administration and put responsibility for it in a single ministry. Agencies would exchange data digitally with each other so that citizens only have to provide it once.

The SPD wants government offices to work digitally. One ministry should be in charge of this. People should give their data only once. The offices then share the data themselves. People should be able to prove their identity online.

The SPD wants a dedicated law against digital violence. It is meant to close gaps in criminal law on image-based abuse, restrict spy apps and make it easier to block offenders' accounts.

The SPD wants a new law against violence on the internet. People who shame others with images should face punishment. Spy apps should be restricted. These are programs used to watch others in secret. Offenders' accounts should be easier to block.

Against extremism, the SPD relies first on prevention while also wanting security agencies to be able to step in earlier. Far-right and Islamist networks are to be cut off from funding and structures.

The SPD wants to fight extremism. It wants to prevent it early. Agencies should be able to act faster. Extremists should have no money and no weapons. Enemies of the constitution should not work for the state.

The SPD wants to keep adding staff at the security agencies, modernize equipment and create a new Federal Police Act. Attacks on police, emergency services and helpers would be punished more severely.

The SPD wants to hire more police officers. The police should get modern equipment. A new law should set out their powers clearly. People who attack police or rescue workers should face tougher punishment.

The SPD wants to give the Federal Criminal Police Office and the Federal Police legal tools for automated, AI-based data analysis. This is mainly meant to speed up the fight against organized crime, whose definition is to be updated.

The police should be allowed to analyze large amounts of data with computers. Artificial intelligence helps with this. The SPD wants to find criminal gangs faster this way. Crimes against the environment should also be pursued more.

Besides the security agencies, the SPD wants to strengthen prosecutors' offices and courts so that the justice system does not slow cases down. A new pact with the states is meant to bring more staff and better equipment.

The SPD wants to strengthen courts and prosecutors. They should get more staff and better technology. The federal government and the states should do this together. Cases should move faster.

The SPD wants to make any sexual act without clear consent a crime and to criminalize serious sexual harassment such as catcalling. The aim is to strengthen the legal position of victims of sexual violence and to mark clear limits.

The SPD wants stricter criminal law on sexual violence. Sex without a clear yes should be a crime. Serious sexual harassment should also be a crime. One example is catcalling. That means degrading remarks or gestures toward women.

The SPD wants to make the BSI (Federal Office for Information Security) the central cybersecurity authority and give security agencies more powers against cybercrime. Platforms would have to remove illegal content, and youth protection is to be strengthened through age checks.

The SPD wants more safety on the internet. The federal office BSI should become the central body for this. Police and agencies should be able to do more against online crime. Platforms should have to delete illegal content. Children and teenagers should be better protected.

The SPD wants to strengthen disaster relief and civil defense to be prepared for climate impacts, hybrid attacks and military conflicts. Critical infrastructure is to be better protected by a KRITIS umbrella law.

The SPD wants to prepare Germany better for disasters. These include floods, heat and attacks on important facilities. A new law should protect power, water and other vital supplies. There should be more sirens and better warning apps. Helpers such as fire departments and the THW should get more support.

The SPD wants to revise the criminal offense of Volksverhetzung (incitement to hatred), paying special attention to far-right statements by public officials and in schools. Online hate crime is to be prosecuted more effectively.

The SPD wants to act more strictly against hate speech. The law against incitement to hatred should be changed. Incitement means stirring up hatred against whole groups of people. The Federal Criminal Police Office should pursue online hate better. Victims' addresses should stay protected.

The SPD wants to lower the voting age to 16 and write children's rights into the Grundgesetz (Basic Law). According to the platform, young people should have a right to real participation, in politics as well as at school.

Young people should be allowed to vote at 16. Children's rights should be written into the Basic Law. The Basic Law is Germany's most important law. Young people should have more say in politics and at school.

The SPD wants to test laws for effectiveness and practicality before they are passed and to cut bureaucracy together with business, the states and municipalities. Applications would count as approved if an agency misses a deadline. This is meant to make construction and investment projects easier to plan.

The SPD wants less red tape. New laws should be tested first. Offices should handle applications quickly. If an office does not answer in time, the application counts as approved. This helps building projects.

The SPD wants the state to be a model employer that attracts and keeps skilled workers. Flexible working arrangements, further training and fewer fixed-term contracts are meant to help.

The SPD wants the state to be a better employer. Staff should be able to work from home more often. There should be more part-time work and training. Most contracts should have no end date.

The SPD wants to promote civic and historical education, give lasting support to civil society initiatives and make citizens' assemblies chosen by lot a permanent feature. Their recommendations would feed into parliamentary debate, while elected institutions would still decide.

The SPD wants to strengthen democracy. Citizens' assemblies should become a fixed part of it. People chosen by lot discuss hard questions there. Parliament still makes the decisions. Groups that work for democracy should get lasting funding.

The SPD wants to expand the European single market because many German jobs depend on it. It includes the banking and capital markets union and digital infrastructure for cross-border services.

In the EU, companies can trade freely everywhere. This is called the single market. The SPD wants to make it stronger. Banks and money markets in Europe should grow closer together too. Many jobs in Germany depend on this.

The SPD wants a European social union and EU-wide minimum standards for member states' basic income support systems. The platform regards social standards as a competitive advantage for Europe.

The SPD wants more social rules in Europe. Every EU country should protect poor people at least equally well. There should be shared minimum rules for that. The SPD says this makes Europe stronger.

The SPD wants a European reinsurance scheme for member states' unemployment insurance that steps in during severe crises. The EU budget is to be reformed, and own revenue is to make the EU less dependent on national governments.

The SPD wants a shared safety net in Europe. It should help countries pay unemployment aid in severe crises. The EU should get its own income. Money for weaker regions should stay.

The SPD wants a European defense union and wants to enable Europe to do more for its own security. EU states are to procure armaments jointly, integrate their armed forces more closely over the long term and pursue a common arms export policy.

The EU countries should defend themselves together. They should buy weapons and equipment together. Their armies should train together. Step by step, troops should work in shared units. There should be common rules for selling weapons.

The SPD wants the Western Balkan states to join the EU quickly and wants Ukraine and Moldova to become members as well. The platform justifies this with peace, democracy and prosperity in Europe and with the concern that other powers could otherwise gain influence.

The SPD wants the EU to grow. The Western Balkan countries should join quickly. Ukraine and Moldova should become members too. All new countries must meet the EU's rules.

The SPD wants to act more firmly against member states that violate the EU's fundamental values. Existing instruments are to be used more strictly and expanded, complemented by tougher financial sanctions and an independent oversight body.

Some EU countries do not respect the shared values. The SPD wants to be stricter with them. These countries could get less money. An independent body should watch over this.

The SPD wants to reform the EU treaties and abolish the unanimity principle in the European Council and the Council of Ministers. The platform considers the veto rights of individual states outdated because, in its view, they are misused as leverage.

On some issues, all EU countries must agree. One country alone can block everything. The SPD wants to change that. In the future, a majority should be enough. The EU Parliament should get more rights.

The SPD wants to permanently spend at least two percent of economic output on defense and modernize the Bundeswehr. Germany is to take on more responsibility within NATO for protecting Europe because, in the platform's view, the United States will no longer carry the main burden.

The SPD wants to spend more money on the armed forces. It should be at least two percent of economic output. The armed forces should become more modern. German soldiers should be based in Lithuania for good. Germany should take on more tasks in NATO.

Because of the changed security situation, the SPD plans a new, flexible military service. It is to be voluntary, guided by the needs of the Bundeswehr, and aimed above all at building a resilient reserve.

The SPD wants a new military service. That means people serve in the armed forces for a while. The service should be voluntary. The state should record who is eligible. This should give the armed forces more reserve troops.

The SPD wants to support Ukraine diplomatically, militarily, financially and with humanitarian aid for as long as necessary. Germany and NATO are not to become parties to the war themselves, which is why the SPD rejects delivering the Taurus cruise missile. It welcomes peace initiatives but not a peace dictated by Russia.

The SPD wants to keep helping Ukraine. Germany delivers weapons and trains soldiers. But Germany does not deliver the Taurus cruise missile. Germany should not be drawn into the war itself. Ukraine should take part in any peace talks.

The SPD wants to push for new approaches to arms control and for disarmament. Its goal remains a world without nuclear weapons. It supports a global no-first-use commitment and preserving the New START treaty.

The SPD wants fewer weapons in the world. Its goal is a world without nuclear weapons. No country should use nuclear weapons first. A treaty limits the nuclear weapons of the US and Russia. That treaty should stay and be extended.

The SPD wants to expand existing partnerships, above all with France, Poland, the United Kingdom and the United States. With the US, it wants to reduce trade barriers and avoid a subsidy race; at the same time, Europe is to become more self-reliant in security policy.

The SPD wants to keep and strengthen close partners. These include France, Poland, the UK and the US. There should be no trade fight with the US. But Europe should do more for its own security.

The SPD wants to implement Germany's China strategy and coordinate policy toward Beijing at the European level. In critical areas the economy is to become less dependent on China, while dialogue is to continue, including on contentious issues.

The SPD wants Europe to act together toward China. Germany should depend less on China for important goods. Still, the SPD wants to keep talking with China. Difficult topics should be raised too.

The SPD wants to deepen cooperation with countries of the Global South and aims for a new North-South policy. The platform argues that many of these states are turning away from liberal democracies and that Europe's own security and prosperity are also at stake.

The SPD wants to work more closely with countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. These include India, Indonesia, South Africa and Brazil. The countries should be equal partners. The SPD also wants reconciliation with Namibia.

The SPD commits to Israel's right to exist and its security as a German reason of state while calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. In the long run it holds to two states created through negotiation, arguing that only a political prospect can secure Israel permanently.

The SPD stands with Israel. But it demands that the fighting in Gaza stop right away. People in Gaza should get food and medicine. In the end there should be two states: Israel and Palestine.

The SPD supports international sanctions against Iran's leadership and demands that the Revolutionary Guards be listed as a terrorist organization in the EU. It cites Iran's role in regional conflicts, its help for Russia and repression inside the country.

The SPD wants to put pressure on Iran's government. It supports penalties against the country. The Revolutionary Guards are a powerful force in Iran. The EU should classify them as a terror group.

The SPD wants to spend at least 0.7 percent of economic output on development cooperation and keep the development ministry as a separate department. According to the platform, the aim is to overcome poverty, hunger and inequality and to prevent crises.

The SPD wants to help poorer countries. Germany should give a fixed share of its income for this. The development ministry should stay independent. Women and men should have equal rights everywhere.

The SPD wants to reform multilateral organizations, including the UN Security Council with its veto rule, which it regards as obstructive. Together with Brazil, India and Japan, it seeks a permanent seat on the Security Council.

The Security Council is an important body of the United Nations. Single countries can block decisions there. The SPD wants to change that. Germany should get a fixed seat there. Countries from Africa, Asia and Latin America should have more say.

The SPD wants reliable funding for public broadcasting, support for private and local media, and more media literacy. Platforms would have to disclose their algorithms and act against disinformation and illegal content.

The SPD wants to keep many different media. Public broadcasting should get secure funding. Local newspapers and stations should also get help. Big internet platforms should show how they select content. They should act against false news.

The SPD wants to write culture into the Basic Law as a state objective and give cultural institutions more support. Affordable cultural offerings should be open to everyone, and remembrance culture is to be promoted.

The SPD wants to put culture into the constitution. The state would then have to support culture. Culture should be affordable for everyone. The memory of Nazi-era crimes should stay alive.

The SPD wants better social protection and fair pay for artists and an expanded Künstlersozialkasse (artists' social insurance fund). The creative industries and German film are to be strengthened through tax incentives and reformed funding.

The SPD wants better protection for artists. They should be paid fairly. The artists' social insurance fund should grow. German film should get more support. Streaming services should have to invest in films in Germany.

The SPD wants to expand consumer protection in Germany and Europe. Market and competition regulators should be able to act and put consumer interests first. Online, there should be special protection against rip-offs and manipulation.

The SPD wants to protect buyers better. Agencies should watch markets closely. Online, people should be protected from scams. This matters most for children and teenagers.

The SPD wants to write sport into the Basic Law as a state objective. The aim is to promote health, social participation, inclusion and integration. It also wants to help renovate sports facilities and back a German Olympic bid.

The SPD wants to put sport into the Basic Law. The Basic Law is Germany's constitution. Sport should keep people healthy and bring them together. The federal government should help repair sports fields and gyms. The SPD also wants Olympic Games in Germany.

The SPD wants to achieve equivalent living conditions across Germany and give targeted support to regions with particular problems. To that end, internet, transportation, health care and education in rural areas are to be expanded. People should be free to decide whether to live in a city or in the countryside.

The SPD wants to improve life in the countryside. There should be fast internet there. Buses and trains should run more often. Doctors and schools should be easy to reach. Empty buildings should be used again.