SPD on democracy and the state

The SPD wants to reform the municipal fiscal equalization scheme so that structurally weak and rural areas count for more. State agencies are to be moved to regions that have so far been underserved, including one ministry to northern Hesse.

The SPD wants equally good living conditions in cities and the countryside. Rural towns should get more money. State offices should move to rural areas. One ministry should move to northern Hesse.

Municipalities are to get more financial leeway, and cooperation between them will receive special support. State planning is to emphasize development potential in northern and central Hessian counties and make it easier for companies to settle there. Together with staff representatives, the SPD wants to review which state institutions can move; new ones are to be located mainly outside Wiesbaden, Frankfurt, and Darmstadt. Community halls are to become "village community centers 2.0" with co-working, education, and meeting places. County administrations are to offer more advice on funding programs for rural towns.

The SPD wants to develop a distinct youth policy for Hesse and give young people more of a say. Proposed laws are to be checked for their effects on young people. In municipalities, involving children and young people is to become mandatory.

The SPD wants young people to have more of a say. New laws should get a youth check. This check shows what a law means for young people. Towns and cities must involve children and young people.

The plans include a state youth council, a youth congress, a digital youth portal and a state office for youth participation. A fund for young ideas is to support involvement, and the state youth welfare office is to be strengthened. Youth work is to get a larger share of lottery revenue to create new posts for youth education officers. State funding for youth associations is to rise automatically with wages and prices. The SPD also wants to support the federal government in writing children's rights into the Basic Law.

The SPD wants young people in Hesse to be able to vote in all elections from age 16. The program considers lowering the voting age overdue. It is meant to strengthen young people's say in politics.

The SPD wants to lower the voting age. Young people should be allowed to vote at 16. This should apply to all elections in Hesse. Young people should have more of a say.

This refers to the active right to vote, meaning the right to cast a ballot. The demand is part of a wider set of plans for youth participation. The program justifies it by noting that a quarter of people in Hesse are under 25 and that their voice has not been heard enough.

The SPD wants to strengthen prevention from the municipal to the state level and expand programs against political and religious extremism. Daycare centers and schools are to teach democracy and media literacy more intensively. The party also aims to reduce youth crime this way.

The SPD wants to do more against extremism. Children should learn about democracy in daycare already. At school they should learn to spot fake news. Youth organizations should also offer more political education.

Democracy education and media literacy are to become cross-subject themes so that students can recognize fake news as well as hate and racism online. Participation and co-determination by children and young people are to be more firmly anchored in everyday school life. School social work is to be strengthened. Outside school, the SPD wants to support youth organizations in particular as education providers. The program argues that right-wing populist and far-right groups deliberately stoke resentment.

The SPD wants to strengthen the justice system's workforce through more hiring and more training and make it a more attractive employer. It rejects privatizing the prison system because it regards carrying out prison sentences as a sovereign task of the state.

The SPD wants to hire and train more people for the justice system. Courts should be able to work faster this way. Pay should get better. Private companies should not run prisons.

According to the program, more than 650 positions were cut in the Hessian justice system from 2010 to 2016, and proceedings take longer than elsewhere. Fixed-term contracts without objective grounds are to end; pay and working-time arrangements are to become better and more flexible. Young judges and prosecutors are to receive mentoring and initially smaller caseloads. Those who train others are to be relieved of other duties, given incentives and credited in promotion decisions. An electronic exam is to be introduced for both state law examinations, and prison conditions are to improve.

The SPD wants to speed up the introduction of electronic case files in the justice system and provide the resources needed. Court decisions are to be communicated better to the public. The party also plans a Hessian victims' fund.

Courts should keep files on computers instead of on paper. The SPD wants to make this happen faster. People should be able to understand rulings better. There should be a fund to help victims of crime.

Technology, staff and money are to be secured for the electronic case file. Announcements of rulings at higher courts are to be broadcast in the media, and digital information portals are to explain the work of the justice system statewide. The SPD wants to strengthen mediation, the Schiedsamt (local arbitration office) and other ways of settling disputes out of court. The victims' fund is to follow the model used in Rhineland-Palatinate.

The SPD wants to push at the federal level and in the Bundesrat for people who have lived in Hessian municipalities for more than six years to be allowed to vote there, provided they hold a permanent residence permit. Until then, every municipality is to be required to have a foreigners' advisory council.

The SPD wants to widen voting rights in towns and cities. People who have lived there for more than 6 years should be able to vote. They need a permanent residence permit for this. Until then, every town should have a foreigners' council. This council speaks for people without a German passport.

The plan is to be pursued at the federal level and through the Bundesrat. The conditions for voting rights are more than six years of residence in a Hessian municipality and a permanent residence permit. As an interim arrangement, the program provides for a mandatory foreigners' advisory council in every municipality.

The SPD wants a democracy promotion law for Hesse, a stronger state agency for civic education and new memorial and educational sites. The platform sees promoting democracy as a permanent task that needs reliable funding.

The SPD wants a law to promote democracy. The state agency for civic education should become stronger. It should get one more location. There should be new places for remembering and learning.

The Landeszentrale für politische Bildung (state agency for civic education) is to get an additional site outside the Rhine-Main area and more modern digital offerings. New memorial sites are to commemorate further victims of National Socialism, victims of present-day hatred and resistance fighters; the history of German minorities in Eastern Europe and of Germans from Russia is included as well. Plans include a digital platform for remembrance culture and a "Haus der Demokratie" near Frankfurt's Paulskirche, co-funded by the state. A jury, rather than the head of government alone, is to decide on the Wilhelm Leuschner Medal.