SPD on democracy and the state

The SPD wants to introduce a "qualified Volksbefragung" (a consultative popular vote) so that citizens have a greater say in decisions. Overall, it emphasizes more citizen participation.

The SPD wants to ask people in the state for their opinion more often. For this, there should be a public vote. In it, citizens give their view on an important question. The SPD also wants to support citizens' councils.

The consultative vote is part of the platform's third priority, social cohesion and democratic cooperation. The SPD points out that children's and youth councils have been strengthened, and it wants to support citizens' councils. It describes a style of politics in which everyone involved looks for solutions together on important issues.

The SPD wants to review the state's child and youth participation law and widen young people's say. A children and youth report and the findings of the inquiry commission "Jung sein in MV" (Being Young in MV) are to form the basis of youth policy.

The SPD wants young people to have more say. It will check how well the youth participation law works. A report will show what is on offer for children and teenagers. The ideas of a commission on youth should be put into practice.

The program points to the voting age of 16 in state elections and to the law that calls on counties and municipalities to involve young people. That law is to be evaluated. A children and youth report is to map services and ways to take part; on that basis the SPD will examine a statewide children and youth strategy. It wants to assess and prioritize the inquiry commission's recommendations systematically. Democracy education and participation formats are to be a permanent task in schools and youth policy.

The SPD wants to examine how red tape for volunteers can be cut and whether a volunteering law would help. Volunteering is to be expanded for young people, working people and seniors, and voluntary service programs are to remain financially secured.

Many people help for free in clubs and groups. This is called volunteering. The SPD wants to spare them paperwork. It is looking at a special law for this. More people should be able to volunteer. Voluntary service programs should keep getting money.

The basis is the state's engagement strategy. Comparing with other states, the SPD wants to examine whether public service law can do more to support volunteering. Barriers to volunteering are to be lowered for single parents. The Ehrenamtsstiftung MV (state volunteering foundation) remains the central advice center. The Jugendleiter-Card (Juleica, a youth leader certificate) is to get more course places and training for instructors. The party will not accept attempts by far-right forces to co-opt or intimidate volunteers; at the federal level it backs stronger voluntary service programs.

The SPD says people who do not share the values of the Basic Law, such as human dignity, democracy and the rule of law, should not work in public administration or the executive. The party announces measures to enforce this.

The SPD says people who work for the state must support the constitution. People who reject democracy should not work in public offices. The SPD wants to take steps to make sure of this.

The platform names universal human dignity, democracy and the rule of law as the key values. Anyone who does not share them is, in the platform's view, not loyal to the state. Suitable measures are to make sure such people do not work in public service. The SPD expects all state employees to take a clear stand for these principles.

The SPD wants to keep funding and update the state program "Demokratie und Toleranz gemeinsam stärken!" (strengthening democracy and tolerance together). It sees promoting democracy as a permanent public task. Municipalities would also get support for setting up citizen participation procedures.

The state has a program for democracy and tolerance. The SPD wants to keep paying for it and update it. Local groups get help from it. Citizens should have more say in their towns.

Funding is to continue for the regional centers, counseling for victims of right-wing violence, the documentation and information office on antisemitism, and help for people leaving extremist groups. The SPD wants to push the federal government and the EU for permanent funding of democracy projects. Municipalities would get help introducing participation procedures. The party will look into citizen office hours in small towns and a regular scientific monitor on democracy and cohesion.

The SPD wants to shield state and democratic institutions from anti-constitutional influence and attacks. The state constitutional court is to be protected in its ability to function. At the same time the party stands by the separation of domestic intelligence and police.

The SPD wants to protect public offices and courts. Enemies of the constitution should not gain influence there. The state's highest court should always be able to work. Police and the domestic intelligence service stay separate.

The platform wants to strengthen democratic oversight and give institutions the resources and powers they need. The state constitutional court is to remain able to function. The SPD justifies keeping police and the Verfassungsschutz (domestic intelligence service) apart with the idea of mutual checks.

The SPD wants to expand civic education, remembrance culture and the work of memorial sites in the state. The platform counts dealing with National Socialism, the Soviet occupation and East Germany among the foundations of democracy.

The SPD wants more civic education in the state. Memorial sites remember the victims of dictatorships. These places should get more help. School classes should be able to visit them more easily.

The state agency for civic education and independent providers are to be strengthened, and the agency's online offerings expanded. The office for memorial site work would get more staff, and school visits to memorials more support. The SPD wants to advance the Prora education and documentation center and support the memorial in Anklam, the museum in Linstow and the youth meeting center on the Golm. In Peenemünde, around 20,000 murdered prisoners are to be remembered outside the museum as well. The state commissioner for reviewing the SED dictatorship keeps receiving support.

The SPD wants to keep working conditions in the public service attractive because many positions will need to be refilled as staff retire. Civil servants' pay is to keep following collective bargaining results so the state stays competitive with other German states.

Many state workers will retire soon. The SPD wants good working conditions in public service. Civil servants should keep getting the same raises as other public employees. Unions should have a say.

The platform bases this on demographic change and on the view that a capable state supports trust in democracy. Collective bargaining results are to be carried over to civil servants' pay and pensions as before, on the same timeline and in line with the system. The unions' umbrella organizations are to remain closely involved in civil service rules and to be heard on bills coming from the state parliament. The SPD also wants to back employees who actively stand up for the free democratic order.

The SPD wants to keep municipal funding reliable and strengthen local self-government. Whoever hands new tasks to municipalities should also provide the money; the SPD wants to press the federal government to put this principle into practice.

Towns and villages should have enough money for their tasks. The rule is: whoever orders, pays. If the federal government gives towns new tasks, it should pay for them. The SPD wants to demand this.

According to the platform, the state has secured this principle for 25 years through the connexity rule anchored in the state constitution. The SPD wants to demand that the federal government soon and effectively deliver the safeguard promised in the federal coalition agreement. The distribution of municipal tasks is to be reviewed, and help with debt relief and budget consolidation is to continue. The SPD also wants to check whether the amended municipal code really leaves towns with unbalanced budgets enough room for voluntary tasks. Legal requirements between the state, counties and municipalities are to be reviewed regularly for necessity.

The SPD wants to strengthen basic services in municipalities and use money from the MV investment plan for schools, culture, sports facilities and infrastructure. People should have fair chances regardless of where they live.

The SPD wants to put money into towns and villages. The money should go to schools, sports facilities and culture. Doctors, buses and social services should exist everywhere. Fire and rescue services should be well equipped.

The platform counts medical infrastructure, mobility, social services, offers for children and young people, senior policy, accessibility and protection from violence as basic services. Fire departments, rescue services and disaster response are to get modern equipment, good conditions for volunteers and reliable funding. Urban development programs are to allow neighborhood budgets and easy participation formats in districts with particular social burdens. The SPD wants to preserve and modernize swimming pools, cultural and sports venues, schools and hospitals together with municipalities. Municipal equal opportunity officers are to be able to work effectively.

The SPD wants the water supply to remain in public hands. It supports returning strategic areas of basic public services to municipal ownership where this makes economic and structural sense.

Water should belong to the state or the towns. Private companies should not take over the water supply. Towns can buy back important services. The SPD will help if it makes sense.

The platform counts electricity, water and local public transit among the services that should be secure and of high quality. It describes water as one of people's most important daily companions. Remunicipalization in such areas is to be supported as long as it is economically and structurally viable. The SPD wants to create solid conditions for municipal companies.

The SPD wants to develop the municipal code further and make public participation in local decisions the norm. Advisory councils and participation tools are to be strengthened, and conditions for local elected officials improved.

People should have more say in their town. The SPD wants to strengthen advisory councils. These are groups that advise local politicians. There should also be more citizen budgets. There, citizens help decide how money is spent.

The SPD wants to build on experience with advisory councils, youth participation, citizen budgets and new formats, and develop them with municipalities and civil society. Where it holds local responsibility, citizen budgets and local participation procedures are to be expanded. This is meant to make decisions understandable and build trust. Cooperation among municipalities, administrative offices and counties is to be efficient without curtailing self-government.

The SPD wants to keep the justice system well staffed and continue its digitization. This is meant to make proceedings simpler and faster while keeping them sound under the rule of law.

The SPD wants enough staff at courts and prosecutors' offices. Working there should stay attractive. Courts should work more digitally. This should make cases go faster.

Staff includes judges, prosecutors, judicial officers and court clerks; modern working-time models, remote work, mentoring and family-friendly structures are added. Qualifications and responsibility are to be better rewarded, and the reform of the staffing assessment system PEBB§Y should correctly capture both digital time savings and extra work. Electronic files and video technology are in use, digital skills are to become part of training, and IT systems should run reliably. In addition, security plans for court buildings are to be implemented, and prisons should prepare inmates for a life without crime through work, training and medical and psychological care.

The SPD wants to make sure no one gives up a court case because of the cost, and to expand protection for victims. This includes a federal-level initiative to allow contact rights with children to be suspended when one parent is the victim of the other.

The SPD wants everyone to be able to go to court. Money should not stand in the way. Victims of crime should be better protected. They should get compensation more easily.

Funding for legal aid, interpreters, expert witnesses and legal literature is to remain secure. At the federal level, the SPD advocates allowing contact with children to be suspended to protect a parent. The distribution of court-ordered payments, fines and confiscated assets will be reviewed, including whether fixed shares can go to prevention and a victim protection fund. The adhesion procedure, in which victims claim compensation directly in the criminal trial, is to be evaluated to clarify what support judges need.

The SPD wants to keep implementing the state's action plan against antisemitism and protect Jewish life. It also wants to continue its exchange with the churches and with other religious and secular communities.

The SPD wants to protect Jewish people in the state. There is a plan against hatred of Jews. The SPD wants to keep working on this plan. It also wants to keep talking with churches and other faith groups.

The program names the security of the Jewish communities in Rostock and Schwerin as a priority. The work of the commissioner for Jewish life and against antisemitism is to be strengthened. The program points out that the protection of Jewish life has already been written into the state constitution. Cooperation with the churches rests on the Güstrow Treaty and the concordat with the Catholic Church. The SPD also wants to stay in dialogue with Muslims, Jewish communities and humanists.