SPD on democracy and the state

The SPD wants to strengthen the public sector as an employer in order to attract and keep skilled staff. This includes good pay, more training, investment in buildings and an entitlement to educational leave for civil servants.

The SPD wants more people to enjoy working for the state. Pay should be good. There should be more training. Civil servants should get up to five days off a year for education.

In-house training of skilled staff, especially for IT, is to grow, and further training is to open up better promotion prospects. An investment drive is to modernize state-owned buildings, with a renewed property management system for that purpose. Staff representation law will be modernized, keeping simplifications introduced during the pandemic. Employees are to be able to use bike leasing and discounted transit passes. Special incentives are meant to keep engineers in the state's technical service or win them back.

The SPD wants to examine, together with municipalities, how processes between them and the state can be made simpler. The state is also to enable municipalities to invest in social issues of the future.

The SPD wants less red tape between the state and local governments. Local governments should more often get money as a fixed sum. Then they need to file fewer applications. Small municipalities should get simpler rules.

As examples, the program names lump-sum allocations instead of complex applications and simpler rules for small municipalities. Municipalities are to invest mainly in health, mobility, education and integration. This should also be possible for municipalities with weak finances, high debt or deficits. The goal is equal living conditions across the state.

The SPD wants to fund 14 partnerships across the state by 2027 in which cities and counties work together on innovative topics. The platform argues that individual municipalities cannot handle some tasks well on their own.

The SPD wants cities and counties to work together more. A program called "Zukunftsregionen" is meant for this. The state should fund 14 such partnerships by 2027. Some tasks are too big for one town alone.

The "Zukunftsregionen" (future regions) program is to support 14 partnerships across city and county lines, spread over all of Lower Saxony. Municipalities that serve as mid-sized regional centers are to get priority funding from EU, federal and state programs. The platform also points to the "Digitale Dörfer" project in southern Lower Saxony, which is testing a non-commercial local digital platform for village communication.

The SPD wants to lower the voting age for state elections to 16. Children and young people are to have more say in schools, municipalities, and at the state level. The platform argues that young people should experience democracy firsthand.

Young people should be able to vote in state elections at 16. That is what the SPD wants. Young people should also have more say at school. Every town should let young people help decide. They should get their own budget for this.

Besides the lower voting age, student councils are to get more rights so that they stand on equal footing with teacher and parent councils. Every municipality is to be required to set up participation formats for young people that come with a budget and decision-making powers. The youth program "Startklar für die Zukunft" is to be made permanent and secured in a youth promotion act. Funding for youth associations will continue.

The SPD wants to equip courts and prosecutors' offices better and raise staffing in all services to the full calculated need. The court structure across the state, especially small local courts, is to be preserved.

Courts and prosecutors should get more staff. The state should invest in justice buildings. Small local courts should stay. All courts should have checks at the entrance.

The benchmark for the increase is a value of 1.0 under the PEBB§Y staffing-needs system. A state investment program is to improve security, accessibility and climate neutrality of justice buildings; the construction projects in Oldenburg and Celle are to move faster. To protect staff, entry checks everywhere and stronger regional security teams are planned, and the SPD rules out private security firms. To safeguard local courts, the amount-in-dispute threshold between local and regional courts is to rise to 7,500 euros.

The SPD wants to expand electronic legal filing, electronic case files, artificial intelligence and video formats in the justice system. Administrative courts are to get dedicated panels for planning and permitting law so that cases on wind energy, for example, move faster.

The justice system should work more digitally. Files should be electronic. Computer programs should help with large cases. But judges should still decide. Special panels should handle lawsuits about building plans faster, for example for wind turbines.

Enough money and staff are to be available for electronic files and electronic legal filing. AI and legal tech are mainly to prepare large and mass proceedings, but not replace the judge's decision. Video hearings and hybrid sessions are to be possible more often. According to the program, administrative courts are heavily burdened, partly by asylum cases, and are to receive sufficient staff and resources. The SPD justifies faster planning procedures with the energy transition and the goal of a climate-neutral state.

The SPD wants to make the justice system more citizen-friendly and lower barriers, for instance through service desks, accessibility and digital legal application offices. It wants to defend access to justice, widen the Musterfeststellungsklage (model declaratory action) and strengthen mediation.

The justice system should be easier for citizens to reach. Courts should have service desks. People should be able to file requests digitally. Help with the cost of court cases should stay. Disputes should more often be settled without a ruling.

The model declaratory action is to cover more cases and become simpler, and the objection procedure in administrative law is to apply more widely. The SPD opposes cuts to legal advice aid and legal aid for court costs. Extra incentives are to be created for court and attorney mediation, because it is said to settle conflicts lastingly and relieve the courts. Courts and prosecutors' offices are to name LGBTIQ contact persons. For staff, more remote work, training, better promotion prospects and support for women are planned; a training requirement for judges is under review.

The SPD wants to introduce a state law to promote democracy and continue programs against extremism and antisemitism permanently. The platform names right-wing extremism and right-wing terrorism as the greatest current threats to democracy. Jewish institutions are to remain protected.

The SPD wants a new law for Lower Saxony. It should promote democracy. Programs against extremism and hatred of Jews should stay for good. Prevention should start in elementary school. Jewish institutions should keep getting protection.

The current state programs are to be made permanent. The SPD wants to strengthen prevention and counseling above all in child and youth work, starting in elementary schools. Open youth work, mobile counseling centers and street workers are to receive more staff and money. The state is to keep supporting the physical security of Jewish institutions, and the police are to advise the communities on security. The platform opposes every form of extremism, whether right-wing, left-wing or religiously motivated.

The SPD wants to revive volunteer work after the COVID-19 pandemic. Plans include a coordination office in the state chancellery, a volunteering strategy, a pact with associations and municipalities, and more benefits for volunteers.

Many people help for free in clubs. The SPD wants to strengthen this volunteer work. There should be a new office in the state government. Volunteers should have less paperwork and more benefits. Youth leaders should get free courses.

The recommendations of the parliamentary commission on volunteering from spring 2022 are to be implemented. The SPD wants to expand volunteer agencies and turn the FreiwilligenServer website into a participation portal. Holders of the Ehrenamtskarte (volunteer card) are to get better benefits; discounts and free rides on local transit will be examined. A state program is to provide 10,000 free training courses for the Jugendleiter-Card (Juleica, youth leader card), and active holders get the volunteer card automatically. A multilingual campaign is meant to attract people with a migration background, and cooperation with minority organizations, expellee associations and ethnic Germans from Russia is to grow.