SPD: program for the 2022 North Rhine-Westphalia state election

The SPD wants to create a state fund of 30 billion euros that takes temporary stakes mainly in mid-sized companies. This is meant to strengthen their equity, creditworthiness and ability to invest as they shift to climate-friendly production. A new agency is to coordinate the transition.

The SPD wants a large state fund. It should hold 30 billion euros. The state uses it to own part of some companies for a while. This should help companies invest in new technology. A new agency should advise the companies.

The SPD wants to speed up the transformation of the Rheinisches Revier (Rhenish lignite region) after the coal phase-out by simplifying how federal funds are awarded and shortening planning procedures. The goal is an industrial region with well-paid jobs covered by collective agreements. The same relief is to apply to affected hard-coal sites in the Ruhr area.

Coal mining is ending in the Rhenish coal region. The SPD wants new businesses to settle there quickly. Funding should be easier to get. Planning should become simpler too. This should also apply to cities in the Ruhr area.

The SPD wants to give municipalities more room for their own economic activity and launch tailored funding programs. Regional transformation councils are to pool local knowledge and revive public participation.

The SPD wants cities and towns to be able to do more business themselves. There should be fitting funding programs for this. Regions should get new councils. There, employers, unions, civic groups and politicians discuss the change together.

The SPD wants to keep North Rhine-Westphalia an industrial state and to accompany the shift to climate-neutral production with an active industrial policy. Lead markets for climate-neutral basic materials are to be created, and the steel sector is to be secured with support and participation from the state, the federal government and the EU.

The SPD wants the state to remain a strong industrial region. Factories should become climate-friendly. The government should set clear rules and help. The steel industry should get money and support from the state, the federal government and the EU.

The SPD wants to make it easier to start a business and to give founders new chances even after a failure. Social entrepreneurship is to receive more support, and a dedicated funding program is planned for startups founded by women.

The SPD wants to help people who start a company. Those who fail should get a new chance. Companies with social goals should get more funding. There should be a special funding program for women founders.

The SPD wants to strengthen rural areas with regionally tailored funding programs instead of uniform statewide funding. Broadband, infrastructure and health care are to be expanded and secured, and the closing of local hospitals is to end.

The SPD wants to strengthen villages and small towns. Each region should get the funding that fits it. Fast internet should come sooner. Hospitals in rural areas should no longer close. There should be more skilled workers.

The SPD wants to improve conditions for municipally owned companies and strengthen the Sparkassen (public savings banks). It rules out privatizing the savings banks. Their employees should continue to be paid fairly under collective agreements.

Cities and towns own companies, for example for water, energy or buses. The SPD wants to make these companies stronger. The public savings banks should stay strong too. The SPD does not want to sell them to private owners.

The SPD wants trade agreements to include enforceable rules on sustainability and working conditions and not to restrict public services. It backs compliance with and further development of the Supply Chain Act and the global minimum tax on corporate profits.

The SPD wants fair rules for world trade. Trade deals should protect the environment and workers. Poorer countries should get a fair chance. Companies should watch their supply chains. Big corporations should pay a minimum tax everywhere.

The SPD wants employees to share more in company profits, through higher wages and through jointly controlled equity stakes. It also wants to extend co-determination in workplaces and companies to more topics. The party argues this makes the economy stronger.

The SPD wants workers to get more of their company's profit. This should happen through higher pay. It should also happen through shares that workers manage together. Workers should also have more say in their company.

The SPD wants to tie the state's public investments to fair pay by law. A Tariftreue- und Vergabegesetz (law on collective-wage compliance in public procurement) is meant to ensure the planned spending on climate and digitalization also benefits workers.

The state spends a lot of money on contracts. The SPD wants a law for this. The law should secure fair pay. Companies with state contracts should pay their workers fairly.

The SPD wants to add 1,000 positions to the workplace safety authority and equip it better. Violations are to be pursued more consistently, with every public prosecutor's office getting a prosecutor trained in workplace safety law. The party says this is to prevent exploitation.

The SPD wants to strengthen workplace safety. It plans 1,000 new jobs for this. The inspectors should get good equipment. Every prosecutor's office should have an expert on workplace safety.

The SPD wants to strengthen the Sozialer Arbeitsmarkt (publicly subsidized jobs for the long-term unemployed) in regions with high unemployment through an eight-million-euro state program. For people without a qualification, training is to take priority over job placement, and the inclusive labor market is to be expanded with state programs.

The SPD wants to give better help to people without work. The state should provide eight million euros for this. People without a diploma should be able to learn first. People with disabilities should find work more easily. Debt counseling should be expanded.

The SPD wants to give people of every age a right to a volunteer service placement. The voluntary social year and the voluntary ecological year are to get more state money, and volunteers are to ride buses and trains in the state for free.

The SPD wants everyone to be allowed to do volunteer service. Age should not matter. The state should give more money for this. Volunteers should ride buses and trains in North Rhine-Westphalia for free.

The SPD supports a nationwide Kindergrundsicherung (basic child benefit) and an appropriate increase in basic income support for adults. At the state level it wants to keep school materials free and fund advice centers for people in debt, consumers and the unemployed.

The SPD wants to fight poverty. It backs a basic child benefit for all of Germany. This is money for children. Adults with little money should also get more. School books should stay free. Advice centers should keep getting state money.

The SPD wants to fund opportunities for people in all life situations to meet one another. Loneliness and isolation are to be treated as a cross-departmental task of the state government.

Many people are lonely. The SPD wants to fund places and programs where people can meet. The whole state government should work on this issue. Senior officials should coordinate the work.

The SPD wants to help older people take part in life within their familiar surroundings. Municipalities are to get support, research on aging is to be strengthened, and senior citizens' councils expanded.

The SPD wants old people to live well in their neighborhood. Cities and towns should get help for this. Researchers should find out which local services are needed. Old people should have more of a say.

The SPD wants to strengthen the participation of people with disabilities and chronic illnesses in work and society. Counseling is to be better connected, assistants trained, and gaps in care closed.

The SPD wants to give people with disabilities better support. They should be able to work and take part everywhere. Counseling services should work together better. Helpers of people with disabilities should get training. People with long-term illness should also get more help.

The SPD wants employees in the social services sector to receive collectively agreed wages and good working conditions, whoever the provider is. When social services are commissioned, the cheapest provider should not automatically be chosen.

Many people work in social jobs. The SPD wants all of them to get union-negotiated pay. That is pay agreed between unions and employers. The cheapest provider should not always get the contract.

The SPD wants to scrap the road improvement charges that property owners along a street pay under the municipal charges act. Municipalities would be compensated for the lost revenue. The program calls the charges unfair and bureaucratic and points to the burden on young families and retirees.

When a street is rebuilt, residents often have to pay a lot of money. The SPD wants to end these charges. Cities and towns would get the missing money from the state. The SPD says the charges hit young families and retirees hardest.

The SPD wants to fully replace municipalities' pandemic-related losses in local business tax for 2021 and 2022. The money would not have to be repaid, so that no new legacy debt builds up.

Because of COVID, towns and cities took in less tax. The SPD wants to replace this loss in full for 2021 and 2022. Municipalities do not have to pay the money back. This way they should not need new debt.

The SPD wants to work out a solution for municipalities' legacy debt together with the federal government. If that fails, the state would act alone. Municipalities would also get money to invest in future-oriented projects.

Many cities in NRW have old debts. The SPD wants to solve this together with the federal government. If that does not work, the state should do it alone. Cities should again have money for new projects.

The SPD wants to give municipalities a permanently larger share of state tax revenue by raising the Verbundsatz (revenue-sharing rate) to 24 and later 25 percent. Grant programs would be simplified, and the state would pay for tasks it hands to municipalities.

Towns and cities should get more money from the state for good. For this, the Verbundsatz goes up. That is the share of state taxes that municipalities receive. It should first rise to 24 percent, later to 25. Grant programs should become simpler.

The SPD wants to launch a state investment program to reduce the investment backlog in North Rhine-Westphalia. The money is to go mainly to schools, climate action, health care, housing and digitalization. The platform rejects budget consolidation at any cost.

NRW lacks a lot of money for schools, roads and other important things. So the SPD wants to start a big investment program. The money should go to schools, climate protection, health, housing and digital services. The SPD does not want to cut too much in the crisis.

The SPD wants to use money from the state's COVID rescue fund for a program to restart the economy and social life after the pandemic. It wants to examine whether the rescue fund can be used beyond 2022. At the same time, it plans a schedule for repaying the state's COVID debt.

The COVID crisis caused many problems. The state has a special pot of money for this, the rescue fund. The SPD wants to use it to pay for a restart program. It may want to use the fund after 2022 too. It also wants a plan for paying back the debt.

The SPD wants to tackle tax evasion, tax avoidance and tax fraud through legislation and more staff, including more tax auditors. Oversight against money laundering is also to get considerably more staff and funding. It wants to consider creating a dedicated state agency against money laundering.

Some people and companies do not pay their taxes properly. The SPD wants to fight this harder. It wants to hire more tax auditors. It also wants to do more against money laundering. Money laundering means hiding that money comes from crime.

The SPD demands that the federal government reimburse states and municipalities for revenue losses caused by federal tax decisions. Temporary federal aid, for example for integration and education, should become permanent. According to the platform, the aim is a public sector that is able to act.

Sometimes the federal government makes rules that leave the state with less tax money. The SPD wants the federal government to replace that money. The federal government also gives money for schools and integration, but only for a limited time. The SPD wants this money to be paid permanently.

The SPD considers 100,000 new homes a year necessary in the state, including 25,000 with rent caps under social housing rules. It also plans a new funding pillar for non-profit-oriented housing construction. The goal is for renters to spend no more than 30 percent of disposable household income on rent.

Homes are scarce and expensive in many places. The SPD wants 100,000 new homes every year. 25,000 of them should be social housing. These are homes with limited rent. Nobody should pay more than 30 percent of income for rent.

The SPD wants to set up a state-owned housing construction company that builds for municipalities without their own housing company and buys existing homes. Municipal housing companies and cooperatives are to receive special support for founding and new construction. In the platform's view, such providers dampen local rent levels.

The state should set up its own housing company. It builds homes for cities without their own housing company. It also buys existing homes. This should keep rents affordable. City housing companies and cooperatives should get more support.

The SPD wants to digitize and shorten planning and permitting procedures so that more homes get built. Municipalities are to receive more money for staff in their building departments. Federal land in the state is to be used for rent-restricted housing.

Building often takes a long time. The SPD wants permits to be faster and digital. Cities should get more money for their building offices. Affordable homes should be built on land owned by the federal government.

The SPD wants to bring vacant residential and commercial buildings back into use and help municipalities act against derelict properties. Buildings in need of renovation are to be modernized, especially with climate targets in mind. The "Innovation City" project in Bottrop is to serve as a statewide model.

Some buildings stand empty or fall apart. The SPD wants them to be used again. Cities should get help against run-down buildings. Old buildings should be renovated. This should also help the climate.

The SPD wants to make North Rhine-Westphalia a "tenant protection state" by using all the leeway federal law allows. Tenant protection rules would apply in more municipalities, including a cap on rent increases, an ordinance on conversions, and a rent brake that is easier to apply.

The SPD wants to protect renters better. Rents should not rise so fast. The state would make new rules for this. These rules would apply in more cities and towns.

The SPD wants to put a time limit on short-term rentals of apartments, for example to tourists, and to revise the Wohnraumstärkungsgesetz (housing protection act) for that purpose. Public housing oversight would also play a larger role again in protecting tenants' rights.

Some apartments are rented out only for short stays to tourists. The SPD wants to limit how long this is allowed. A law would be changed for this. Cities should also be able to step in when tenants' rights are badly violated.

The SPD wants to enable more people to buy a home and to widen the support available for it. First-time buyers of a home they live in would have the real estate transfer tax offset through a state program, especially families with children. The program argues that property is also retirement provision and part of the social democratic promise of upward mobility.

The SPD wants more people to be able to buy their own home. There would be more support for this. For a first home, the state would make up for the tax on the purchase. This is meant to help families with children most.

The SPD wants to lower building costs through a land policy oriented toward the common good and to create a state land fund for this. The state would buy plots in trust for municipalities, make them ready for building, and hand them out for housing only on long-term leasehold at a low rate. State-owned land would go first to rent-controlled housing.

The SPD wants to set up a land fund. The state would use it to buy land for cities and towns. This land would not be sold. It would be leased cheaply. Affordable homes are supposed to be built there.

The SPD wants to let municipalities levy a Grundsteuer C, a property tax on undeveloped plots, to curb land speculation and bring building land onto the market. It also wants to use the options of the federal Baulandmobilisierungsgesetz (building land mobilization act) in North Rhine-Westphalia and help financially weak municipalities in particular develop building areas themselves.

Some owners leave land empty and wait for higher prices. The SPD wants to make this harder. Cities and towns would be allowed to charge a special tax on empty plots. Poor towns would get help so they can develop building land themselves.

The SPD wants a large program that favors converting and renovating existing buildings over new construction. The reasoning given is that a house does its greatest climate damage when it is built and that conversion often saves resources. Energy retrofits, modernization, and age-appropriate conversion would receive more funding.

The SPD would rather convert old houses than build new ones. The SPD says this is better for the climate and saves money. The state would give more support for conversion and renovation. Changes that help older people would also get more money.

The SPD wants a "Masterplan Innenstadt" (downtown master plan) to revive town centers with a mix of retail, work, housing, culture, crafts, and restaurants. It also plans a state program for 1,000 playgrounds, with children and young people involved in carrying it out.

The SPD wants to make town centers lively again. There should be shops, jobs, homes, culture, and restaurants. The state would also fund 1,000 playgrounds. Children and young people would have a say.

The SPD wants to address homelessness through the "Housing First" approach. Homeless people would first get a home of their own, without having to accept support services in return.

The SPD wants to help people who have no home. These people should get their own home first. They do not have to accept help to get it. They decide for themselves what help they want.

The SPD wants to bring family centers, which so far exist mainly at daycare centers, to schools and make them possible at every elementary school. Family education, support and assistance programs would be offered in one place so that parents can more easily support their children's education.

Family centers are places with help and information for families. So far they are mostly at daycare centers. The SPD wants to set them up at elementary schools too. Parents would then find all services in one place.

The SPD wants to introduce a family working time model that lets parents cut their hours without losing income. It also plans leave for partners after a birth and supplementary childcare at off-peak hours. The goal is more time together and a more equal sharing of care work.

Parents should be able to work less. They should not lose money when they do. After a birth, the partner should also get time off. There should be extra childcare early in the morning and late in the evening.

The SPD wants to create family offices that take paperwork such as the Elterngeld (parental allowance) application off new parents' hands in the first weeks after birth. Later on, they would also help families apply for benefits and find suitable services.

After a birth, parents have to fill out many forms. The SPD wants to set up family offices. These offices help with the forms, for example for parental allowance. They also help families later on.

The SPD wants to expand daycare according to need and create a suitable childcare option for every child. Daycare is to become entirely free of charge so that, in the party's view, education does not depend on income or place of residence.

The SPD wants to create more daycare places. Every child should get a suitable place. Parents should no longer pay for daycare. Money should not matter when parents decide on daycare.

The SPD wants to reorganize daycare funding through a Kita-Zukunftsgesetz (daycare future act). Instead of lump sums based on occupancy and booked hours, centers would receive stable base funding and more staff per group. This is meant to cut red tape and free up more time for the children.

The SPD wants a new law for daycare centers. Centers should get a fixed base amount of money. They should have less paperwork to do. There should be more staff for the children.

The SPD wants to organize child protection uniformly across North Rhine-Westphalia. Youth welfare offices are to have the same resources everywhere, and cooperation between agencies is to follow uniform rules. A child protection act would keep developing this further.

The SPD wants to protect children better. All youth welfare offices in the state should be equally well equipped. Agencies should work together under the same rules. A child protection law should set this out.

The SPD wants the state to cover the costs of master craftsman (Meister) training that remain after Meister-BAföG and other aid. In addition, further training and career changes are to be possible at any time, and universities are to open up to people with vocational qualifications.

The SPD wants master craftsman training to be free. The state should pay the remaining costs. People should be able to learn something new later in life. Universities should be more open to people with job training.

The SPD wants to guarantee every young person in the state an apprenticeship place. Companies that do not train are to bear the costs, while companies that do train receive support. Young people without a diploma or a training place are to be caught by additional programs.

The SPD wants a guarantee for training places. Every young person should get an apprenticeship. Companies that do not train should pay for this. Companies that train get help. Those who leave school without a diploma should get new chances.

With its "Gute Berufskollegs 2030" program, the SPD wants to renovate, modernize and digitally equip all vocational colleges. To recruit more teachers, more places to study are to be created and working conditions improved.

The SPD wants to renew all vocational colleges. These are schools for job training. They should get modern technology and enough staff. More universities should train teachers for vocational colleges.

The SPD wants apprentices to be treated the same as university students. This includes a cheaper apprentice transit ticket with better service, removing hidden training costs, and funding accessible dormitories for apprentices.

The SPD wants apprentices to be as well off as students. The transit ticket for apprentices should be cheaper and better. Hidden costs of training should go away. There should be more dorms for apprentices.

The SPD wants to give every child a right to an education guide (Bildungslotse) from birth. This person would advise and accompany children and young people along their educational path and help prevent school dropouts early on.

Every child should be able to get an education guide. This is a person who supports children with learning and school. The guide gives advice. The guide should also help stop young people from dropping out of school.

The SPD wants to make the school entry phase more flexible. Whether a child starts school earlier or later should no longer depend on the cutoff date alone but also on the assessment of parents and professionals.

Today a fixed date mostly decides when a child starts school. The SPD wants to change that. Parents, doctors and educators should have a say. A child should also be able to start school later.

The SPD wants to prepare for the legal right to an all-day school place starting in 2026 and pass an all-day school act with binding minimum standards. All-day programs are to count as education and be free for families during core hours.

From 2026, children have a right to an all-day place in elementary school. The SPD wants a law with fixed rules for this. The rules cover staff, rooms, activities and lunch. All-day school should be free during core hours.

The SPD wants to give educational institutions in socially difficult areas more staff and money. A social index would distribute funds according to local conditions; as a first step, 1,000 schools are to receive additional resources.

Some schools and daycare centers are in areas with many problems. The SPD wants to give them more money and staff. A social index should show where help is needed. At first, 1,000 schools should get more.

The SPD wants to give every child a free library card until the end of their school years. Children should have access to books and digital media regardless of their parents' finances.

Every child should get a library card. The card costs nothing. It is valid until the end of school. This way all children can get books and digital media.

The SPD wants to end canceled lessons through a staffing drive and bring more multi-professional teams into schools. All teachers are to receive the same starting salary, and the number of university places for teaching and related professions is to rise sharply.

Lessons are often canceled at schools. So the SPD wants to hire more staff. All teachers should earn the same when they start. There should be many more university places for future teachers.

The SPD wants inclusion to be part of every school and plans a pedagogical center staffed with specialists at each one. In addition, every school district is to get a rapid support group for acute cases. The platform bases this on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which it says must be upheld.

Children with disabilities should be welcome at every school. The SPD wants a center with experts at each school. The experts help the teachers. Each school district should also get a group for quick help.

The SPD wants to set up an education commission of experts to review both what is taught and how education is funded. The split of costs between the state and municipalities is to be clear and binding. A special program for building and renovating schools is to help where the need exists.

The SPD wants a group of experts on education. The group looks at what children should learn. It also looks at who pays for schools. The state and the towns should have clear rules. There should be a special program for new and repaired schools.

The SPD wants to provide more money for digital infrastructure and equipment in daycare centers and schools. IT specialists are to maintain the technology so that teachers are relieved and can focus on teaching media literacy. The basics of information technology are to be taught in all types of schools.

Daycare centers and schools should get better digital technology. The SPD wants to spend more money on this. Computer experts should take care of the technology. Teachers then have more time for teaching. All schools should teach the basics of computer technology.

The SPD wants to expand the state program "Kein Abschluss ohne Anschluss" (no graduation without a next step) and introduce a guarantee of a vocational training place in North Rhine-Westphalia. Career guidance and hands-on teaching are to get more room in lower secondary school. The goal is that no one leaves school without a next step.

All young people should have training or another next step after school. The SPD wants to guarantee a training place. Schools should offer more practical lessons. Students should get to know jobs earlier.

The SPD wants to strengthen universities and universities of applied sciences as the core of the research system and to promote the arrival of further non-university research institutes. Applied research in particular is to get more funding and more room. This is meant to help the state compete for researchers.

The SPD wants to strengthen research in the state. Universities should get better conditions. New research institutes should come to the state. Professors at universities of applied sciences should have to teach less. Then they have more time for research.

The SPD wants academic staff who hold a doctorate to be employed on permanent contracts as a rule. Doctoral candidates and student assistants are to get better contract and pay conditions. The platform argues that permanent tasks require permanent positions.

Many researchers only have short-term contracts. The SPD wants to change that. People with a doctorate should usually get a permanent job. Students who work at the university should also get better contracts.

The SPD wants to fund the Studierendenwerke (student services organizations) so that they can do their job and semester fees can fall. The state is also to invest in building and renovating student housing. In the platform's view, fewer money worries lead to more success in education.

Student services run cafeterias, dorms and counseling. The SPD wants to give them more money. Then the fees for students can go down. The state should also build and repair student dorms.

The SPD wants to keep university study free of tuition and open universities to young people from families with little money. A state program is to support young women academics, and a research network is to study social inequality. The party wants access to academia not to depend on social background.

Studying should stay free of tuition. Young people from poor families should also be able to study. The SPD wants a special program to support women in research. Researchers should study why inequality exists.

The SPD wants the four status groups at universities to be equally represented on all university bodies. The platform argues that universities get better when everyone shapes them together.

Universities have four groups. These are professors, academic staff, technical and office staff, and students. The SPD wants all four groups to have an equal say. Each group should have the same number of seats on the committees.

The SPD rejects mandatory attendance and a maximum length of study. Students should be able to shape their studies themselves, especially those with children, care duties or chronic illness. Digital equipment, digital administration and early certification of acquired skills are meant to help.

Students live very different lives. Some have children or are ill. So the SPD does not want required attendance. It also does not want a fixed time limit for studying. Universities should have better digital equipment.

The SPD wants to renovate university buildings, modernize them for energy efficiency and make them accessible. Beyond that, campus development is to receive lasting support because teaching is changing and needs new kinds of space.

Many university buildings are old. The SPD wants to repair them. The buildings should use less energy. People with disabilities should be able to get everywhere. The campus should be a good place to learn, work and live.

The SPD wants to push for a new National Education Council. This permanent body is to work out shared goals and measures for the German education system, independently of the Kultusministerkonferenz (the standing conference of state education ministers).

The SPD wants an education council for all of Germany. People from practice and from research work together there. They think about shared goals for schools and education. They make their results public.

The SPD wants civic education anchored from daycare through school to adult education and plans to bring back the school subject of social sciences. The state agency for civic education would get more resources, and every young person should visit a memorial site once.

Children and adults should learn more about politics. This should start in daycare. The school subject social sciences should come back. The state agency for civic education should get more money. Every young person should visit a memorial site once.

The SPD wants lunches in daycare centers and schools to meet the standards of the German Nutrition Society and to be free for children from low-income families. School health nurses are also to be introduced at schools.

Children should get healthy lunches at daycare and school. For children from poor families, lunch should be free. Schools should also have health nurses. They look after children and school staff.

The SPD wants to keep all hospital sites in North Rhine-Westphalia and end closures. Some hospitals may be given a different care mandate. The platform argues that sick people need a hospital nearby.

The SPD does not want to close any hospital in the state. All sites should stay. Some hospitals may get different tasks. Sick people should have a hospital close to home.

The SPD wants to overcome the separation between outpatient and inpatient care and between statutory health insurance and long-term care insurance. Doctors' practices and hospitals are to work together more closely. According to the platform, this brings more efficiency without extra pressure on staff.

Today doctors' offices and hospitals are strictly separate. The SPD wants them to work together more closely. Health centers should help with this. Towns and cities should have more say.

The SPD wants to reform hospital funding in two steps and build up stocks for medical emergencies. Local public health offices are to get more staff, money and digital equipment. Savings are not to come from staff, quality or sites but from cutting red tape.

The SPD wants to change how hospitals get their money. The state should store supplies for emergencies, such as masks and tests. Public health offices should get more staff and money. Unneeded rules should go.

The SPD wants to regulate how much profit private hospital operators, hospital companies and hospital groups may take out of their facilities. If operators pull out as a result, hospitals could return to municipal ownership. The party wants the money to benefit local health care.

Some hospitals belong to private companies. The SPD wants rules on how much profit these companies may take out. The money should stay in health care. If companies give up, towns and cities should be able to take over the hospitals.

The SPD wants to bring more family doctors to rural areas and to urban neighborhoods with few privately insured patients. It plans financial incentives and additional medical school places. The platform points to an expected drop in the number of family doctors by 2030.

Rural areas do not have enough family doctors. Poorer city neighborhoods also lack them. The SPD wants to bring more doctors there. It wants to offer money for studies and for new practices. It also wants more places to study medicine.

The SPD wants nurses, therapists, and doctors to learn together more during training and university studies. Nursing and therapy professions are to get educational paths up to a doctorate. More university places are planned for midwives.

Nurses, therapists, and doctors should learn together during their training. People who work in nursing should be able to study further. This should go all the way to a doctorate. There should be more study places for midwives.

The SPD wants statewide, barrier-free dental care and supports owner-run local pharmacies. Gaps in care for mental, neurological, and orthopedic conditions are to be closed. The platform argues that prevention costs less than expensive treatment later.

There should be dentists everywhere in the state. New practices should be easy to enter for everyone. Pharmacies should also be nearby everywhere. The SPD says prevention is cheaper than costly treatment later.

The SPD wants to fund health guides with state money and set up barrier-free "health kiosks" in urban areas. These neighborhood contact points are to offer easy-access information on prevention, illness, and care. People without health insurance should also get help there.

The SPD wants to use health guides. These are people who advise on health questions. Big cities should get health kiosks. Everyone can get advice and help there. This includes people without health insurance.

The SPD wants to create more outpatient therapy places and hospital places, including in child and adolescent psychiatry. Counseling and therapy should be easy to access and available at short notice. The party says mental illness, suicide, and loneliness must not remain taboo.

Many people wait a long time for therapy. The SPD wants to create more therapy places. This also applies to children and teenagers. Help should be quick and easy to get. Schools should offer more psychological support.

The SPD wants to ease the burden on family caregivers, including through comprehensive advice in care competence centers and more places for short-term, day, and night care. Time spent caring should count toward pensions, and caregiving should be compatible with work and family. The platform notes that three quarters of people needing care in the state are looked after at home by relatives.

Many people care for relatives at home. The SPD wants to help them. There should be centers with good advice. There should be more places for day care and short-term care. Time spent caring should count toward the pension.

Following the example of Rhineland-Palatinate, the SPD wants to deploy specially trained professionals as "Gemeindeschwestern" (community nurses) who advise people at home. It also wants to promote alternative housing such as shared care apartments and digital aids. The goal is for people to live independently for as long as possible.

The SPD wants community nurses. These are trained workers who visit older people at home and advise them. There should be more shared homes for people who need care. Digital tools should also help in daily life.

The SPD wants to reduce the strain in care professions with shorter, reliable working hours, fair pay, and better career prospects. Programs are to win back care workers who have left the field. The party rejects a nursing chamber with compulsory membership against the will of employees.

Many care workers leave their job early. The SPD wants to make the work easier. Working hours should be shorter and reliable. Pay should be fair. Nobody should be forced to join a nursing chamber.

The SPD wants public funding for care facilities so that the investment costs charged to nursing home residents go down. At the federal level, it also pushes for a cap on residents' out-of-pocket contributions.

A place in a nursing home costs a lot. Residents also pay for buildings and equipment. The SPD wants the state to give homes money for this. Residents would then pay less. The share residents pay themselves should also get a limit.

The SPD wants to accompany the federal government's planned cannabis legalization with a statewide prevention and youth protection program. Addiction counseling for people at risk and their relatives is also to be secured.

The federal government wants to allow cannabis. The SPD wants a program across the whole state to go with it. The program should warn about addiction and protect young people. Addiction counseling should stay secure. Families and children matter most here.

The SPD wants to create a state admission program for especially vulnerable refugees and internally displaced people. The central accommodation facilities are to be abolished, and refugees are to be housed quickly in decentralized accommodation instead.

The SPD wants the state to have its own admission program. The state would take in refugees who need protection the most. The large central shelters should close. Refugees should quickly live in smaller places in many towns.

The SPD wants refugees to enter the labor market quickly and children to start school promptly. Those who are well integrated and support themselves should get a secure residence status sooner; the party also backs easier family reunification.

Refugees should find work quickly. Children should start school quickly. People who are well integrated and earn their own money should get a secure right to stay sooner. Families should be able to join them more easily. Language classes should be open to all immigrants.

The SPD wants the integration council to be the only municipal body for the political participation of people with an international family background. Its powers, resources and delegation rights are to be fundamentally reformed.

Cities have integration councils. There, people with an immigrant background have a say in local politics. The SPD wants this to be the only body for that purpose. The councils should get more powers and better resources.

The SPD wants to launch a naturalization drive in the state and support the modernization of citizenship law. It sees dual citizenship and simpler naturalization requirements as key steps toward equal participation.

The SPD wants more people to get German citizenship. It plans a naturalization drive for this. People should be allowed to hold two passports. The rules for becoming a citizen should get simpler.

The SPD wants to introduce an equal pay law and create incentives in the public sector for a fairer split of unpaid care and family work. The public sector is meant to serve as a model for the rest of the economy.

The SPD wants a law on equal pay. Women and men should earn the same for the same work. The public sector should offer ways for couples to share family work more fairly. Work should fit better with family life.

The SPD wants to guarantee access to abortion care and make it part of medical training and continuing education. Abortions should be available free of charge. The party also backs repealing Section 219a at the federal level.

Women should decide for themselves about a pregnancy. The SPD wants enough doctors who offer abortions. An abortion should cost nothing. Doctors should be allowed to give information openly. Counseling should be available everywhere, also online.

The SPD wants the public service to reflect a more diverse society. People with a migration background should find it easier to enter state employment, and promotion rules are to be checked for disadvantages to women.

More people with a migration background should work for the state. The SPD wants to remove hurdles in hiring and careers. Women should find it easier to become leaders. So the SPD will check the rules for promotions.

The SPD wants to protect and strengthen Jewish life in North Rhine-Westphalia. The reporting office for antisemitism is to become permanent, and further reporting offices for other hate-motivated incidents are to be added.

The SPD wants to protect Jewish people in the state better. There is an office where people can report hatred of Jews. This office should stay for good. New offices should record other kinds of hate. Synagogues and mosques should also get more protection.

The SPD wants to create an anti-discrimination law and set up a state anti-discrimination office. In addition, public administration is to open up interculturally, and municipalities are to get support for their own anti-discrimination plans.

The SPD wants a law against discrimination. Discrimination means treating people unfairly, for example because of where they come from. The state should get its own office for this. The office advises, does research and informs the public. Government offices should also become more open to everyone.

The SPD wants a law to ensure that women and men are equally represented at all political levels. In addition, the state and municipalities are to pay attention to gender-fair and gender-neutral language.

There should be as many women as men in politics. The SPD wants to make a law for this. The state and the cities should also watch their language. The language should address all genders equally.

The SPD calls for all women and girls in need of protection to have a legal right to free admission and shelter. To that end, it wants to expand women's shelters and counseling centers with state money and launch a state action plan against violence.

Some women and girls experience violence. They should have a right to a free place in a shelter. The SPD wants more women's shelters and counseling centers. Women with disabilities should also be able to reach this help easily.

The SPD wants to fund meeting places and groups for queer young people in cities and rural areas and also support services for queer seniors. Pride (CSD) festivals across the state are to receive stable base funding.

Queer people are, for example, lesbian, gay or trans. The SPD wants to fund meeting places for queer young people. This applies to cities and to villages. Older queer people should also get services. Pride festivals should take place all over the state.

The SPD wants to revise the state's climate protection law. Targets, measures and monitoring are to be derived from the Paris Agreement's 1.5-degree goal and made binding. The party calls climate change the greatest challenge of the present.

The SPD wants to rewrite the NRW climate protection law. The Earth should warm by no more than 1.5 degrees. The law should follow this goal. It should list targets and measures. The state should check whether it meets the targets.

The SPD wants to expand wind and solar power almost everywhere in the state and give local residents a share of the returns. Rigid distance rules for wind turbines are to be dropped and turbines allowed in commercial forests. The coal phase-out is to happen once expansion targets are verifiably met.

The SPD wants more power from wind and sun. Wind turbines and solar panels should stand almost everywhere. People living nearby should get cheaper power or earn money from them. Fixed distance rules for wind turbines should go. Coal should end once enough new plants exist.

The SPD wants to commission a study of the potential of renewable energy in North Rhine-Westphalia and of the capacity needed to meet climate targets. Based on this, the state's energy strategy is to be realigned and all renewable sources expanded more than before.

The SPD wants more power from wind, sun and other renewable sources. First, a study should show how much is possible. Then the SPD wants to rewrite the state's energy plan. Extra power should be stored as hydrogen.

The SPD wants to create a public, easy-to-understand information tool on future prices for water, electricity and heating. It is meant to help people prepare for new energy prices and to show which government aid is available for which income groups.

The SPD wants a cost navigator for energy. This is a public overview of future prices for water, power and heating. It also shows what help the government offers. This way, everyone can prepare for the prices.

Following the model of the "Innovation City Bottrop" pilot project, the SPD wants to promote local energy-transition efforts in 1,000 neighborhoods, mainly through energy-efficient building renovation. This is meant to serve climate protection, bring orders to local businesses and keep housing affordable.

The SPD wants to make 1,000 neighborhoods in the state more climate-friendly. The model is a project in the city of Bottrop. Above all, buildings should be renovated so they use less energy. This should also bring work for local tradespeople.

The SPD wants solar panels on every suitable roof. They are to be mandatory for new construction and conversions of commercial buildings and subsidized for existing buildings. Noise barriers along highways and rail lines are also to be fitted with photovoltaics where possible.

The SPD wants solar panels on as many roofs as possible. Anyone who builds or converts a commercial building must install solar panels. Existing buildings should get funding for this. Noise barriers should also get solar panels.

The SPD wants to set up acceleration centers and service centers for municipal permitting authorities. They are meant to make permits under the Federal Immission Control Act and the legally sound designation of wind energy zones easier and much faster.

The SPD wants wind turbines and other energy projects to get permits faster. New centers should be set up for this. Experts there help the offices in towns and counties. Today, some procedures take more than ten years.

The SPD wants municipalities in North Rhine-Westphalia to present a heating plan with concrete measures, priorities and a timeline within three years. The plans are meant to lower heat demand and shift supply to renewable sources.

The SPD wants every city and town to make a heating plan. The plan shows how buildings will be heated in a climate-friendly way. Municipalities should have three years for this. The plan lists measures and a timeline.

The SPD wants to develop the Rhine-Ruhr region into Germany's hydrogen center. To this end, a statewide pipeline network is to be built, existing long-distance natural gas pipelines converted, and skilled workers trained in a dedicated training center.

The SPD wants to make the state the top region for hydrogen. Hydrogen is a gas that can replace coal in industry. Pipes should carry hydrogen across the whole state. A new center should train skilled workers for this.

The SPD wants buildings owned by the state and municipalities to be built climate-neutral as a binding requirement. Cities and towns would get help with accessible redesign and with adapting to climate change, for example through more green and water areas.

New buildings owned by the state and towns should not harm the climate. This would become a rule. The SPD also wants to help cities with rebuilding. More green areas and water should make cities cooler.

The SPD wants to move the economy to a circular model as quickly as possible, in which raw materials are reused rather than used up. It plans a state strategy, a competence center and more research funding. The party stands by growth but wants to achieve it without harm to the environment and climate.

The SPD wants raw materials to be used again and again. Waste should be reused somewhere else. This is called a circular economy. The state should have a plan and an expert center for this. The economy should still grow.

The SPD wants to set up a pilot project called "Climate-Neutral Consumption" to inform people about sustainable consumption. The state is to use reusable instead of single-use containers on its own premises and at its events; packaging-free shops are to get tax advantages, and supermarkets are to be required to have packaging-free sections.

The SPD wants less waste. A project should explain how to shop in a climate-friendly way. The state itself should use reusable containers. Shops without packaging should pay less tax. Supermarkets should have to offer a section without packaging.

The SPD wants to limit daily land consumption in North Rhine-Westphalia to five hectares. New housing, commercial zones and bike paths are to be built mainly on already developed land within towns and on former industrial sites.

The SPD wants less open land to be built on. The limit should be five hectares a day. New homes and businesses should mostly go inside towns. Old industrial sites should be used again.

The SPD wants to introduce a statewide raw materials strategy and gradually reduce the extraction of gravel and sand. Recycled construction rubble is to increasingly replace them as a building material, because the platform says extraction permanently alters the landscape.

The SPD wants less gravel and sand to be dug up. There should be a plan for the whole state. Builders should reuse more old rubble. The SPD says gravel and sand will run out one day.

The SPD wants to work out a long-term water management plan with municipalities and the water sector. It is to include measures against heavy rain, flooding, heat and drought and secure the drinking water supply. Cities are to be redesigned along the sponge city principle.

The SPD wants a plan for water in the state. The plan should protect against floods and drought. It should also keep drinking water safe. Cities should soak up rain better. This is called a sponge city.

The SPD wants to carry out the goals of the Volksinitiative Artenvielfalt (citizens' initiative on biodiversity) in North Rhine-Westphalia. Its reasoning is that about 45 percent of animal and plant species in the state are endangered, threatened with extinction or already extinct.

The SPD wants to protect animals and plants better. Many species in the state are in danger. The SPD wants to carry out the goals of a citizens' initiative. One goal is a new national park in the Senne area.

The SPD wants forests to be managed in a near-natural way so that they can withstand climate change. Forests and moors are to be restored quickly as carbon stores, and the party wants to prevent peat extraction.

The SPD wants to make forests stronger. They should cope better with heat and drought. Forests and moors store carbon. So they should become more natural again. Peat should no longer be dug up.

The SPD wants to push at the federal level for mandatory insurance against natural hazards. This would make property insurable even where insurers offer no coverage today and spread premiums across many policyholders. Flood protection is also to be planned faster and funded more generously.

The SPD wants mandatory insurance against damage from nature. Flood damage is one example. Then people in risky areas can also get insurance. The costs are shared by many people. Flood protection should also be built faster.

The SPD wants to counter concentration in agriculture with regional processing and distribution structures. This is meant to improve farms' position against large buyers. It also calls for a ban on dumping prices and a land reform.

The SPD wants to support farms in the region. Food should more often be processed and sold nearby. This should get farmers better prices. The SPD wants to ban very low prices. The market for farmland should also get new rules.

The SPD wants to make the sustainability standards of the German Nutrition Society (DGE) mandatory for public cafeterias and canteens in the longer term. The platform treats healthy eating as a social issue because healthy food is expensive.

The SPD wants healthier food in public cafeterias. Fixed rules should apply there. Cafeterias should buy more local and organic food. Everyone should be able to eat healthily, even with little money.

The SPD wants to reward farmers for services the market has not paid for so far, such as species protection or gentle soil cultivation. Sustainability rating systems are meant to make the social costs of food production visible in prices.

Farmers do a lot for nature and the environment. Often they get no money for it. The SPD wants to change that. Farmers should get a premium for this work. Cheap meat from factory farming should no longer have a price advantage.

The SPD wants to push at the federal level for a mandatory state animal welfare label covering all species. Livestock farmers are to get help converting their housing systems so they can earn an adequate income with fewer animals.

The SPD wants an animal welfare label for all kinds of animals. The label should be required. It shows how the animals were kept. Farmers should get help when they rebuild their barns. They should earn enough even with fewer animals.

The SPD aims for a broad transformation of transportation and wants to invest considerably more in public transit and transport infrastructure. A larger share of traffic is to move to buses, regional trains and long-distance rail so the state contributes to the climate targets for 2030 and 2045. North Rhine-Westphalia is also to become a hub for night trains.

The SPD wants to change how people travel in the state. More people should use buses and trains instead of cars. This should help the climate. The SPD wants to spend much more money on buses, trains and transport routes. More night trains should also run through NRW.

The SPD wants to give walking and cycling a much bigger role and to rebuild transport infrastructure for this, especially in municipalities. Bike path networks are to grow and bike highways are to be built quickly. The guiding goal is Vision Zero, meaning no deaths or serious injuries in road traffic.

The SPD wants to do more for people who walk or ride bikes. There should be more and better bike paths. Roads should become safer. The goal is that nobody dies or gets badly hurt in traffic. The state should give cities money for this.

The SPD wants a mobility guarantee that ensures everyone in the state can get from their front door to the nearest public transit connection, so rural areas benefit too. Rail lines are to be electrified, reopened and extended. A statewide app with per-kilometer billing is meant to make transit easier to use.

The SPD wants to make buses and trains better. Everyone should be able to get from home to the next bus or train. This also applies in the countryside. Old rail lines should run again. There should be one app for all of NRW. With it, people pay only for the kilometers they travel.

The SPD wants to give school students a free transit pass, raise state subsidies for the Sozialticket (reduced-fare pass for low-income riders) and cut the price of the trainee pass. In the long run, local transit is to be usable without a ticket and paid for through a shared levy, with a 365-euro annual pass as an interim step. Transit is to be expanded under public ownership.

The SPD wants to make buses and trains cheaper. School students should ride for free. Trainees should pay less. Later, nobody should need a ticket at all. Then everyone pays a shared fee for buses and trains. One step toward that is a pass for 365 euros a year.

The SPD wants to keep investing in the upkeep of state roads and to support municipalities in this, since roads remain the main mode of transport. It backs the federal transport infrastructure plan for 2030 and the rebuilding of the Rahmede valley bridge on the A45 highway. At the same time, more freight is to move to rail and waterways, and electric mobility is to be promoted.

Most people and goods travel by road. So the SPD wants to keep the state's roads in good shape. A broken highway bridge near Lüdenscheid should be rebuilt quickly. More goods should travel by train and ship. There should be more charging stations for electric cars.

The SPD wants to keep the state's decentralized airport system and keep the Cologne/Bonn cargo airport open around the clock. A state aviation plan is meant to give airports planning certainty, while residents are to be better protected from noise. At the federal and EU level, it wants to push for equal conditions across all modes of transport, for example on taxing jet fuel.

The SPD wants to keep the airports in NRW. Cologne/Bonn airport should always be open for cargo, even at night. People living nearby should be better protected from noise. Loud and dirty planes should pay higher fees. The SPD also wants jet fuel to be taxed.

The SPD wants to move considerably more freight from roads to waterways and to develop the state as a port and logistics location. It wants to press the federal government for faster repair and expansion of the waterways. A state funding program is meant to make inland shipping more environmentally friendly.

NRW has many rivers, canals and ports. The SPD wants more goods to travel by ship instead of by truck. Canals and locks should be repaired faster. Ports should have room to grow. Ships should produce less exhaust.

The SPD wants to support inland shipping operators based in North Rhine-Westphalia with a program of grants and loans. It also wants to press the federal government for tax changes that make shore power easier to use.

The SPD wants to help river shippers in North Rhine-Westphalia. They should get grants and loans. Ships should be able to use power from land more easily. Tax rules that stand in the way should go.

The SPD promises that the entire state will have access to very fast internet within five years. In mobile service, 5G is to become the standard everywhere.

The SPD wants fast internet for all of North Rhine-Westphalia. This should be done in five years. No place should be left out. For mobile phones, 5G should be normal everywhere.

The SPD wants to digitalize public administration faster so that all services for residents are available online. It also wants to promote open-source software and municipal platforms and invest heavily in IT security research.

The SPD wants government offices to be more digital. People should be able to handle all their requests online. The state should help local staff with the change. The SPD also wants to spend a lot on research into secure computer technology.

The SPD wants to make state and municipal administration more digital and to present a master plan at the start of the legislative term. The party wants North Rhine-Westphalia to be a digital model for Germany by 2030. Digital services should be easy for everyone to use without shutting out people who cannot or do not want to use them.

The SPD wants public offices to offer more services online. There would be one big plan for this. By 2030 the state should be a role model on this. People who cannot or do not want to go online should still be able to visit an office.

The SPD wants to counter disinformation and hate speech online mainly through better media literacy for all age groups. Search engines and social networks are to be regulated more closely through the Interstate Media Treaty in order to protect diversity of opinion.

The SPD wants to make the internet safer. Everyone should learn how to use media well. Then people can spot false news more easily. Search engines and social networks should get more rules. Children should be better protected online.

The SPD puts strong emphasis on prevention in security policy. Programs against youth crime and extremism are to be expanded, local prevention councils strengthened, and dark places better lit.

The SPD wants to stop crimes before they happen. Programs against youth crime and extremism should grow. In cities, police, public offices and charities should work together more closely. Dark places should get more light.

The SPD wants to act against right-wing extremism and unlawful violence within the police. To do so, it plans an independent complaints office and the post of a state police commissioner.

The SPD wants no right-wing extremists in the police. Unlawful violence by police officers should also have consequences. There should be an independent office for complaints. A commissioner should look into such cases. Police officers can turn to this person too.

The SPD wants to increase police staffing and raise police presence in neighborhoods. Officers are to be better equipped, especially digitally, and violence against emergency personnel is always to go to court.

The SPD wants to hire more police officers. The police should be easier to see in neighborhoods. They should get better technology. Anyone who attacks emergency workers should always be reported.

The SPD wants to base security policy more firmly on scientific findings. It plans a regular security report, an institute for security research and an independent expert advisory council.

The SPD wants to know more about crime. Many crimes are never reported. A regular report should give a clearer picture. A new institute should do research on security. Experts should advise the state parliament and the government.

The SPD wants to devote more staff to prosecuting organized crime and target its money above all. Money laundering is to be fought with more inspections, and illegal assets consistently confiscated.

The SPD wants to act harder against organized criminals. Above all it wants to take away their money. For this there should be more checks and more tax investigators. Many public offices should work together. Environmental crimes should also be pursued more.

The SPD wants to make train stations safer and more attractive, saying many are perceived as places of fear. It plans station supervisors as a point of contact and permanent weapons-ban zones around major stations.

Many people feel unsafe at train stations. The SPD wants to change that. Stations should have supervisors who help passengers. Weapons should be banned for good around big stations.

The SPD wants to step up the fight against political and religious extremism and strengthen the police and the Verfassungsschutz (domestic intelligence service) for that purpose. The platform sees right-wing extremism as the greatest current threat to democracy. Extremists are to be barred from owning weapons.

The SPD wants to do more against extremists. Extremists reject democracy. The police and the domestic intelligence service should become stronger. Extremists should not be allowed to have weapons. The SPD sees the biggest danger in right-wing extremists.

The SPD wants to fight hate crime and the spread of hateful slogans much harder, especially online. Security agencies are to get more staff and platform operators are to be held more accountable. The platform argues that incitement is often the first step toward physical violence.

The SPD wants to do more against hate on the internet. The police and the domestic intelligence service should get more staff. Companies like Facebook or YouTube should also do more. They should delete hate messages faster. The SPD says hate speech often leads to violence.

The SPD wants to step up prevention of extremism. The "Wegweiser" program, so far aimed at Islamism, is to cover every form of extremism in the future. Its existing contact points are to become prevention centers.

The SPD wants to stop extremism early. There is a program called "Wegweiser". So far it deals with Islamism. In the future it should cover every kind of extremism. The contact points should become prevention centers.

After the pandemic and the 2021 flood, the SPD wants to rebuild civil protection in North Rhine-Westphalia. Municipalities are to get lasting additional funding and organizational help, fire departments and aid organizations are to be better equipped, and public warning systems are to be expanded.

The SPD wants to prepare the state better for disasters. Towns and districts should get more money and help. Fire departments and helpers should get modern equipment. People should be warned faster. Sirens, apps and phone alerts are used for this.

The SPD wants more staff, better pay and faster construction and modernization in the prison system. Reintegration of offenders is to be strengthened through a rehabilitation law. Community service is to take priority over jail time served in place of unpaid fines.

The SPD wants more staff in prisons. Staff should get more pay. Prisoners should find their way back into life after prison. A new law should help with this. People who cannot pay a fine should do community work instead of going to jail.

The SPD wants to organize victim protection statewide and across ministries. A foundation is to compensate crime victims when other statutory benefits fall short. For children and teenagers who have suffered violence, centers for child-friendly questioning are to be created.

The SPD wants to help crime victims more. A foundation should be able to pay them money. This applies when other help is not enough. There should be special houses for children. There they are questioned in a child-friendly way.

The SPD wants to involve children and young people more in political decisions and implement a statewide strategy for this together with youth associations. Proposed laws would in the future be checked for their effects on young people. The state's children and youth funding plan is to receive more money.

Children and young people should have a say in politics. The SPD wants a firm plan for the state to make this happen. New laws should be checked for what they mean for young people. Youth work should get more money.

The SPD wants to work with the federal government to speed up administrative, planning, and approval procedures so that private and public investments can be carried out faster. Its stated goal is to cut the length of procedures at least in half. Authorities would get more staff for this, especially at the municipal level.

Permits for building projects often take a long time. The SPD wants to cut that time at least in half. This should make investments happen faster. Public offices would get more staff for this.

The SPD wants to gradually reduce the weekly working hours of state civil servants until they match those of employees covered by collective agreements. The aim is to make public service more attractive, since the platform says almost 18,000 state positions are vacant.

Civil servants in NRW should work fewer hours. They should work as long as staff with a union contract. This should happen step by step. The SPD wants more people to choose a state job.

The SPD wants to improve pay and working conditions in state employment. This includes a subsidy for civil servants who choose public health insurance, ending the Kostendämpfungspauschale (a cost-sharing charge), equal pay for teachers, and no more fixed-term contracts without objective reason.

The SPD wants to make state jobs better. Civil servants should be able to pick public health insurance. The state would then pay part of the cost. Teachers should get equal pay. Contracts should no longer be limited in time without a reason.

The SPD wants to act against right-wing extremism and rules out any cooperation with far-right forces. Pro-democracy initiatives would get permanent rather than project-based funding through democracy promotion laws at the federal and state level.

The SPD wants to fight right-wing extremism. It will not work with far-right groups. Groups that stand up for democracy should get lasting funding. A yearly report should show how much racism and hatred of Jews there is.

The SPD is seeking a broad reform of election law in NRW. Young people would vote in state elections from age 16, people from non-EU countries could vote in local elections, and a parity law would ensure equal representation in parliaments.

The SPD wants to change voting rules. Young people should vote for the state parliament at age 16. Foreigners from countries outside the EU should vote in their city. Parliaments should have as many women as men.

The SPD wants to convene citizens' assemblies on specific questions at the state level and later pass a citizen participation law. Municipalities would be required to involve children and young people, and student representative bodies would be allowed to speak on all political issues.

The SPD wants citizens' assemblies in the state. There, citizens discuss one specific question. Later there should be a law on citizen participation. Towns and cities must let children and young people have a say. Student bodies should be able to speak on all topics.

The SPD wants to introduce a lobby register and a legislative footprint. The aim is to make it easier to see how political decisions come about.

The SPD wants a lobby register. It lists who tries to influence politics. There would also be a legislative footprint. It shows who took part in writing a law. This should make politics easier to follow.

The SPD wants to give volunteer work stronger structural support and rebuild structures lost during the COVID-19 pandemic. Unpaid service in local politics should also become more attractive, for example through family-friendly or digital meetings.

Many people in NRW volunteer in clubs. The SPD wants to support this work better. Clubs should be rebuilt after COVID. Unpaid work on the town council should also get easier. For example, meetings could be held online.

The SPD wants to critically review the security laws of recent years and replace the state's current assembly law with a "freedom of assembly law." The review is to establish which intrusions on fundamental rights were actually necessary and proportionate.

The SPD wants to check the security laws of recent years. It asks which limits on basic rights were really needed. The law on demonstrations should be replaced. The new law should be called a freedom of assembly law.

The SPD wants the justice ministry to refrain from influencing performance evaluations of judges and to step back markedly from individual investigations. It also wants the state to launch legal policy debates at the federal level, for example on corporate criminal law and decriminalizing petty offenses.

The SPD wants to show more trust in the courts. The ministry should interfere less in investigations. It should not influence how judges are rated. The SPD wants to start new debates on criminal law. For example, minor offenses should no longer be crimes.

The SPD wants positions in the justice system to be actually filled and working conditions improved. Fixed-term contracts are to be reduced, fixed-term contracts without objective grounds abolished, and pay raised. Legal education is also to be changed.

The SPD wants more staff in the justice system. There should be fewer fixed-term jobs. Fixed-term means the contract ends after a set time. Staff should be paid better. Law school should also change.

The SPD regards equal access to justice as a basic public service and wants easily reachable legal advice across the state, including in rural areas. The justice system is to become more digital, out-of-court dispute resolution is to come first, and enforcement of rulings is to be faster.

Everyone should easily get advice on legal questions. This should apply across the state, including in villages. Disputes should be solved without a court where possible. Courts should work more with computers. Rulings should be enforced faster.

The SPD commits to a Europe of the regions and wants to deepen cooperation with the Netherlands and Belgium, including in policing and justice. Projects backed by EU funds should be approved and co-financed by the state without delay.

The SPD wants more cooperation with neighboring countries. These are mainly the Netherlands and Belgium. People should find it easier to work and study across the border. Police and courts should also work together more closely. The state should quickly help pay for EU projects.

The SPD wants to deepen the state's partnerships with Ghana and South Africa, promote fair trade, and consolidate Bonn as a UN city and second federal political center. It commits to a Europe of peace and disarmament and to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The SPD wants to work more closely with Ghana and South Africa. The focus is on climate protection and clean energy. Fair trade should get more support. The city of Bonn should become more important as a United Nations location. The SPD stands for peace and disarmament in Europe.

The SPD wants to double cultural funding within two legislative terms. The money is to benefit, among other things, the digitalization of cultural institutions, grassroots and community culture, and cultural life in rural areas.

The SPD wants to spend twice as much money on culture. This should happen over two terms of government. Rural areas should also have good cultural life. Small stages, movie theaters and clubs should be modernized.

The SPD wants to raise the minimum fee set in the state's culture law significantly and expand social protection for artists. Cultural funding is to take gender equity into account.

Artists should be paid better. The culture law sets a minimum fee. That is the lowest pay allowed. The SPD wants to raise it clearly. Social protection for artists should also get better.

The SPD wants to keep WDR as a full-service public broadcaster with adequate funding from the broadcasting fee. More of its content should be freely licensed, and its broadcasting council should reflect society more broadly.

The SPD wants to keep WDR strong. WDR is the public broadcaster in the state. It should keep offering a full program. It should get enough money from the broadcasting fee. More of its shows should be free for everyone to use.

The SPD wants to strengthen local journalism and keep North Rhine-Westphalia's local radio stations with their own newsrooms. To fund journalism in the long run, it should be eligible for nonprofit status, alongside new funding models.

The SPD wants to protect local news. Local radio stations should keep their own newsrooms. Journalism should be able to count as nonprofit work. That means it serves the public and pays less tax.

The SPD wants to further strengthen North Rhine-Westphalia as a location for games and media, especially the Ruhr area. A new event format is meant to bring together the online community and traditional media.

The SPD wants to strengthen the media industry in the state. This includes video games. The Ruhr area should benefit most. There should be a new event that moves between cities.

The SPD wants to move faster on rebuilding the areas hit by the July 2021 flood. Aid money is to be paid out more quickly, municipalities are to be supported in restoring infrastructure, and a special program is to be launched. The stated goal is that people there have the same opportunities as elsewhere in the state.

In July 2021 there was a severe flood. The SPD wants to help people there faster. The money for rebuilding should arrive sooner. Towns should get help for roads and buildings. There should also be help for mental health.

The SPD wants to invest in gyms, swimming pools and sports fields and continue the state program "Moderne Sportstätten" (modern sports facilities). It puts particular emphasis on accessibility so that people with and without disabilities can do sports together.

The SPD wants to renovate gyms, pools and sports fields. The state should keep paying for this. The facilities should be open to everyone. People with disabilities should be able to do sports there too.

The SPD wants the state to pay the annual membership fee once when children and young people join a sports club. The aim is to bring at least 500,000 young people into organized sports.

The SPD wants more children to join sports clubs. The state should pay the fee for one year, one time. The goal is 500,000 new young club members.

The SPD wants every child to learn to swim. Pools are to be renovated, lessons offered both in and outside school, and municipalities supported in providing school swimming.

The SPD wants every child to learn to swim. Pools should be repaired for this. Every child should be able to get lessons. Towns will get help to offer swimming at school.

The SPD wants to support young talent in elite sports and para sports and bring major sporting events to the state. It backs bids by the Rhine-Ruhr region for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, provided they have broad public support and respect human rights and sustainability.

The SPD wants to support young sports talent. Big sports events should take place in the state. The Rhine-Ruhr region should be able to bid for the Olympic Games. Human rights and the environment must be respected.