SPD on democracy and the state

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 platform treats childhood and youth as distinct life stages with their own policy field. The strategy of an 'engaging' children and youth policy is to be anchored in the next legislative term as a cross-cutting, binding and crisis-proof task. It includes easy-access participation formats and a say in educational institutions, especially schools. The SPD names youth associations, independent welfare organizations and open youth work as partners that give young people room to develop. The children and youth funding plan is to be developed further and better funded.

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.

According to the program, faster procedures would also advance the statewide rollout of gigabit networks and 5G. Shared standards for digitizing municipalities and authorities are meant to avoid friction. The better staffing is intended especially for the municipal level.

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.

As a first step, parents of young children, civil servants caring for relatives, and shift workers would work shorter hours. Long-term working time accounts would also be improved and used to cut hours. The platform cites nearly 18,000 unfilled state positions, which the SPD says threaten the state's ability to function. The measures are to be developed in dialogue with employees and their unions. The SPD acknowledges that this will cost money.

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.

Civil servants who want public health insurance would get a state subsidy, as in some other German states. The Kostendämpfungspauschale, a share of medical costs that civil servants pay themselves, would be scrapped. Teachers would be paid equally, starting salaries would rise, and allowances for unsocial hours and for firefighters and police would be updated. Binding rules for working from home are planned. The SPD wants to end fixed-term contracts without objective reason in the state administration.

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 municipal program 'NRWeltoffen' would become a permanent task under a state democracy promotion law and be expanded. Counseling, victim support, work against online hate and exit programs would continue to be supported and expanded where needed, as would research on right-wing extremism. The SPD's 'master plan against right-wing extremism' would be implemented: police, security agencies and the judiciary would be made more aware, and a yearly situation report would cover violence, attacks and attitudes on antisemitism, racism and discrimination. The SPD rejects comparisons with other forms of extremism as playing down the problem. The existing action plan against right-wing extremism would be evaluated and possibly broadened.

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 reform is meant to ensure that as many people as possible may vote, that turnout rises and that the state parliament does not grow too large. The voting age for state elections would drop to 16. People without EU citizenship would also be able to vote in local elections. A parity law that complies with the constitution is to secure equal representation of women and men in parliaments.

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.

Citizens' assemblies would add an advisory element to parliament and direct democracy without replacing representative democracy. According to the platform, this would bring in interests early that are otherwise overlooked. The SPD does not prescribe a fixed format for mandatory child and youth participation in municipalities and wants different methods tried out. Municipalities would get help setting their own participation rules, for example in local bylaws. Student representative bodies at schools and universities would receive a general political mandate.

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.

A lobby register is a list of interest representatives who seek to influence politics. A legislative footprint records who was involved in drafting a law. The SPD says both tools would make the political decision-making process more transparent.

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.

A state program and municipal programs for promoting democracy are planned, through which the state and municipalities would revive volunteer structures. The engagement strategy, including micro-grants, would be developed further, and more young people would be drawn into volunteering. Together with the federal government, the SPD wants to reduce liability risks for volunteers. For local council service, family-friendly meeting times and digital meetings are planned in order to attract groups that are underrepresented so far. Supervisory bodies and boards of public-law companies are to have equal numbers of women and men.

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 review covers laws that, as the platform describes them, intrude heavily on fundamental rights. It is to assess comprehensively which intrusions have proven strictly necessary. At the same time, the SPD wants to prevent right-wing extremists from misusing days of remembrance for the victims of Nazi rule and the Shoah and from denigrating the victims.

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.

According to the platform, the state's justice system is to return to a top position among the German states. To get there, the SPD points to adequate staffing, good pay and motivated employees in every branch. Associations within the justice system are to be involved with their proposals on an equal footing.

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 Pakt für den Rechtsstaat (a federal-state pact for more justice staff) is to be made permanent together with the federal government. The SPD wants to implement a Federal Labor Court ruling on pay grades for staff in court service units and registries, pay a bonus to salaried nursing staff in prisons, and let justice civil servants choose between the civil service health subsidy and statutory health insurance. Lay judges in all court branches are to be able to elect representatives and get better leave from work. Pay for professional guardians is to be evaluated and a campaign is to recruit new ones. Law degrees are to include an integrated bachelor's degree and the option of taking the exam papers in stages.

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 advice service is to tie in with existing services. Lay arbitrators and mediation are to help avoid court cases. The work of bailiffs is to become more effective. Digitization is to be carried out together with staff and employee representatives and backed with enough personnel and money. Prosecutors are to be trained to pay closer attention to violations of workplace safety and co-determination rights, such as obstructing the founding of works councils.