SPD: program for the 2026 Rhineland-Palatinate state election

The SPD announces a decade of high public investment. Money from the federal special fund plus additional state funds is to go into transport routes, digital networks, and universities and research.

The SPD wants to invest a lot of money for ten years. The money comes from the federal government and the state. It should go to roads and railways. Fast internet, universities and research should also get money.

The SPD wants to target the state's support tools, especially loan guarantees, at companies that have to transform. This is meant to keep investment possible even in uncertain markets and to keep industrial jobs in the state.

Many companies have to change a lot. The SPD wants to help them. The state should guarantee loans for these companies more often. A guarantee means the state steps in if the company cannot pay. This should keep jobs in the state.

The SPD wants to found a "Standortgesellschaft Rheinland-Pfalz" as a single point of contact for companies looking to set up in the state. A "commercial land turbo" is also meant to create new commercial and industrial sites across the state.

The SPD wants more companies to come to the state. There should be one central office for this. Companies get all their advice there. New land for businesses should also become available faster.

The SPD wants to simplify more rules, shorten planning and permitting procedures and digitalize processes. Workers' rights, consumer protection and the goal of climate neutrality are to remain untouched.

The SPD wants less red tape for companies. Permits should come faster. Many things should be done digitally. The rights of workers and consumers stay protected. Climate protection also remains a goal.

The SPD wants to develop the state's innovation fund further and introduce growth financing for young companies. Small and mid-sized businesses are to get an "AI check," and skilled trades an innovation bonus for AI applications.

The SPD wants to support young companies with new ideas. They should also get money to grow after they are founded. Small companies should get help with AI. AI means artificial intelligence. Skilled-trade businesses should get a bonus for using AI.

The SPD wants to strengthen the skilled trades and dual vocational training and attract more young people to trade occupations. The Aufstiegsbonus (advancement bonus) is to be expanded, and in the long run master craftsman training should be free of fees.

The SPD wants to strengthen the skilled trades. More young people should learn a trade. Training to become a master craftsman should one day be free. A master title should count as much as a university degree.

The SPD wants to market Rhineland-Palatinate more uniformly as a travel destination and create a joint tourism umbrella brand. The tourism strategy is to be implemented and developed further, and the sector's digitalization is to be advanced.

The SPD wants to bring more vacationers to Rhineland-Palatinate. The state should advertise with one shared brand. Guests should be able to do everything for their trip digitally. Nature and culture should be protected.

The SPD wants to make the state's funding programs simpler and give municipalities more responsibility of their own. Public procurement is to move faster, permits are to be standardized and sector-specific procedures digitized.

The SPD wants to hand out state funding in a simpler way. Towns should decide more for themselves. Public contracts should be awarded faster. Permits should work in a similar way everywhere and be digital.

The SPD stands by the statutory minimum wage and wants to develop it further. Mini-jobs (low-paid marginal jobs) are to become much less common and be converted into regular jobs with social insurance where possible. It also wants to keep helping the unemployed, especially the long-term unemployed, into work.

The SPD wants fair wages. The minimum wage should stay and keep developing. There should be fewer mini-jobs. Mini-jobs should turn into regular jobs with social insurance. People without work should get help finding a job.

The SPD wants public contracts and subsidies to go, as a rule, only to companies that comply with collective bargaining agreements. To that end, the state's Tariftreuegesetz (law on compliance with collective agreements) is to be revised in order to raise collective bargaining coverage.

A collective agreement sets pay and working conditions. The SPD wants more companies to pay by such agreements. Only those companies should get government contracts. The same should apply to public subsidies. The SPD wants to change a state law for this.

The SPD wants to modernize the law governing works councils and broaden their rights, including over the use of artificial intelligence. Obstructing works council activity is to be prosecuted more consistently. In the party's view, strong unions and works councils are needed to shape change in the world of work.

A works council speaks for the employees in a company. The SPD wants to give it more rights. It should also have a say when AI is used. Anyone who obstructs a works council should be punished. Special prosecutors should handle these cases.

The SPD wants to push at the federal level for a crisis version of Kurzarbeitergeld (short-time work allowance) lasting 24 months and anchored in law. It is meant to protect jobs during periods of economic upheaval and be tied to mandatory training.

In short-time work, employees work less and the state pays part of their wage. The SPD wants a special short-time allowance for crises. It should be paid for 24 months. During that time, employees should learn new skills.

The SPD wants to keep developing the state's skilled-worker strategy and adapt it to labor market needs. Small and medium-sized companies are to get help drawing up their own strategies, and advisory services are to be pooled in one central service office.

Many jobs lack skilled workers. The SPD wants to improve the state's plan against this. Small companies should get help. One central office should bring all advice together.

The SPD wants to launch a continuing-education drive together with companies, unions and training providers. At the federal level it calls for a right to further training and a broader Qualifizierungsgeld (training allowance) so that support starts earlier.

The SPD wants people to be able to learn all their lives. There should be a big push for further training. At the federal level there should be a right to further training. The employment agency should be able to pay for courses earlier.

The SPD wants to expand the Transformationsagentur Rheinland-Pfalz (state transformation agency) as a contact point for companies and employees, especially on the use of artificial intelligence. A state initiative is to help workers without a vocational qualification obtain one later.

The world of work is changing a lot. A state agency should advise companies and workers on this. This applies especially to artificial intelligence. People without a job qualification should be able to get one later.

The SPD commits to a strong welfare state and also wants social administration to work faster and more simply. It also wants to find ways to give municipalities lasting relief on social spending.

The SPD wants a strong welfare state. It should help people who are sick, poor, or out of work. Offices should work faster and more simply. Cities and towns should carry fewer costs.

The SPD wants to strengthen the network of counseling services in villages and neighborhoods and secure its funding. Contact points are to offer different kinds of help in one place, because several problems often come together in a crisis.

The SPD wants to strengthen counseling in villages and neighborhoods. People get help there with debt, addiction, or care. Different kinds of help should be in one place. Applying for help should get easier.

The SPD wants to double the number of professionals in the state program Gemeindeschwesterplus. The program offers older people preventive home visits so they can live independently at home for a long time. Seniors' participation and civic engagement are also to be supported.

Trained staff visit older people at home and give advice. The program is called Gemeindeschwesterplus. The SPD wants to hire twice as many staff for it. Older people should be able to live at home for a long time.

The SPD wants to preserve and support meeting places in villages, towns and neighborhoods because, in its view, loneliness is growing across all age groups. An action plan against loneliness is to be carried out and a funding program for volunteering continued.

Many people feel lonely. So the SPD wants to support meeting places in villages and cities. People should be able to meet there without spending money. A plan against loneliness should help. Older people get help with using the internet.

The SPD wants to remove barriers in all areas of life and create a state competence center for accessibility. The 2021 state inclusion law is to be implemented further, and the state action plan on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities reviewed and updated together with those affected.

The SPD wants to remove obstacles for people with disabilities. A new state advice center should help with this. It advises towns, public offices and companies. Public offices should offer more texts in plain language. Public buildings should be open to everyone.

The SPD wants more people with disabilities to work in the regular labor market. To that end, the Budget für Arbeit (a wage subsidy for employers) is to be expanded, more inclusive companies created and the integration services strengthened.

People with disabilities should find regular jobs more easily. The SPD wants to give more support for this. There should be more inclusive companies. These are firms where people with and without disabilities work together. Special services help young people start their working life.

The SPD wants to prevent and overcome poverty and sees work as the main route out of it. It relies on training, debt counseling, local prevention offices and an expansion of programs against child and youth poverty.

The SPD wants nobody to live in poverty. Work should protect people from being poor. So there is help with training and finding a job. People in debt get advice. Children from poor families should get more support. Young people should learn to handle money well.

The SPD wants to channel money from the federal special fund through the Rheinland-Pfalz-Plan into education, climate and infrastructure. Municipalities are to receive the money through a simple procedure and decide for themselves where to use it.

The federal government is providing a lot of money for investment. A large part goes to cities and towns. The state adds more money. The towns should decide for themselves how to spend it.

The SPD wants to further improve the financial situation of municipalities and shape the municipal fiscal equalization system according to need. It demands that the federal government take over half of municipalities' legacy debt and fully pay for new tasks.

Many cities and towns have too little money. The SPD wants to keep helping them. The federal government should take over half of the towns' old debts. Whoever gives towns new tasks should also pay for them.

The SPD wants to continue forward-looking budgeting with clear priorities while securing the state's capacity to invest. Through the Rheinland-Pfalz-Plan, 5.4 billion euros are to go into education, infrastructure, digitization, climate protection, health and basic public services.

The SPD wants to handle the state's money carefully. At the same time, the state should invest a lot. 5.4 billion euros should go to schools, roads, climate protection and health. Cities and rural areas should have equally good living conditions.

The SPD wants everyone to pay their fair share of taxes and intends to further strengthen the tax and revenue administration to that end. The administration is to be modernized and further digitized. The high number of trainees at the finance college in Edenkoben is to be maintained.

The SPD wants everyone to pay taxes fairly. For this, the tax offices should become stronger. They should work in a more modern and digital way. The state should keep training many experts for the tax offices.

The SPD wants to fund the "Housing First" model permanently, after pilots at five sites, and extend it to all larger and mid-sized regional centers in the state. Under this approach, homeless people first receive an apartment, with further help following afterward.

Some people have no home. The SPD wants to give them an apartment first. Other help comes after that. This is called "Housing First". So far it exists in five places. In the future, all larger towns should have it.

The SPD wants to keep social housing subsidies at the core of its housing policy and adjust them regularly to demand. Binding social quotas are meant to secure affordable homes for low- and middle-income households. Municipal and cooperative housing as well as communal housing projects are to be strengthened.

The SPD wants to keep paying for low-cost homes. A fixed share of new homes should be low-cost. This is called a social quota. Towns and housing co-ops should be able to build more. People who want to live together in shared projects should get more help.

The SPD wants to significantly increase the supply of affordable accommodation for students and apprentices. More dorms are to be built in university towns with tight housing markets, and places for apprentices where demand is highest.

The SPD wants more low-cost rooms for young people. This is for students and for apprentices. New dorms are planned in Mainz, Koblenz and Trier. Apprentices should also get dorm places.

The SPD wants to combine the rules protecting tenants in a single tenant protection regulation. In addition, tight housing markets are to be identified for individual regions regardless of county borders.

The SPD wants to protect renters. Several rules on this should be in one single regulation. One of them is the rent brake. It limits the rent in new contracts. Homes should stay homes.

The SPD wants to work with municipalities to activate unused building land and create building rights faster. Municipalities are to get more options to act against vacant and decaying buildings, including a stronger right of first refusal.

The SPD wants to make more building land usable. Towns should be able to grant building rights faster. They should be able to do more about empty houses. Empty business buildings should more easily become homes.

The SPD wants to make construction faster, cheaper and climate-friendly. Building standards that do not serve climate neutrality or accessibility are to be reviewed, and for climate protection a building's actual CO₂ emissions should count rather than complex technical rules.

The SPD wants building to be easier and cheaper. Some building rules should be reviewed. People should be able to file building applications online across the state. For the climate, what counts is how much CO₂ a house really causes.

The SPD wants to strengthen town and city centers with a cross-disciplinary approach and look at new ideas to revive them. The state garden shows are to be developed further, and the 2029 Bundesgartenschau (federal garden show) in the Upper Middle Rhine Valley is to be secured financially.

The SPD wants city centers to stay lively. It wants to try new ideas for this. The state garden shows should continue. The state will give money for the federal garden show on the Middle Rhine in 2029.

The SPD wants to conclude a pact for greater reliability in daycare centers (Kitas) with providers and other partners. The goals are a place for every child, enough well-trained staff, strong center management and dependable opening hours.

The SPD wants families to be able to rely on daycare. Every child should get a place. Daycare centers should have enough staff and stay open reliably. The SPD wants to make a pact with daycare providers. A pact is a firm agreement.

The SPD pledges that parents will continue to pay no fees for daycare for children aged two and older. The Kita-Zukunftsgesetz (the state's daycare law) is to be revised in the next term, with less red tape and more time for center managers.

Daycare is free for parents today once a child is two years old. The SPD wants to keep it that way. It also wants to improve the daycare law. There should be less paperwork. Daycare managers should get more time for good programs.

The SPD wants to expand contact points for families and deploy family guides who mainly help poor families claim the benefits they are entitled to. An Aktionsplan Familie (family action plan) is meant to make everyday support more targeted.

The SPD wants to give families more advice and help. Family guides should help poor families. They show which benefits a family can get. There should also be an action plan for families.

The SPD wants to better protect children growing up in especially difficult circumstances and expand the network of child intervention centers for that purpose. The effort against sexual violence toward children is to continue.

The SPD wants to protect children better from violence. There should be more help centers for affected children. Experts should work together more closely. The fight against sexual violence toward children goes on.

The SPD wants family law that reflects different kinds of families. This includes updated adoption and parentage law and legal recognition of rainbow families. Every child should have two legal parents from birth.

The SPD wants to change family law. Two married women should both count as mothers right away. Unmarried same-sex couples should also be allowed to adopt. Every child should have two legal parents from the start.

The SPD wants to involve children and young people more in decisions and treats youth policy as a task for all policy areas. The Landesjugendbeirat (state youth advisory council) is to be strengthened, and youth work is to receive more funding.

The SPD wants young people to have more of a say. The state youth advisory council advises the government. It should become stronger. Youth work and holiday camps should get more money.

The SPD wants paid training for early childhood educators to become the standard route and wants to shorten the training where this is possible without lowering quality. This is meant to help municipalities find skilled staff for daycare centers.

Daycare centers need more skilled staff. The SPD wants trainees for this job to get paid during training. That should become the normal way. The training should also get shorter where possible. The quality should stay the same.

The SPD wants to grow the daycare language network from 350 to 1,000 centers and track each child's language development. Daycare centers with particular needs are to get more staff and more social work through the Sozialraumbudget (a needs-based funding pot).

Children should learn to speak well early on. Today the state funds special language staff in 350 daycare centers. The SPD wants to raise that to 1,000 centers. Centers with many children in difficult situations should get more money and staff. Social work in daycare should also grow.

The SPD wants daycare centers and elementary schools to cooperate more closely so that children in their last daycare year move on to school well prepared. The Startchancen program for schools in difficult circumstances is to get stronger support and be widened.

Moving from daycare to elementary school is a big step. The SPD wants daycare centers and schools to work together more closely. Children should learn reading, writing and math well from the start. Schools with special problems should get more help.

The SPD wants to provide all textbooks and workbooks free of charge to every child. Families are to save up to 2,500 euros so that parents' income does not affect educational opportunities.

Textbooks and workbooks cost families money. The SPD wants all children to get them for free. Families should save up to 2,500 euros this way. No child should have worse chances because the parents have little money.

The SPD wants to strengthen school teams made up of teachers, social workers, psychologists and support staff and to create more Familiengrundschulzentren (family centers at elementary schools). Schools are to be linked more closely with their communities, and every child should be able to learn to swim.

Different experts should work together at schools. These include teachers, social workers and psychologists. The SPD wants more family centers at elementary schools. There, families get advice and help in one place. Every child should also be able to learn to swim.

The SPD wants high-quality all-day programs to become the standard across the state and plans more all-day schools where lessons and other activities alternate. Schools are to get more money, qualified teaching staff throughout the day and less burdened principals.

The SPD wants more and better all-day schools. Children also learn there in the afternoon. The schools should get more money for this. Well-trained staff should be there all day. School principals should have less office work.

The SPD is counting on computer science as a compulsory subject, a free AI platform for all schools and trained teachers. It also wants to protect children and teenagers better from online risks and draw up a state strategy for media literacy at every age.

All students should take computer science. Schools should be able to use a free platform for artificial intelligence. Teachers should learn how to work with it. Children should be safe online. The SPD also wants a plan for media skills for all age groups.

The SPD wants to support schools of all types in adopting new ways of learning and teaching through the “Schule der Zukunft” (school of the future) initiative and give principals more leeway. Teachers are to be relieved through less red tape and digital tools, and small elementary schools through regional networks.

Schools should be able to try new ways of learning. Principals should be able to decide more on their own. Teachers should have less paperwork. That leaves more time for the children. Small elementary schools should share staff for office work and social work.

The SPD wants to introduce children to math, computer science, natural sciences and technology more strongly as early as daycare and elementary school. This is meant to open career paths, secure skilled workers and strengthen the state's capacity for innovation.

STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math. The SPD wants to get children excited about it early. This should start in daycare and elementary school. Staff and teachers get suitable training. Girls and boys should have equal chances.

The SPD stands by parents' unrestricted right to choose and regards mainstream schools, Schwerpunktschulen (mainstream schools with an inclusion focus) and special-needs schools together as the basis of inclusive education. Schools and daycare centers should also be safe spaces with no room for exclusion, bullying or violence.

Parents should still choose freely which school their child with special needs attends. There are three kinds of schools for this. Special-needs schools will stay. Schools and daycare centers should be free of barriers. No one should be excluded or bullied there.

The SPD wants to conclude a democracy pact for daycare centers and schools and introduce a dedicated “democracy time” at secondary schools. Students are to get more rights to participate, and more money is to go to civic education.

Children and teenagers should learn about democracy in daycare and school. The SPD wants to make a democracy pact for this. Secondary schools should have a fixed democracy time. Students should have more say. There should be more money for civic education.

The SPD wants all young people to find a next step into vocational training or qualification after school. To that end, support programs, career guidance and vocational schools are to be strengthened; comprehensive schools would be allowed to run six parallel classes per grade where needed.

After school, every young person should know what comes next. The SPD wants to expand programs that help students graduate. Schools should inform students about jobs early. Vocational schools should be strengthened. Comprehensive schools should be allowed to grow where needed.

The SPD wants to pay elementary school teachers at the A13 civil-service salary grade. It also plans to keep hiring many new teachers every year and to adapt teacher training to new forms of teaching.

The SPD wants to pay elementary school teachers more. They should move up to pay grade A13. The state should keep hiring many new teachers. Teacher training should also become more modern.

The SPD wants to tie the school supervisory authority more closely to the education ministry while giving it a stronger regional focus. The aim is faster and better-tailored support for schools.

The school supervisory office checks and advises schools. The SPD wants to reorganize it. It should work more closely with the education ministry. And it should be closer to the schools in each region.

The SPD wants to make vocational training more attractive and give closer support to young people who need more help. At the federal level it is pushing for a permanent integration subsidy meant to encourage companies to train disadvantaged young people.

The SPD wants more young people to finish job training. Those who need help should get advice and support. Companies should get money when they train disadvantaged young people. The SPD wants to push for this at the federal level.

The SPD wants to keep funding Volkshochschulen (adult education centers) and recognized training providers reliably and support their digitalization. Within five years, the number of training hours is to rise to one million, and basic education offers are to grow.

Adult education centers offer courses for everyone. The SPD wants to keep giving them enough money. There should be more digital courses, but also courses close to home. People should be able to catch up on reading, writing or a school diploma.

The SPD wants to safeguard the freedom of research and teaching, which it sees as increasingly under pressure. Researchers who face hostility or threats are to get more help, and science communication is to be strengthened.

Research and teaching are free in Germany. The SPD says researchers are attacked more often. So they should get more help. Science should explain its work better. That way people should trust it more.

The SPD wants to give universities more responsibility over their own finances while investing in buildings, teaching spaces and digital infrastructure. The money is to come from the special investment fund (Sondervermögen).

Universities should decide more about their own money. The SPD also wants to invest in new buildings. The buildings should be good for the climate. Teaching rooms and data centers should become more modern too. The money comes from a special state fund.

The SPD wants studying in Rhineland-Palatinate to stay tuition-free and independent of income or life circumstances. Dual, part-time and digital degree programs are to be expanded, and BAföG (federal student aid) is to be developed further.

Studying in Rhineland-Palatinate should cost no fees. It should stay that way. There should be more programs for people who also work. Studying online should get easier too. Students with disabilities should face fewer obstacles. The SPD wants better student aid.

The SPD wants to make academic careers more predictable and create additional permanent positions alongside professorships. Women in academia are to continue receiving targeted support.

People working in science often have only temporary contracts. The SPD wants to create more permanent jobs. Careers should be easier to plan. Women should get special support. Family and work should fit together better.

The SPD wants to fund research priorities in biotechnology, life sciences, artificial intelligence and quantum computing with dedicated programs from the special investment fund. Results are to reach practical use faster through innovation platforms, start-ups and university spin-offs.

The SPD wants to give certain research extra support. This includes biotechnology and artificial intelligence. The money comes from a special state fund. Research ideas should turn into new companies and products faster. A large research center should come to the state.

The SPD wants to introduce Islamic religious education as a regular school subject. It is to be taught by teachers employed by the state and supervised by state school authorities.

The SPD wants Islamic religious classes in schools. They should become a normal school subject. The teachers work for the state. The state supervises the classes.

The SPD wants to reorganize hospital care in light of the hospital reform: specialized centers for major treatments, emergency care reachable everywhere, and new Regiokliniken (regional clinics) for care close to home. The goal is good care in both cities and rural areas.

The SPD wants to reorganize hospitals. Serious illnesses should be treated in special centers. Emergency help should be available everywhere. New regional clinics should help close to home, also at night and on weekends.

The SPD wants to expand outpatient care and aims for an appointment guarantee for everyone, whether publicly or privately insured. Primary care, especially in rural areas, is to be secured with new models and help for doctors setting up practice.

The SPD wants more care from doctors in local offices. Everyone should be sure to get an appointment. The type of insurance should not matter. More doctors should work in rural areas.

The SPD wants to fund more hospices and palliative services. According to the platform, the seriously ill and the dying should be well cared for and accompanied, regardless of origin, income or place of residence.

The SPD wants more hospices. A hospice is a place for people who are dying. They get good care and company there. This should be possible for everyone, no matter how much money they have.

The SPD wants to reform how pharmacies are paid in order to keep pharmacies close to where people live. The state is also meant to ensure that important medicines remain available despite supply shortages.

The SPD wants to keep pharmacies nearby. For this, pharmacies should be paid in a different way. Important medicines should always be available. The state should help with that.

The SPD wants to channel money from the federal special fund into hospital infrastructure. New buildings and modernizations are to be climate-friendly and energy-efficient.

The SPD wants to put a lot of money into hospitals. The money comes from the federal government. Buildings should be new or improved. They should use little energy and protect against heat.

The SPD wants to attract more skilled workers from abroad for health and nursing professions. Their qualifications are to be recognized more simply and quickly so they can work in their field soon and stay in the state.

The SPD wants to bring skilled workers from other countries. They should work in nursing and medicine. Their degrees should be accepted faster. They get help with learning German and with daily life.

The SPD wants to attract more young people and career changers to nursing and health professions and modernize training. Regional care pools are meant to step in during staff shortages and relieve permanent staff.

There are too few care workers. The SPD wants to win more people for these jobs. Training should become more modern. Care pools are teams that step in when staff are missing.

The SPD wants to expand health promotion in everyday life so that illnesses are avoided where possible. This includes municipal prevention networks, more vaccination campaigns and better-connected early detection programs.

The SPD wants people to stay healthy. There should be more programs in daycare, schools and workplaces. Getting vaccinated should be easy and close to home. Illnesses should be found early.

The SPD supports an opt-out system: anyone who does not explicitly object counts as a potential organ donor. According to the platform, this would strengthen solidarity without restricting self-determination.

Many people are waiting for an organ. The SPD wants a new rule. Everyone is then an organ donor unless they say no. There should be a lot of information about it.

The SPD wants to advance digital technology across the health care system and connect facilities better. According to the platform, digital services should supplement care, not replace it.

The SPD wants more digital technology in medicine and care. Hospitals, care homes and health insurers should share data better. Older people get help with the electronic patient record. Technology should not replace doctors.

The SPD wants to further expand maternity care and make it easier for midwives to start their careers. Those who become self-employed in Rhineland-Palatinate for the first time after their studies would receive 1,000 euros a year for five years.

The SPD wants to help parents-to-be. There should be more offices that help find a midwife. New self-employed midwives get 1,000 euros a year. They get the money for five years.

The SPD wants to give women's health more weight because, according to the platform, women are underrepresented in research, diagnostics, and treatment. Women's medicine and gender-sensitive research are to be firmly anchored in training and practice.

The SPD wants to do more for women's health. Research should pay more attention to women. Doctors should learn more about it. Illnesses like breast cancer and endometriosis should get better care.

The SPD wants to give mental health a bigger place in health care because, according to the platform, crises weigh especially on children and young people. It plans easy-to-access therapy and support, more prevention, and closer cooperation between schools, youth services, and the health system.

The SPD wants to do more for mental health. Many people suffer because of crises, especially children and teens. There should be more help that is easy to get. Schools should offer more counseling by psychologists.

The SPD wants to plan long-term care ahead of time and permanently fund the state's 135 Pflegestützpunkte (local care advice centers). Data-based planning is meant to reveal regional shortages early so that local services can be adjusted.

The SPD wants to plan care better. Data should show where care services are missing. The 135 care advice centers should get secure funding. These centers give advice about care.

The SPD wants to set up local care centers statewide that combine home care and residential care close to where people live. Family caregivers are to get relief, and care workers are to have more time for people and less paperwork.

The SPD wants care centers close to home all over the state. They offer home care and nursing home care in one place. Family members who give care should get help. Care workers should have less paperwork.

The SPD wants to fund housing and care projects that combine independence, community, and support in old age. Money from the Sondervermögen (special public fund) is also to go to neighborhood projects for this purpose.

The SPD wants to support new ways of living in old age. People live together there and get care. Money from a special public fund should also pay for this.

The SPD wants to survey the members of the Pflegekammer (the state's professional chamber for nurses and care workers) in 2026. The aim is to confirm that the chamber will continue to represent the profession's interests.

The care chamber speaks for care workers in the state. The SPD wants to ask its members in 2026. This should make clear that the chamber should stay.

The SPD wants to keep strengthening the public health service and continue its digitalization so the state is prepared for future crises. The post-COVID outpatient clinics are to stay in place.

The SPD wants to make the public health offices stronger. They should work more digitally. This way the state is ready for crises. Special clinics for people with post-COVID should stay.

The SPD wants to expand obstetric care and secure medical care for families, women, and children, especially in rural areas. This includes funding for pediatricians and new practice models such as "Family Doctors."

The SPD wants more maternity care in the state. Rural areas should have enough children's doctors. The state gives money for this. New practices should have doctors for the whole family in one place.

The SPD wants to secure and further develop the clearing offices for people without health insurance on a lasting basis. It sees them as contributing to better medical care and to fighting poverty.

Some people have no health insurance. Special advice offices help them get insured again. The SPD wants to support these offices for the long term. It will check whether more offices can be opened.

The SPD wants to link the emergency numbers 112 and 116117 more closely and better connect ambulance services with emergency rooms and the on-call physician service. Remote emergency physicians, digitalization, additional ambulance stations and air rescue are to be expanded.

The SPD wants to improve help in emergencies. The emergency numbers 112 and 116117 should work together more closely. There should be more ambulance stations. Doctors should support paramedics by video more often. More people should learn first aid.

Civil servants are to be able to stay in statutory health insurance, with the state paying the employer's share. The SPD says this strengthens statutory health insurance and solidarity and eases the burden on those affected.

Civil servants should be able to stay in public health insurance. The state then pays part of the premium. An employer does the same for regular employees. The SPD says this makes public health insurance stronger.

The SPD wants to make Rhineland-Palatinate more attractive to foreign skilled workers and relies on fast procedures with clear standards. The central immigration office for skilled workers is to become a digital service agency, and job-related language training is to be expanded.

The SPD wants to attract more skilled workers from abroad. Procedures should be faster. One office should offer everything digitally and in one place. There should be more language courses for work.

The SPD wants to organize returns more centrally to relieve municipalities and to deport people who are required to leave but do not go voluntarily. Immigration and naturalization offices are to recruit more staff, and asylum cases are to be decided quickly.

The SPD wants faster asylum procedures. The offices should get more staff. The state should handle more deportations itself. People who do not leave on their own should be deported. This applies above all to criminals.

The SPD wants to ease the path to a German passport for people who have lived in the state for many years. Naturalization procedures are to become fully digital and thus faster and more transparent.

Some people have lived in Rhineland-Palatinate for a long time. The SPD wants to make naturalization easier for them. Naturalization means getting German citizenship. Applications should be digital and faster.

The SPD wants to support immigrants in learning German from the start and get them into work quickly. At the same time, skilled workers from abroad are to gain easier access to the labor market.

The SPD wants immigrants to learn German quickly. There will be language courses from daycare to adult education. People should find work fast. Companies get help when they look for skilled workers from abroad.

The SPD advocates that everyone living permanently in a municipality should be allowed to vote there, even without a passport from an EU country. In the party's view, those who live somewhere permanently should help decide its future.

Today only Germans and EU citizens can vote in local elections. The SPD wants to change that. Everyone who lives there permanently should be allowed to vote. This includes people from countries outside the EU.

The SPD wants to make it easier for women to return to work after or during a family phase. Reliable childcare, flexible working hours, training and counseling are meant to help, also to secure skilled workers and prevent poverty in old age.

Many women take a break from work for their family. The SPD wants to make their return easier. There should be good childcare and flexible working hours. Women should also get advice and courses.

The SPD wants women and men to receive equal and transparent pay for work of equal value. It also wants the share of women in leadership positions to rise permanently.

The SPD wants equal pay for women and men. This applies to work of equal value. More women should become leaders. The state will keep supporting women to get there.

The SPD wants victims of domestic or sexual violence to get protection, counseling and support quickly anywhere in the state. To that end, more places in women's shelters and further safe spaces are to be created.

The SPD wants to protect women and girls better from violence. There should be more places in women's shelters. Victims should get help and advice quickly everywhere. They should be able to have evidence secured without filing a police report.

The SPD backs a separate criminal offense for verbal sexual harassment, known as catcalling. Women are also to be better protected from hate, threats and feeling unsafe online and in public spaces.

The SPD wants verbal sexual harassment to become a crime. This is called catcalling. Women should feel safe outside. They should also be better protected from hate on the internet.

The SPD wants to fight antisemitism in every form and expand the protection of Jewish life. The party points to the sharp rise in antisemitic incidents and crimes as the reason.

The SPD wants to act against hatred of Jews. Jewish people should be better protected. There is a state commissioner for Jewish life. This work should be strengthened.

The SPD wants to continue and further develop the state's action plan against racism and group-focused hostility. The office that records such incidents is to be supported and made better known.

The state has a plan against racism. The SPD wants to keep this plan and improve it. There is an office where people can report hateful incidents. The SPD wants to support this office. More people should know about it.

The SPD wants to continue and implement the state action plan "Rheinland-Pfalz unterm Regenbogen" (Rhineland-Palatinate under the rainbow) to strengthen the rights, visibility and protection of queer people. Queer centers are to receive permanent funding.

The SPD wants to protect queer people better. Queer people are, for example, lesbian, gay and trans people. The state has a plan for this. The SPD wants to keep this plan going. Queer centers should get money permanently.

The SPD wants to push for the Industriestrompreis (a subsidized electricity price for industry) to cover all energy-intensive companies. In its view, competitive power prices are needed so that sectors such as chemicals, pharma and automaking can survive in the state.

Some companies need a great deal of electricity. The SPD wants power to be cheaper for them. There is a special industry power price for this. It should apply to more companies. This should keep jobs safe.

The SPD wants to keep expanding renewable energy and speed up permits for new plants. It also wants to secure a supply of climate-neutral hydrogen for industry and transport.

The SPD wants more power from wind and sun. New plants should get permits faster. Hydrogen should also become more important. Hydrogen is a gas that factories can use without harming the climate. Pipelines and storage sites should be built for it.

The SPD wants Rhineland-Palatinate to become climate-neutral by 2040. Climate protection is to be combined with social cohesion and economic success, and municipalities are to keep receiving support for local climate projects.

The SPD wants Rhineland-Palatinate to be climate-neutral by 2040. That means the state no longer harms the climate. Climate protection should be affordable for everyone. Towns will keep getting help for climate projects.

The SPD wants a citizens' energy law requiring that nearby municipalities share in the profits of new wind and solar plants. In addition, funding for electricity storage is to grow and solar power is to become easier for tenants to use.

New wind turbines and solar plants make a profit. Nearby towns should get a share of it. This should become mandatory. The SPD also wants more funding for power storage. Renters should be able to use solar power more easily.

The SPD wants to connect new wind, solar and biogas plants to the grid faster, ease permitting and draw up a storage strategy for the state. Plants are to be built primarily on sealed surfaces and along roads to spare other land. Bioenergy, hydrogen and hydropower are also to play a role.

The SPD wants more power from wind, sun and biogas. New plants should connect to the grid faster. Permits should become simpler. Solar plants should mainly go on built-up land. The state should get a plan for power storage.

The SPD wants a heating transition that combines climate protection with affordability. It is to be based on municipal heat and energy planning that relies on renewables; local and neighborhood heat networks are to be funded.

Homes should be heated in a climate-friendly way. This should stay affordable for people. Towns plan where the heat comes from. The SPD wants to fund heat networks for neighborhoods.

The SPD wants to significantly expand the reuse of raw materials in the state. In its view this serves climate and resource protection while creating growth and jobs.

The SPD wants materials to be used again more often. This is called a circular economy. It protects the climate and saves raw materials. It should also bring new jobs.

The SPD wants to combine farming and environmental protection through cooperation and strengthen the "Schulterschluss Artenvielfalt" (biodiversity alliance). For water and soil protection, a denser monitoring network is to make the designation of polluted areas more precise.

The SPD wants to bring farming and nature protection together. Farmers and conservationists should work together. There should be more measuring sites for water and soil. This shows more exactly where pollution comes from.

The SPD wants to convert damaged forests into mixed forests that are better adapted to climate change. Forestry is to be transformed in partnership with forest owners, and the Gemeinschaftsforstamt (joint forestry office) is to be kept.

Many forests have suffered from heat and drought. The SPD wants to plant mixed forest there. Mixed forest copes better with the new climate. Forest owners should get help with this. The forestry offices should stay as they are.

The SPD wants to keep promoting timber as a renewable raw material and make forestry more productive through research and practical expertise. The state forest law is to be updated on a scientific basis.

The SPD wants to support wood as a raw material. Wood grows back and creates work in the regions. The law on forests will be updated. Aid for forests in a changing climate will continue.

The SPD wants to put the state-level arrangements in place to actively manage the wolf population. Hunters and others affected are to take part in drafting the new state hunting ordinance.

The wolf is now covered by hunting law. The SPD wants to be able to control the number of wolves in the state. Hunters should have a say in the new hunting rules. Rooks and Egyptian geese should also be hunted in towns.

The SPD wants to step up nature and species protection, relying on cooperation with farming, forestry and municipalities. The state program Aktion Grün is to continue, and the party wants the EU Nature Restoration Regulation applied in a practical way with reliable funding.

The SPD wants to protect nature better. Farmers, foresters and conservation groups should work together. The Aktion Grün program will continue. Nature parks and the national park will get more money.

The SPD wants to continue the state's Zukunftsplan Wasser (future water plan), support municipalities with investments against floods and heavy rain, and push at federal level for natural hazard insurance. Municipalities are also to get help greening town centers and redesigning them on the sponge city principle.

The SPD wants to keep drinking water safe. Towns get money to protect against floods and heavy rain. Cities should become greener and soak up rainwater better. The SPD wants nationwide insurance against damage from natural events.

The SPD wants to expand state support for animal shelters. It also backs a cat protection ordinance that applies across Germany, to improve animal welfare and ease the burden on shelters.

The SPD wants to give animal shelters more help. It also wants a rule to protect cats in all of Germany. This should help the animals. The shelters would then have less strain.

The SPD wants to relieve farmers and winegrowers of red tape and modernize the agricultural administration. For EU farm policy from 2028 on, it calls for a more efficient and practical design that benefits farms directly.

Farmers and winegrowers should spend less time in the office. The SPD wants to review rules and make procedures simpler. All applications should go through one digital platform. EU farm policy should also become simpler.

The SPD wants to keep supporting generational change on farms and expand advice for young farmers and winegrowers. At the same time, the state is to become a leader in digital agriculture by moving research into farms faster.

Young people should be able to take over farms. The SPD wants to give them better advice. Farmers should use more digital technology. New knowledge from universities should reach farms quickly.

The SPD wants to maintain conventional and organic farming alike and commits to livestock farming in the state. Marketing of regional products with high quality and animal welfare standards is to be promoted.

The SPD wants to keep both kinds of farming: conventional and organic. Animals should keep living on farms. Food from the region should sell better. People should treat food with more care.

The SPD wants to help wineries through structural change with measures to boost sales and competitiveness. It favors quality over more acreage and wants to increase support for steep-slope viticulture.

The SPD wants to help winemakers. Wine should sell better, also abroad. There should be no new land for vineyards. Vineyards on steep hills should get more money.

The SPD wants to better insure farmers and winemakers against crop losses and promote climate-adapted varieties and growing methods. The platform points to the effects of climate change already felt in fields and vineyards.

The climate is changing. This hits farmers and winemakers. The SPD wants to give more money for insurance against bad harvests. It also wants to support vines that cope well with the new climate.

The SPD wants to make getting a driver's license cheaper for young people. The state is to pay the administrative and exam fees when someone under 25 gets a license for the first time. The party also advocates a stable Deutschlandticket (nationwide public transit pass).

A driver's license should cost young people less. The state pays the office fees and the exam fees. This applies to everyone under 25 getting a first license. The SPD also wants to keep the Deutschlandticket, a transit pass for all of Germany.

The SPD wants to further reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on the roads. To that end, technology that automatically detects phone use at the wheel and speeding is to be deployed statewide.

The SPD wants fewer deaths and injuries on the roads. Cameras should detect drivers using their phones. Technology should also catch speeding automatically. There should be more prevention work for older people.

The SPD backs a range of major transport projects for roads, rail and bike paths, including the Middle Rhine bridge and a fixed Rhine crossing at Bingen-Rüdesheim. Key projects are to be planned until they are ready to build even without federal money committed, so the state can act quickly.

The SPD wants to move big transport building projects forward. These include bridges, highways, rail lines and bike paths. New bridges should be built over the Rhine. The state should finish planning projects even if federal money is still missing.

The SPD wants to create a statewide app that bundles different transport services into one system. It is meant to make combining modes of transport easier and above all improve mobility in rural areas.

The SPD wants an app for getting around the whole state. The app shows buses, trains, shared cars, rental bikes and taxis together. This makes it easier to combine them. It should help most in rural areas.

The SPD wants to further increase investment in maintaining, expanding and modernizing state, county and municipal roads. Permits are to become simpler and planning times shorter. The state road agency Landesbetrieb Mobilität is to attract skilled workers with competitive pay.

The SPD wants to spend more money on roads and bridges. Roads should get better, especially in rural areas. Planning and permits should go faster. Broken bridges should be replaced more quickly. The state road agency should get good skilled workers.

The SPD commits to the car, especially for rural regions, and wants to expand charging infrastructure for electric cars statewide. Alongside electric mobility, it considers climate-friendly fuels and bridging technologies such as efficient combustion engines and plug-in hybrids necessary to protect jobs in the auto industry.

The SPD says the car stays important, especially in rural areas. There should be charging points for electric cars everywhere. Other kinds of engines should also stay possible for a transition time. This should protect jobs in the car industry.

The SPD wants to keep expanding the statewide bus and rail network and reintroduce the Rheinland-Pfalz-Takt (a regular-interval timetable) for rail. The state's five major regional centers are to get better links to long-distance trains. The platform describes local public transit as the backbone of climate-friendly mobility.

The SPD wants more buses and trains in the state. Trains should again run at fixed, regular times. The five big cities should get better links to long-distance trains. Buses and trains should be affordable and reliable.

The SPD wants to reopen and electrify disused rail lines where there is demand and it makes economic sense. Single-track lines are to be upgraded to double track with federal help. The platform sees rail as the backbone of climate-friendly mobility.

The SPD wants to use old rail lines again. Trains there should run on electricity. Lines with only one track should get a second track. This should move more people and goods by train.

The SPD wants to keep the Deutschlandticket (nationwide transit pass) permanently and at an affordable price, with predictable joint funding from the state and federal governments. Key bus routes are to be upgraded and tram infrastructure will continue to be funded.

The SPD wants to keep the Deutschlandticket. This is one ticket for local transit across Germany. It should stay affordable. The state and the federal government should pay for it together. Buses and trams should also get better.

The SPD aims for local transit that everyone can use independently, regardless of age or disability. It also wants a volunteer-run community bus (Bürgerbus) in every Verbandsgemeinde (association of municipalities), mainly to keep older people mobile.

Everyone should be able to use buses and trains on their own. This includes people with disabilities. Stops are to be rebuilt for this. Every local district should have a community bus. This helps older people most.

The SPD wants a state cycling law with clear responsibilities and quality standards and a bike path network without gaps. The state is to take over responsibility for bike highways. Bikes should travel free of charge on all regional trains.

The SPD wants a state law for cycling. It should say who is in charge of bike paths. Bike paths should be safe and have no gaps. The state should be in charge of fast bike routes. Bikes should ride for free on regional trains.

The SPD wants to modernize the Rhine, Moselle and Saar and the inland ports to handle growing freight traffic. It cites growth, security of supply and climate protection. Key projects are deepening the Middle Rhine shipping channel and expanding the Moselle locks.

Many cargo ships use the Rhine, Moselle and Saar. The SPD wants to renew rivers, ports and locks. Ships should be able to sail even when water is low. The federal government should help and plan faster.

The SPD wants to reduce noise from rail, road and air traffic. It calls for an alternative freight rail route outside the Middle Rhine Valley and a real say for the state on flight paths at Frankfurt Airport.

Many people suffer from noise from trains, cars and planes. The SPD wants to cut this noise. Freight trains should no longer run through the Middle Rhine Valley. Rhineland-Palatinate should have a say on flight paths from Frankfurt.

The SPD wants more 30 km/h zones in cities and towns and stands by the goal of zero road deaths by 2050. Safe routes to school and a stronger sense of safety while traveling are part of the plan.

More streets should have a speed limit of 30 km/h. This should protect people. By 2050, no one should die in road traffic. Children should get to school safely.

The SPD wants to make all social benefits available online step by step and introduce a digital Soziallotse (social benefits guide) with an AI assistant. In-person advice and local service points are to remain so that no one is left out.

The SPD wants people to apply for all social benefits online. A digital guide should give advice. It is a computer program with artificial intelligence. In-person advice should still exist.

The SPD wants all administrative services in Rhineland-Palatinate to be usable digitally in the future, from application to decision. Data should only have to be provided once; there are to be alternatives for people without digital access.

The SPD wants to offer all government office services digitally. People should be able to apply entirely online. They only have to give their data once. Anyone who cannot do this digitally gets another way.

The SPD wants to make public administration less dependent on vendors of proprietary software. To do so, it relies on sovereign cloud structures and an open-source strategy under which software developed by the state is also released under free licenses.

The SPD wants the state to stay independent in its computer systems. Government offices should use more free software. Free software means anyone can see the program code. Software the state develops should also be free.

The SPD wants to use artificial intelligence in public administration to simplify processes and ease the workload of staff, with humans remaining responsible. It also wants to promote open data and secure high-performance networks statewide through its gigabit strategy and mobile coverage pact.

The SPD wants to use artificial intelligence in government offices. This should make work easier. But people should remain responsible. There should also be fast internet and good cell coverage everywhere.

The SPD wants to digitize the state administration end to end and review regulations systematically. The requirement for written, signed paper forms is to be dropped in many procedures or replaced by electronic options. Artificial intelligence is meant to ease the workload of staff.

The SPD wants to make state offices more digital. Many requests should work without a signature on paper. Programs with artificial intelligence should help the staff. Rules should become simpler.

The SPD wants to hire up to 500 police trainees a year so that more than 10,500 officers serve in the state in the coming years. Training, working conditions and diversity in the police are also to be developed further.

The SPD wants to hire more police officers. Up to 500 new people should start training each year. Soon the state should have over 10,500 officers. More women should become leaders in the police.

The SPD wants to keep equipping the police with modern protective gear, new stun devices and body cameras, and to renew the vehicle fleet. Police stations are also to be modernized and new training centers built.

The SPD wants to give the police better gear. This includes protective clothing, new stun devices and body cameras. Cars, helicopters and boats will also be renewed. Police stations will be modernized.

The SPD plans a digitization package for the police to improve data evaluation and analysis and to test the use of artificial intelligence. An innovation lab is to develop new digital tools and put them into practice.

The SPD wants to make the police more digital. The police should be able to analyze data better. They should also test and use artificial intelligence. A new lab will develop software for this.

The SPD wants the police to be more visible in neighborhoods and villages and to raise the Bezirksdienst (neighborhood policing service) to more than 410 officers. Urban safety is to be shaped jointly with municipalities, public order services and urban planners, and crime prevention is to be expanded.

The SPD wants more police in neighborhoods and villages. People should find it easier to talk to the police. Police and towns should work together more closely. There should be more work to prevent crime.

The SPD wants to enable the police as quickly as possible to detect and counter drones. This is meant to prepare them for hybrid threats such as cyberattacks, espionage and attacks on buildings.

The SPD wants the police to be able to spot and stop drones. This should happen quickly. The police need new technology for it. They also need new experts.

The SPD wants to revise the state's police law again. The next amendment is to examine AI-supported video surveillance and after-the-fact biometric image recognition; the party wants to introduce automated data analysis while keeping control over the data.

The SPD wants to change the law for the police. It will look at video surveillance with artificial intelligence. It will also look at letting computers recognize faces in images afterward. Computers should analyze police data automatically.

The SPD wants to act against every form of extremism, using all legal options available to the security authorities and the Verfassungsschutz (domestic intelligence service). It sees right-wing extremism as the greatest danger, followed by Islamism; prevention is to be expanded at the same time.

The SPD wants to fight extremism. It sees the biggest danger in right-wing extremists. Islamists also worry the party. The police should be more active online. Young people should learn to spot hate on the internet.

The SPD wants to give the state's Verfassungsschutz (domestic intelligence agency) better staffing, organization, legal powers and technology. Police are also to identify potentially dangerous individuals earlier, including where there are signs of mental health problems.

The SPD wants to strengthen the Verfassungsschutz. This is an agency that watches for threats to democracy. The police should also spot dangerous people earlier.

The SPD wants to better protect women who have suffered domestic or sexual violence. Police and the judiciary are to be trained for this, and electronic ankle monitoring based on the Spanish model is to be put in place.

The SPD wants to protect women better from violence. Police and courts should get special training. Violent offenders should wear an electronic ankle monitor. The device shows where the offender is.

The SPD wants to keep offenses such as tax evasion, money laundering and corruption a priority and to pool police investigative expertise for them. Against youth crime, it relies on the Häuser des Jugendrechts (joint juvenile justice centers).

The SPD wants to fight white-collar crime harder. This includes tax fraud, money laundering and corruption. Police should get better at investigating it. Juvenile justice centers should help against youth crime. Police, courts and social workers work together there.

The SPD wants to expand the state office for fire and disaster protection into a training and competence center with around 300 employees. Training capacity for emergency personnel is to grow considerably.

The SPD wants to enlarge the state office for fire and disaster protection. About 300 people should work there. More emergency workers should be able to learn and practice there.

The SPD wants to keep supporting municipalities financially in civil protection and to continue flat-rate funding for fire departments. Sirens, emergency contact points and volunteering in the fire service are to be expanded.

The SPD wants to keep giving money to local fire departments. There should be more sirens. There should be places everywhere where people can go in an emergency. More people should volunteer as firefighters, especially women and girls.

The SPD wants to prevent attacks on police, firefighters, paramedics and other emergency personnel and to promote respect for them. Where needed, it would back federal-level initiatives for tougher sentences.

The SPD wants to protect police, firefighters and paramedics from attacks. Action days should teach young people respect. If needed, the SPD will support tougher punishment for attackers.

The SPD wants to keep prosecuting hate crime on the street and online as a priority of its justice policy. Victims of violence are to get more rights in criminal proceedings and more counseling services.

The SPD wants to punish hate and incitement quickly. This applies on the street and online. Special prosecutors' offices should handle it. Victims of violence should get more rights and more counseling.

The SPD wants a prison system aimed at reintegration and plans to strengthen staff, buildings and transition management for this. Community service is to replace more jail terms served for unpaid fines, and psychiatric care for prisoners is to improve.

The SPD wants to modernize prisons. Prisoners should be able to live well in society again later. People who cannot pay a fine often go to jail. Instead, there should be more community service. Prisoners with mental illness should get better help.

The SPD wants to keep all court locations, equip courts and prosecutors' offices reliably and recruit new staff. The judiciary is to be digitalized further to speed up proceedings, including with artificial intelligence under human control.

The SPD wants to keep all courts in the state. The justice system should have enough staff and equipment. Courts should work more digitally. This should make cases faster. People, not computers, should still make the rulings.

The SPD wants to support the state's regions in a targeted way to reduce disparities and secure equal living conditions in urban and rural areas. To this end, the state development program is to be updated, including new large commercial and industrial sites.

The SPD wants people to live well everywhere in the state. Weaker regions should get targeted help. To do this, it will revise the plan for the state's development. There should also be new large sites for companies.

The SPD wants to review all funding programs for municipalities and handle applications in a lean, fully digital way through a central platform. Municipalities are to get more leeway, including through an experimentation clause and more lump-sum grants.

Towns get money from the state through funding programs. The SPD wants to make the applications simpler. Everything should run digitally through one platform. Towns should also be allowed to test departing from rules.

The SPD wants to turn funding for inter-municipal cooperation (IKZ) from a pilot project into a permanent offer. Municipalities are to pool resources and build shared structures because, in the party's view, many tasks can no longer be handled alone.

Towns should work together more. The SPD wants to support this with money for the long term. Towns can then share computer systems, for example. The SPD says many towns can no longer manage their tasks alone.

Municipalities are to be allowed to deviate from state rules within a legally secure framework in order to test simpler ways of carrying out their tasks. Simplified procedures are to be tried out in model areas and adopted generally if they succeed.

Cities and towns should be allowed to try new things. To do so, they may depart from some state rules. This is called an experimentation clause. What works well should later apply everywhere.

The SPD wants to launch a relief dialogue between business and the administration and create a central reporting office for red tape. Citizens and companies are to be able to flag cumbersome procedures there. A participation portal is also meant to strengthen public involvement in political decisions.

The SPD wants to set up an office for reporting red tape. Red tape means many forms and rules. Citizens and companies can report problems there. The administration, companies and towns should talk together about making things easier. There should also be a portal for having a say.

The SPD wants to secure good working conditions, fair pay, training and modern equipment in the public service. Collective pay agreements for state employees are to be applied promptly to civil servants as well. The party wants to keep investing in training and further education.

The SPD wants good jobs in the public service. Staff should be paid fairly. Pay raises for employees should also apply to civil servants. The state should keep spending money on training.

The SPD wants to bring civic education closer to people's daily lives and give the state agency for civic education reliable funding. Networks and campaigns for respect and against racism, discrimination and hate speech are to be continued and expanded.

The SPD wants more education about democracy. It should come to where people are, for example at work. The state agency for civic education should get steady funding. Campaigns against hate and racism will go on.

The SPD wants to expand political work against right-wing extremism, prevention programs and support for initiatives. It invokes a democracy able to defend itself, protecting its values through the rule of law and an active civil society.

The SPD wants to do more against right-wing extremism. There should be more prevention. Groups working against it will get more help. The state's commissioner against antiziganism stays. Antiziganism means hostility toward Sinti and Roma.

The SPD wants to trial citizens' assemblies and make funding for pro-democracy organizations more reliable. Volunteers and local elected officials are to be better protected against hostility, threats and violence.

The SPD wants to try out citizens' assemblies. There, citizens make proposals for politics. Groups working for democracy should get funding more easily. Volunteers and local officials should be better protected from threats.

The SPD wants to keep supporting volunteer work and relieve clubs of red tape, including through uniform funding rules and a digital funding portal. The state's volunteering office is to become a state coordination office for volunteering and citizen participation.

Many people in Rhineland-Palatinate volunteer. The SPD wants to make their work easier. Applying for funding should be simpler and digital. An office in the state chancellery helps with all questions about volunteering.

The SPD wants young people to be allowed to vote in state elections from age 16. This is meant to give them an effective part in forming political opinion.

The SPD wants to lower the voting age. Young people should vote for the state parliament from age 16. That way they can take part in politics.

The SPD wants to modernize the state constitution, in particular its reference to the "moral law" (Sittengesetz), which the party considers outdated. At the federal level it wants to push for an expansion of Article 3 of the Basic Law. The aim is clear, up-to-date protection of fundamental rights for everyone.

The SPD wants to update the state constitution. It mentions a "moral law". The SPD thinks this is outdated. The national constitution should change too. Article 3 should name more people it protects. Article 3 is about equality for all people.

The SPD is committed to a Europe of open borders and wants to strengthen cooperation with neighbors in the Greater Region and on the Upper Rhine. For the EU budget framework 2028 to 2034, it calls for a reliable cohesion policy managed at the regional level. European education in schools is to be expanded.

The SPD wants open borders in Europe. The state should work closely with France, Luxembourg and Belgium. The EU gives money to regions. The SPD wants this money to keep flowing reliably. Regions should have a say in how it is used. Schools should teach more about Europe.

The SPD backs the Bundeswehr and the US armed forces in Rhineland-Palatinate and wants to support their bases. Security cooperation with the US side and the transatlantic partnership are to be deepened.

The SPD supports the German army in Rhineland-Palatinate. It also supports the US military bases in the state. The state should work more closely with the US. One example is defense against drones.

The SPD wants to expand the state's partnership with the Ukrainian oblast of Vinnytsia through concrete projects and expresses support for Ukraine. The partnership with Rwanda, which has existed since 1982, is to be deepened, especially between universities.

Rhineland-Palatinate has a partner region in Ukraine. It is called Vinnytsia. The SPD wants to start joint projects there. There is also a partnership with Rwanda in Africa. The SPD wants to deepen it. Universities should work together more closely.

The SPD wants to strengthen memorial sites on the Nazi era, expand visitor programs and root remembrance work more firmly in the regions. Hambach Castle is to get a new permanent exhibition for the 200th anniversary of the Hambach Festival in 2032.

The SPD wants to remember the crimes of the Nazi era. Memorial sites should get more support. More school classes should visit them. Hambach Castle will get a new exhibition by 2032.

The SPD wants to build on the state's cultural development planning and work out a clear framework for arts funding together with artists, as a basis for a cultural funding act. Access to grants is to become easier. Artists should be able to make a living from their work.

The SPD wants to fund culture reliably. There should be clear rules for this. Artists should have a say in the rules. Applying for grants should be easier. Artists should be able to live from their work.

The SPD wants to keep strengthening the state's major theaters, art-house cinemas, the independent arts scene and volunteer-run cultural initiatives. The program "Zukunft durch Kultur" (Future through Culture) is to be expanded, and more municipalities are to get regional culture managers. A solution is to be found for the high GEMA fees paid by nonprofit clubs.

The SPD wants to strengthen theaters and cinemas in the state. Independent theater groups should get help too. Volunteer culture groups get support from paid staff. Clubs often pay a lot for music to GEMA. GEMA collects money for musicians. The SPD wants to find a solution for this.

The SPD wants every child to gain early access to culture regardless of social background. Arts education is to be expanded, especially in cooperation with all-day schools. Libraries are to be secured as places of participation and supported in going digital.

Every child should experience art and music early on. This should not depend on the parents' money. Artists should work more with all-day schools. The SPD also wants to strengthen libraries. Libraries should get more digital services.

The SPD wants to preserve the state's cultural heritage, make it accessible to everyone and raise its profile beyond the state. State-owned monuments are to be renovated, the monument protection act made less bureaucratic and a monument protection prize created. The party wants to pursue the restitution of cultural property consistently.

Rhineland-Palatinate has many old castles and World Heritage sites. The SPD wants to keep and repair them. Everyone should be able to visit them. The law on protecting monuments should become simpler. There should be a prize for people who protect monuments. The SPD wants to return cultural objects that were wrongly acquired.

The SPD is committed to the dual media system of public broadcasting and private media and wants to permanently safeguard media law against anti-democratic threats. Large platforms are to face stronger obligations and effective regulation at the EU level as well. The state media authority is to remain independent.

The SPD wants to keep both public and private media. Public media are, for example, ARD and ZDF. Media law should protect democracy. Big internet platforms should get more duties. Fact-based content should be easier to find. The EU should also set stricter rules for platforms.

The SPD wants to bundle the state's media literacy programs in a joint strategy across all ministries and make them visible under one umbrella brand. It calls for clear, age-appropriate rules for social media use by children and teenagers. Community media and open channels are to be strengthened.

People should know how to use media well. The state has many programs for this. The SPD wants to combine them in one plan. Children and teenagers should be protected online. There should be clear rules by age for social media.

The SPD wants to expand the state's media funding and focus it more on film and games. A new Film Commission Rheinland-Pfalz is to support film productions as a central point of contact. At the federal level, the party advocates public support for the press.

The SPD wants to give more money for films and video games. There should be a new office for film crews. It is called the Film Commission. It helps with filming in the state. Newspaper publishers should also get federal support.

The SPD wants to secure funding and staffing for the Verbraucherzentrale Rheinland-Pfalz (the state's consumer advice center) and expand advice offices, including in rural areas. Consumer protection is also meant to protect people in the digital world, and the platform treats it as a social issue.

The SPD wants to strengthen the consumer advice center. It should have enough money and staff. There should be advice offices in rural areas too. People should be better protected from fraud online.

The SPD wants to better protect consumers from online fraud, misleading advertising and opaque contracts. It plans a prevention program, stricter checks and simpler dispute resolution procedures.

The SPD wants to protect shoppers better. There should be more information about fraud on the internet. False advertising should be checked and punished more strictly. Complaining should become easier.

The SPD wants to push at the federal level for stricter checks and much higher penalties for food fraud. This is meant to protect consumers and ensure fair conditions for honest producers.

Some companies give false information about food. The SPD wants higher penalties for that. There should also be more checks. This should protect shoppers and honest producers.

The SPD wants to keep supporting the reconstruction of the Ahr valley after the 2021 flood as a high priority. In addition, it wants to invest in the future development of the entire region.

In 2021 there was a severe flood in the Ahr valley. The SPD wants to keep strongly supporting the rebuilding. It also wants to put money into the region's future.

The SPD wants to preserve meeting places and local supply in rural areas. It plans a new state investment program for pubs, cafés and village meeting places, the further development of hybrid village shops, and the Dorfbudget (village budget) for small projects.

The SPD wants to strengthen life in villages. There will be a new program with money for village pubs and cafés. Village shops will keep getting support. Villages get their own budget for small ideas.

The SPD wants to provide more money for building and renovating sports facilities, especially swimming pools. Funding procedures are to be simplified so that municipalities and amateur clubs can keep their facilities running.

The SPD wants to give more money for sports fields and swimming pools. Applying for the money should be easier. Children should be able to learn to swim. Clubs and coaches also get support.