SPD on democracy and the state

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.

Legal training is to become interdisciplinary, digital and practice-oriented and firmly include basics from psychology, sociology, society and economics. Electronic legal correspondence is to grow and be accessible without barriers; video and audio hearings are to become technically easier. Artificial intelligence is meant to relieve staff while transparency and the rule of law are preserved. IT security at courts and prosecutors' offices and the protection of buildings and employees are to be improved continuously.

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.

Education, mobility, health care, jobs and digital networks should be within good reach everywhere in the state. Regions are to be supported according to their needs. The state development program is to clarify how less land consumption can be reconciled with more housing and commercial space. As a key tool, the program names so-called Turboflächen (fast-track sites), meaning new commercial and industrial areas of statewide importance.

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.

A new service office is to advise municipalities across topics and point them to suitable funding programs. The experimentation clause is to be drawn up in consultation with the municipal umbrella associations and allow municipalities to try out deviations from existing legal rules. The SPD wants more lump-sum grants, simple procedures and fast release of funds. Where possible, municipalities' own contributions are to be lowered further. As a guiding principle, the program names trust over control and leeway over detailed requirements.

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.

The program cites growing demands from digitalization, climate adaptation and the shortage of skilled workers as reasons. Examples of shared structures include central offices for fines, joint procurement offices, secure IT, and cooperation in fire and disaster protection. A solidarity pact is meant to ensure that the energy transition is shaped fairly at the local level. The SPD also states that it will strengthen volunteer work in municipalities.

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 give municipalities leeway to test more efficient processes. The basis is an experimentation clause that permits deviations from state law. Model areas serve to try out simplified procedures; approaches that prove themselves are to become standard practice. The platform aims to strengthen the role of municipalities in modernizing the administration.

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 relief dialogue is to be run jointly by the state administration, business and municipalities. It is meant to identify room for discretion, simplify review and permitting routines and lead to changes in laws and regulations. The statewide reporting portal takes in feedback on forms, documentation requirements and deadlines and passes proposals on to the dialogue. A central coordination unit is to align red-tape reduction across all ministries. The administration is to make greater use of the leeway the law allows.

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 Hochschule für öffentliche Verwaltung (university for public administration) is to be strengthened as a joint training institution for the state and municipalities. Digital labs, competence centers and training programs are meant to foster a culture of innovation in the administration. The SPD wants to continue supporting staff representation bodies. The state is also to keep attracting good workers.

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 state agency is to be more present across the state through outreach formats and work more closely with the state parliament, adult education providers and civil society. Democracy ambassadors are to be trained in companies, public offices and volunteer organizations. The alliance "Demokratie gewinnt!" and the campaigns "Respekt. Bitte!" and "Gemeinsam gegen Hass und Hetze" will continue. A digital democracy atlas is planned to link historic sites with today's actors. The Demokratiezentrum Rheinland-Pfalz will receive support.

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 platform calls the fight against right-wing extremism a core of social democratic politics. The SPD wants to counter attempts by far-right groups to claim places like Hambach Castle for themselves. The castle is to remain a place of freedom, diversity and participation. The work of the state's commissioner against antiziganism will continue.

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 citizens' assemblies are meant to produce ideas for developing democratic culture further. Funding terms for pro-democracy organizations are to improve and funding tools are to be better coordinated. The SPD wants to spread more information about existing protection plans for volunteers. Volunteer local politicians are to receive advice, guides and training.

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 coordination office in the state chancellery is to serve volunteers, initiatives and municipalities as a service point. The state's engagement strategy will be developed further in dialogue with civil society and within the state network for civic engagement. "Engagierte Stadt," "Ich bin dabei!" and the volunteer card will continue. Clubs will get advice so they can meet rules for festivals and events more easily. The "Digital in die Zukunft" project with the state media authority will continue, with a digital toolkit and accessible equipment lending.

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 party says it has pushed for this change for many years and considers it overdue. Its reasoning is that democracy depends on participation, including at the ballot box. The proposal concerns elections to the state parliament of Rhineland-Palatinate.

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 constitutional reform focuses on the reference to the moral law, which the program calls obsolete. At the federal level, the SPD wants to advocate adding to the equality article of the Basic Law. Both are justified by the aim of anchoring fundamental rights protection for all people clearly and in a contemporary way.