SPD on other topics

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 platform bases the need on new business models, large platforms, artificial intelligence and higher energy and living costs. Local advice offices are to grow so that easily accessible services remain in rural areas. Digital formats and low-barrier materials are meant to make advice possible wherever people live. As online risks, the SPD names misleading advertising, opaque handling of data and online fraud, which it says hit less confident users hardest.

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.

Together with the consumer advice center, adult education centers, the police, digital ambassadors and municipalities, a prevention program is to be set up that covers AI-generated fakes, fake shops and manipulated reviews, among other things. For misleading advertising and false product information, the SPD relies on international standards, checks and penalties. Returns and exchanges should be reliably possible. Arbitration and complaint procedures are to become simpler and better known. The party also calls for transparent electricity and gas prices and opposes hidden costs and aggressive sales practices, especially in telecommunications.

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 demand is directed at the federal level. The focus is on falsely labeled organic products, misleading claims of origin and unjustified health claims. The program justifies this with consumer protection and fair competition for 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 program calls the 2021 flood the worst natural disaster in the state's history. According to the SPD, reconstruction is being carried out together with municipalities, local businesses and residents. Those involved on the ground are to keep receiving support, and the state wants to invest in the development of the whole region.

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 pub program is to fund investment in rural restaurants and bars, which the program describes as the center of village community life. Hybrid village shops are to be developed further based on a pilot project; they combine local supply with a social meeting place. The village budget is meant to create room for small projects. The state also funds integrated development concepts across municipal levels so that municipalities can carry out projects together with local people.

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.

The platform calls learning to swim vital and wants to secure enough pool space through funding. Cooperation with the sports federations is to continue, and the disabled sports association and Special Olympics Rhineland-Palatinate are to be strengthened. Coaches, clubs and volunteers are to get better conditions, and the "Land in Bewegung" (State in Motion) initiative will continue. In competitive sports, the SPD wants to find and support talent earlier and keep backing the Sporthilfe foundation. The state lottery company is to keep contributing to sports funding.