SPD on democracy and the state

The SPD wants a functional reform under which municipalities divide tasks among themselves and specialize. This is meant to cut costs, avoid duplicate structures and make administration more capable.

The SPD wants to reorganize local government offices. Not every town should do everything itself. Towns should share tasks and focus on certain areas. This should save money and improve the work.

The program names back-office work, controlling, enforcement, IT, digitalization, real estate management, building administration and purchasing as suitable areas for cooperation. The reform is justified by more complex demands on administrations and higher expectations from residents. The SPD also wants to analyze the development potential of each region so that funding can target their strengths. It wants to strengthen the greater Saarbrücken area as an economic and cultural center.

The SPD wants to make government decisions easier to follow by creating a lobby register and a transparency register. Citizens are to be more involved, including through a citizens' assembly on climate.

The SPD wants to govern more openly. A lobby register should show who has a say on laws. Lobbyists speak for the interests of companies or associations. Public data should be free. Citizens should discuss climate in an assembly.

The lobby register is meant to disclose how interest representatives influence draft laws. Through a transparency register, the SPD wants to provide public data and information free of charge and without discrimination. Major questions about the future are to be discussed together with the public; the program gives a citizens' assembly on climate as an example. The SPD also commits to public broadcasting with a strong Saarländischer Rundfunk and to a diverse private media landscape.

The SPD wants young people aged 16 and over to be able to vote in state and local elections. In local elections, they should also be able to run for office from that age.

The SPD wants to lower the voting age. Young people should be allowed to vote at 16. This should apply to state and local elections. In local elections they should also be able to run.

The right to vote is to apply from age 16 at state and local level. The right to stand as a candidate is to apply from 16 at local level. The program points out that eleven of Germany's sixteen states already allow something of this kind.

The SPD wants to keep adding staff to the justice system so cases move faster, and to bring starting pay in line with other states. Access to the courts is to become easier through broader legal advice aid and online services. In the prison system, the platform focuses on rehabilitation and wants better support for crime victims.

The SPD wants more staff for the courts. Cases should then move faster. People with little money should also be able to go to court. Many things should be possible online. Offenders should learn to live without crime. Victims should get more help.

The SPD wants to examine why the number of court cases has fallen over the past decade. Legal advice aid (Beratungshilfe) is to cover more cases and be offered close to citizens. For digitization, the expertise of Saarland University is to be used, for instance for an online office for filing legal applications. In the prison system, security management is to be developed further with scientific risk assessment methods in order to reduce reoffending. Victims are to be informed quickly about support and their rights in criminal proceedings, and psychosocial support during trials is to be strengthened.