SPD on democracy and the state

The SPD wants municipalities to be required to involve young people and advocates a voting age of 16. A binding youth support plan is to be drawn up with youth work organizations.

Young people should have a say in their town. The SPD wants to make this a duty for towns. Young people should be allowed to vote at 16. Youth organizations should get enough money.

Youth bodies such as youth councils and youth budgets are to be linked more closely; municipalities with such bodies get targeted help. The youth support plan is to set minimum standards for state offerings and simplify funding. The Kinder- und Jugendring Sachsen-Anhalt (state youth council) is to be adequately funded and the state's youth policy program developed further. The Queer Youth Budget pilot is to grow and become permanent, and counseling centers for queer youth are to be funded. The SPD justifies this with democratic learning and the state's appeal to young people.

The SPD wants to give courts and prosecutors' offices more staff and technology and rejects a hiring freeze. Training and career paths in the justice system would be reformed. A binding plan with timelines would be drawn up for digitalizing the justice system.

Courts should get more staff and better technology. The SPD wants to keep hiring new people in the justice system. Training should become more modern. The justice system should work more digitally. There should be a fixed plan for this.

Law studies, the legal traineeship, and exams would be revised, and civil servant status for trainees would become the norm. The justice training school would return fully to the state and start courses twice a year. A new personnel development plan would encourage secondments to federal courts and the European Court of Justice as well as longer specializations; judicial officers would be paid competitively. Together with the bar association, the SPD wants to examine how to secure the network of law firms in rural areas. The migration of IT systems would be backed with funding and staff, and the rollout of electronic case files accompanied by training. Criminal attacks on courts and justice personnel would be prosecuted consistently, and victim protection expanded.

The SPD wants to use the Bundesrat to have it examined whether proceedings to ban the AfD should be initiated. The Verfassungsschutz (domestic intelligence agency) would get more staff and better equipment to respond to right-wing extremism, sabotage, and espionage. Parliamentary oversight of the agency would remain in place.

The SPD wants to have it checked whether the AfD can be banned. This should happen through the Bundesrat. The domestic intelligence agency should get more staff and equipment. Parliament should keep overseeing the agency. Groups working against extremism will keep getting money.

The platform names right-wing extremism, antisemitism, racism, and other forms of group-focused hostility as a real danger to be countered with prevention, education, and prosecution. For counterespionage and protection against sabotage, the SPD wants to examine whether the agency's powers fit the changed threat situation. Interference with fundamental rights should remain strictly proportionate, and reporting duties continue to apply. Counseling centers, exit programs, and civil society initiatives would receive reliable funding. The Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge (German War Graves Commission) would be supported in its educational work with young people.

The SPD wants to draw up a state strategy against loneliness and give more support to volunteer work. According to the program, loneliness weakens social cohesion and democratic participation.

Many people feel lonely. The SPD wants a plan against this. People who volunteer for others should get more help. There should be a law on volunteering.

The state's volunteering strategy is to receive more money and be updated. The Engagementfonds (a fund for civic engagement) is to grow, become easier to access and better known, so that individuals and small initiatives also get support. Volunteer agencies and engagement centers are to receive permanent funding. The SPD aims for a volunteering law that improves recognition and time off, and wants to cut red tape for associations. Employers are asked to help with flexible working hours. Neighborhood festivals and meeting formats are to get money without much paperwork, which the program also sees as protection against right-wing extremism.

The SPD wants to introduce citizens' assemblies and lower the hurdles for popular initiatives and referendums. It presents this as its answer to weakening party loyalty and growing skepticism toward politics.

The SPD wants citizens to have more of a say. There should be citizens' assemblies. In them, citizens discuss hard topics. Votes by the people should also become easier.

Citizens' assemblies are to discuss complex issues such as mobility or infrastructure. Participation is to become a fixed part of how the government works and go beyond standard planning procedures, for example in shaping public spaces. Advisory councils, such as those for integration or for senior citizens, are to get permanent funding. Civil society is to help set the goals of state programs early on. The village manager program is to be expanded to include community work and awareness of far-right strategies in rural areas.

The SPD wants to continue and expand the state program for democracy, diversity and openness and fund projects over several years. A specialized prosecutor's office is to handle right-wing extremist crimes.

The SPD wants to pay for democracy projects for longer and more reliably. A special prosecutor's office should deal with far-right crimes. Schools should do more against racism and sexism. People should learn to spot false news online.

Local officials are to be informed through materials, expert advice and exchange about strategies such as so-called "völkische Landnahme" (far-right settlement of rural areas). Teachers, educators and student and parent representatives are to get support in their democracy work. Media education on online hate and disinformation is to grow. The Sachsen-Anhalt-Monitor survey is to cover antifeminist attitudes in the future. Prevention projects in schools are to get permanent funding, and the state is to keep co-financing federal programs such as "Demokratie leben".

The SPD wants to give volunteer local politicians better support. Their expense allowances are to be made fully tax-free, and a state program is to protect them. According to the program, political engagement should not lead to financial disadvantages.

Many people do local politics in their free time. The SPD wants to help these people. They should pay no taxes on their volunteer allowance. A state program should protect them from attacks.

The protection program is to be developed together with the police, the state criminal police office and the domestic intelligence agency. It is to include prevention, counseling and legal assistance. Providers of training for local office holders are to get more support. The SPD also wants to expand civic education, mainly through the state agency for civic education. Councils and administrations are to be encouraged to use active forms of citizen participation.

The SPD wants to introduce a citizens' budget for cities and towns. Twenty euros per resident are to be made available, and local people decide together how to use the money. This is meant to fund voluntary tasks and strengthen democratic participation.

The SPD wants to introduce a citizens' budget. This is money that citizens decide on themselves. Each town should get 20 euros per person. Local people then decide together what the money is for.

Cities and towns are to receive the money based on their number of residents. Local citizens decide together how it is spent. The budget is intended for voluntary municipal tasks. The SPD ties this to the goal of enabling participation that goes beyond merely informing people.

The SPD wants Saxony-Anhalt to push at the federal level for an addition to the Basic Law (Germany's constitution). The program cites the rise of far-right forces as the reason. The state constitution is to serve as a model.

The SPD wants to add to the Basic Law. The Basic Law is Germany's constitution. It should contain clear rules against racism and hatred of Jews. The constitution of Saxony-Anhalt should be the model.

The program points to the state constitution, which contains explicit provisions against racism, antisemitism and discrimination. The SPD wants such rules to be included in the Basic Law as well. The state is to argue for this in federal policy debates.

The SPD calls for distributing federal agencies fairly across all German states and strengthening those located in Saxony-Anhalt. All federal ministries are to move completely from Bonn to Berlin. East Germans are to be better represented in leadership positions in the federal administration.

The SPD wants more federal agencies in all German states. All ministries should move fully to Berlin. Today some are still in Bonn. More people from eastern Germany should become leaders in federal agencies.

The program names the Federal Environment Agency, the Cyber Agency and the Federal Office of Administration as institutions that bring jobs and expertise to the state. The federal plan for more East German leaders in the federal administration is to be implemented consistently. The state wants to support construction of the Future Center for German Unity and European Transformation in Halle (Saale) within its responsibilities. The SPD sees the relocation of the ministries as part of completing German unity.

The SPD wants to pool administrative tasks, make procedures easier to understand and promote cooperation between the state and municipalities. In the platform's view, a functioning administration is a precondition for trust in the state and for economic development.

The SPD wants to organize public offices better. Offices should handle tasks together. Forms and official letters should come with plain-language explanations. The state, towns and counties should work together more. Offices should also be located in rural areas.

Agencies that combine several tasks are to be developed further and checked regularly for efficiency, without constant reorganization. A reporting portal modeled on einfach-machen.gov.de is planned. Applications and official notices are to come with explanations in plain language. Duplicate checks are to be dropped, funding procedures simplified and experimentation clauses used to try new approaches. Staff should be able to move more easily between levels of government, and staff cuts must not lengthen procedures. State agencies are also to be located in mid-sized towns and rural regions.