What do the parties in Berlin say on democracy and the state?

The AfD wants Berlin to push in the Bundesrat for abolishing Section 188 of the German Criminal Code. The provision imposes special penalties for insulting politicians. In the program's view, it now serves to prosecute critical statements.

There is a law that gives politicians special protection from insults. The AfD wants to end this law. Berlin should propose that in the Bundesrat. The AfD says the law is used against criticism. It says the normal rules on insults are enough.

The AfD wants to expand direct democracy in Berlin: citizens could overturn laws already passed through a Volkseinwand (popular veto), and every change to the state constitution would go to a public vote. This is meant to give Berliners the final say on fundamental decisions.

The AfD wants more public votes. Citizens should be able to stop new laws. To do so, they must collect signatures. Then everyone votes on the law. The people should also vote on every change to Berlin's constitution.

The AfD wants Berliners to elect the governing mayor and the district mayors directly instead of leaving this to the parliaments. The districts are also to gain more legal and financial independence.

Today the parliament elects Berlin's governing mayor. The AfD wants citizens to elect the mayor directly. The same should apply to the mayors of the districts. The districts should also get their own money. They should be able to go to court themselves.

The AfD wants to bar members of Berlin's state parliament from sitting in another parliament at the same time. In addition, no one should be both a lawmaker and a member of the government.

A lawmaker in Berlin should sit in only one parliament. They should not also sit in the Bundestag. They should not also sit in the European Parliament. Anyone in the government should not be a lawmaker.

The AfD wants the Berlin state parliament to set up a committee of inquiry into the COVID period. It also wants Berlin to launch an initiative in the Bundesrat for an amnesty covering all convictions connected to COVID measures.

The AfD wants to investigate the COVID period. A committee in the Berlin parliament should do this. Some people were punished for breaking COVID rules. The AfD wants these punishments canceled. This is called an amnesty.

The AfD wants to stop giving public money to organizations it classifies as far-left. Reporting offices such as the Berliner Register or CLAIM would also lose state funding and have to rely on private financing alone.

Berlin gives money to clubs and organizations. The AfD sees some of them as far-left. They should get no more money from the state. This also applies to reporting offices. People can report things like discrimination there.

The CDU wants a democracy clause to ensure that organizations opposed to the constitutional order or holding hostile views toward groups of people receive no public funding. Anti-constitutional associations would lose charitable tax status, and public employees would be checked for loyalty to the constitution.

The CDU wants state money only for groups that support the constitution. A rule should make sure of this. Hostile groups should lose tax benefits. Public employees should be checked. They must support democracy.

The CDU wants to define the tasks of student governments more precisely in the higher education law and focus them on study-related matters. Mandatory fees are only to be collected if voter turnout is sufficient. The CDU justifies this by saying some bodies are used for extremist agitation.

Students elect their own councils at universities. These councils get money from required fees. The CDU wants to limit what they do. They should focus on studying. They should only get money if enough students vote.

The CDU wants to significantly scale back Berlin state laws that go further than federal or EU law. It cites the state anti-discrimination law, the public procurement law and the law on freedom of assembly as examples.

Berlin has its own laws. Some go further than federal or EU rules. The CDU thinks this creates too much red tape. It wants to cut these rules a lot. Examples are laws against discrimination and on protests.

The CDU wants to continue the administrative reform and remove overlapping responsibilities and what it sees as unnecessary bureaucracy. Participation formats, advisory boards, commissioners and parliamentary reporting duties are also to be reviewed and simplified.

In Berlin, several offices often handle the same task. The CDU wants to change that. Each task should have one clear owner. Many committees and special officers will also be reviewed. This should make the administration faster.

The CDU wants adequate and reliable funding for Berlin's districts, which it sees as the backbone of citizen-oriented administration. The basis is the state's connexity implementation law, and a similar rule should apply in relations with the federal government.

Berlin has twelve districts. They work close to the people. The CDU wants to give them enough money, reliably. Whoever hands over a task should pay for it. This should also apply between the federal and state levels.

The CDU wants more internal competition and new incentives within the administration. An annual performance contest with goals, metrics, public awards and bonuses is to be introduced.

The CDU wants a contest inside the administration. Each year there are set goals. Offices are measured on how well they reach them. The best teams win an award. Their leaders and teams also get a cash bonus.

The CDU aims to reduce positions in all Senate departments by at least 2 percent a year and to deploy staff more flexibly. Instead of new positions, task reviews, merging functions and artificial intelligence are to ease the workload.

The CDU wants fewer jobs in the Senate departments. Each year, at least 2 percent should go. Staff should be used more flexibly. There should be fewer special officers. AI programs should help with routine work.

The CDU wants to introduce central talent management for Berlin's administration and continue efforts to recruit skilled staff. Civil servant pay is to be restructured and kept in line with that of salaried public employees.

The CDU wants to find and support good people for the administration. A central unit should do this. Career changers should find it easier to start. Civil servants should earn as much as other public employees. Pay raises should also apply to civil servants.

The CDU wants to make volunteering more attractive, for instance through help with travel costs and free use of rooms. It sees volunteer work as a pillar of community life in Berlin.

Many people help others for free. This is called volunteering. The CDU wants to support these people more. They should get easier access to buses and trains. They should use rooms for free.

The CDU wants to fund projects that teach democratic values and strengthen social cohesion. Funded organizations are to clearly commit to the Basic Law (Germany's constitution) and oppose extremism and antisemitism. The impact of projects is to be measured more closely.

The CDU wants to support projects for democracy. These projects should bring people together. Anyone who gets money must support the Basic Law. That is Germany's constitution. The projects must also stand against hate and antisemitism.

The Greens want everyone who lives, works, or studies in Berlin to belong and to have a say. Passport, origin, or residence status should not matter for this. The platform sees it as an opportunity for the city when newcomers settle in successfully.

The Greens say: Everyone in Berlin belongs. The passport should not matter. People without a German passport should also have a say. The Greens want to make policy for these people too.

The Greens want to carry out urban planning together with the districts and residents and to expand participation procedures. Climate protection, climate adaptation and affordable rents are to become the guiding principle of urban development.

The Greens want to plan the city together with the people. People should have a say. Plans should be easy to understand. Climate protection and affordable rents matter most here.

The Greens want to simplify the rules for public grants and allow multi-year funding so that initiatives can plan ahead. The volunteer card is to be expanded. Voluntary service programs are to get more places and higher pocket money.

The Greens want to support volunteering. Groups should be able to get money for several years. Then they can plan better. Young people in voluntary service should get more pocket money. They ride buses and trains for free.

The Greens want to keep the state's land and infrastructure permanently in public hands and continue buying land strategically. A privatization brake in the state constitution and a land protection law are meant to secure this legally.

Berlin should keep its land and facilities. The Greens want to rule out selling them. This should be written into Berlin's constitution. Berlin should also keep buying land. When land is awarded, the best idea should count, not the highest price.

The Greens want people with an East German background to be better represented in leadership positions and view this background as a dimension of diversity. At the same time, civil society, youth participation, and prevention of far-right youth violence are to be strengthened.

People from East Germany should get important positions more often. So far they are rare there. The Greens want to collect better data on this. Children should have a say early, for example in class councils from first grade. Youth clubs should get enough money for the long term.

The Greens want Berlin to be able to abolish the Staatsleistungen (regular state payments to the churches); the federal government is to create the legal basis for this. Leaving the church in Berlin is to be free of charge and possible online in the future.

The state pays the churches money every year. The Greens want to end these payments. The federal government has to pass a law first. People who leave the church should not pay a fee. Leaving should also be possible online.

The Greens want a state law on promoting democracy to secure the work of associations, initiatives and migrant organizations for the long term. They also want to strengthen the state agency for civic education and make parliament, the constitutional court and the district assemblies more resilient.

Many groups work to support democracy. The Greens want a new law to fund them for the long term. Civic education should get stronger. Parliament and the constitutional court should be better protected.

The Greens want everyone whose life is centered in Berlin to be able to vote in elections and referendums, even without a German passport. The program regards the exclusion of nearly one million people as a structural democratic deficit.

Almost one million people in Berlin have no German passport. So they are not allowed to vote. The Greens want to change that. People who live in Berlin should be able to vote.

The Greens want to lower the voting age at state and district level from 16 to 14. Children's and youth parliaments with their own rights are to be made possible in all districts and at state level.

In Berlin, people can vote from age 16. The Greens want people to vote from age 14. There should also be parliaments for children and teenagers. They could then speak and make proposals.

The Greens want to expand direct democracy in Berlin and introduce an optional referendum. It would let citizens veto a change by parliament to a law that was passed by popular vote.

The Greens want people in Berlin to have more say. Sometimes parliament changes a law that the people voted for. Then people should be able to vote on it again. Votes in the districts should be binding.

The Greens want Germany's Federal Constitutional Court to rule on a ban of the AfD. The platform bases this on the domestic intelligence agency's classification of the party as confirmed right-wing extremist and on a rise in hate crime.

The Greens want a court to check a ban of the AfD. Germany's highest court should decide. The domestic intelligence agency calls the AfD right-wing extremist. The Greens say this must have consequences.

The Greens want to give children and teens more of a say. Children's and youth councils would get voting rights and the right to submit motions in all twelve district assemblies, and the UN children's rights would be written into Berlin's constitution.

Children and teens should have more of a say. Their councils should be able to make proposals and vote in the district assemblies. The children's rights of the United Nations should be in Berlin's constitution. All of Berlin should become a child-friendly city.

The Greens want to give older people more political weight and would revise the law on seniors' participation to do so. They also want to fight age discrimination, make it easier to keep working in the public administration, and promote learning in later life.

The Greens want older people to have more say. Their representatives should be allowed to speak in district committees. They should get money for travel and expenses. The Greens also want to act against unfair treatment because of age. Older people should be able to keep learning, for example on computers.

The Greens want everyone in Berlin to be able to assert their rights on equal terms. According to the platform, people with little money are at a disadvantage because they often cannot afford legal counsel. Legal aid for advice and court costs is to become easier to obtain, and the courts' legal application offices are to be expanded.

The Greens want everyone to have the same chances in court. Many people with little money cannot pay a lawyer. They should get help with the costs more easily. The courts should offer more advice, also in several languages.

The Greens want the justice system to deal more openly with its own mistakes and to reduce wrongful verdicts. To that end, evidence is to be kept longer and the appeals courts are to be strengthened.

Courts sometimes make mistakes too. The Greens want the justice system to learn from mistakes. Evidence should be kept longer. Experts should study why wrong verdicts happen.

Because many justice system employees will soon retire, the Greens want to recruit more staff. Work is to become more family-friendly, and lateral entry and promotion are to become easier. Where qualifications are equal, applicants with a migration background are to be given preference in hiring.

Many people in the justice system will retire soon. So the Greens want to win new staff. Work should fit better with family life. People from other jobs should be able to join more easily. Judges should have to take training courses.

The Greens want to largely abolish the justice administration's right to issue instructions to public prosecutors. At the same time, lay judges would have to commit to the free democratic basic order, and applicants would be systematically screened. Courts are to be made resilient against anti-democratic forces.

Today the justice administration can give orders to prosecutors. The Greens want to largely end this. Lay judges are volunteer judges. They should have to commit to democracy. The Greens want to check people who apply for this role. This should keep extremists from becoming judges.

The Greens want to implement Berlin's already adopted administrative reform. The Senate departments are to handle citywide steering, while the boroughs carry out services and steer at the borough level. The administration is to see itself as a service provider and deliver its services without discrimination.

Berlin has passed a reform of its administration. The Greens now want to put it into practice. It should be clear who is responsible for what. The Senate should plan for the whole city. The boroughs should do the work on the ground. Offices should treat all people equally well.

The Greens want to further develop the Bezirksverordnetenversammlungen, the elected assemblies of Berlin's districts. More of their resolutions are to be binding. It should also become clearer who in the district administration is responsible for which policy.

Each Berlin district has an elected district assembly. The Greens want to make these assemblies stronger. More of their decisions should be binding. The district office would then have to follow them. People should see more clearly who is responsible for what.

The Greens want to keep the state of Berlin's workforce at the level built up by 2023 and plan staffing needs strategically. Berlin is to become a more attractive employer, among other things through more participation, development opportunities and modern equipment. The Landesverwaltungsamt (state administrative office) is to become the central HR service provider.

Berlin needs enough people in its public offices. The Greens want to keep the number of staff stable. They want to plan carefully where staff is needed. Berlin should be a good employer. One office should handle staff matters for all agencies.

The Greens want to attract more young people to the public service through a training drive. Dual vocational training, dual degree programs and trainee programs are to be expanded. The party also wants to tackle housing for employees.

The public offices need young people. The Greens want more training places in the public service. Dual study programs and trainee programs should grow too. Students should be able to do more internships in agencies. Staff should find housing more easily.

The Left wants to do without expensive major events and symbolic large-scale projects and spend less on surveillance cameras. The money is to go to social services and infrastructure. The administration is to become more digital and efficient.

The Left does not want to spend money on expensive big projects. There should also be less money for surveillance cameras. The money should go to social services. Government offices should work faster and more digitally.

The Left wants to develop the city together with residents and give them more influence. Referendum results would be implemented, neighborhood management continued, and early, open-ended public participation held before every zoning plan.

The Left wants people to have more say in city planning. Referendum results should be carried out. Before every building plan, there should be a talk with local people. Each borough should have a contact person for this. Local groups should get money and spaces.

The Left wants to strengthen the legal standing of seniors' representative bodies and apply it uniformly in all districts. To do this, the Seniorenmitwirkungsgesetz (seniors' participation law) would be revised.

The Left wants to strengthen the bodies that speak for older people. They should be allowed to speak and make motions in district assemblies. Their election should be on the same day as the Berlin election. That way more people should vote.

The Left wants to involve young people more in political decisions, for example through speaking rights in district bodies, stronger youth parliaments and fixed youth budgets in every district. It stands by voting at 16 and is looking into lowering the voting age further. The reasoning is that children and young people are underrepresented in politics.

The Left wants young people to have more say. They should be allowed to speak in district bodies. Every district should have money that young people decide on. Voting at 16 should stay. The party is checking whether even younger people could vote.

The Left wants to preserve and expand neighborhood centers, community houses, meeting places and advice centers. Volunteering is to receive more support, space and recognition. In new residential districts, space for social facilities is to be planned in from the start.

Berlin has many meeting places in its neighborhoods. The Left wants to keep these places and create more. Volunteers should get more help and rooms. New schools should also be open to the neighborhood. The districts should get enough money for this.

The Left wants a transparency law that obliges authorities to publish information within fixed deadlines and in machine-readable form. Access should be free of charge, and publicly funded media content should remain available for the long term.

The Left wants a transparency law for Berlin. Public offices would then have to publish information on their own. This should happen quickly and in a usable form. Access should cost nothing. Programs paid for with public money should stay online for a long time.

The Left wants effective protection for people who report wrongdoing. In addition to protection under employment law, technically secure, encrypted and anonymous reporting channels are to be available.

Some people report mistakes and wrongdoing in agencies or companies. They are called whistleblowers. The Left wants to protect them better. They should not lose their jobs. They should be able to give tips safely and without their name.

The Left wants to make Berlin's government a more attractive employer, because many positions are vacant and staff leave for better-paying employers. Plans include the capital-city bonus (Hauptstadtzulage) for everyone, pay at the average of all states, permanent positions and flexible working hours.

Berlin's public offices are short of many workers. The Left wants to pay better for this work. Everyone should get the capital-city bonus. That is an extra payment on top of the salary. Jobs should no longer be temporary. There should be more working from home and flexible hours.

The Left wants to use more in-house training to recruit and retain additional staff for Berlin's administration. A new "AusbildungsLAB" (training lab) would develop ideas for modern training, and trainees would be reliably hired after graduating and given affordable housing.

The Left wants to train more young people in city offices. This should give Berlin more staff. After training, they should get a steady job. They should also get cheap apartments.

The Left wants to create a permanent structure that lets agencies act together immediately in crises and conflicts. The platform sees cooperation across agencies as the most important precondition for this.

The Left wants to prepare city offices for crises. The offices should then work together quickly. There should be set teams and rules for this. A law should secure it.

The Left wants a participation law that sets firm minimum standards for how residents are involved in decisions. The party says participation must not be merely for show and should also cover transportation and other issues.

The Left wants a law on participation. It should set firm rules for how people in Berlin can have a say. This covers building, traffic, and other topics. People should also be able to watch borough meetings online.

The Left wants Berliners to be able to propose projects for public funds themselves and decide on them in participatory bodies. In addition to the participatory budgets in the boroughs, there would be one for the whole state.

The Left wants a participatory budget for all of Berlin. This means people propose projects themselves. And they help decide what the city spends money on. Some boroughs already do this.

The Left wants organizations working for democracy, participation and against discrimination and the far right to receive long-term rather than project-by-project funding. A Demokratiefördergesetz (democracy promotion act) is meant to secure this, because the program says these groups often work under insecure conditions.

Many groups work for democracy and against discrimination. They often get money only for a short time. The Left wants a law that gives them lasting funding. The groups should be able to work independently.

The Left wants to protect the freedom of expression of public employees while keeping enemies of the constitution out. It considers screening all applicants through the domestic intelligence agency disproportionate. Instead it relies on civic education, trained HR staff, and faster disciplinary proceedings.

People who work for the state should be able to say what they think. Enemies of the constitution should not work for the state. The Left does not want the secret service to check all applicants. It wants more civic education and training.

The Left wants to lower the hurdles for citizens' initiatives, scrap the approval quorum, and allow referendums on more subjects. In addition, Berlin is to get a permanent citizens' dialogue whose members are chosen by lot and whose recommendations the state parliament must take up.

The Left wants people in Berlin to have more say. A citizens' initiative should need fewer signatures. People should be allowed to vote on more subjects. There should also be a permanent citizens' dialogue. Its members are picked by lot.

The Left wants everyone who lives in Berlin to be able to vote and is pushing for voting rights after five years of residence, even without German citizenship. In addition, the electoral thresholds in state and district elections are to be dropped and the signature requirements for nominations lowered.

The Left wants to change election law. People without a German passport should be allowed to vote too. They must have lived here for five years. The electoral threshold should go. That is a rule that keeps small parties from getting seats.

The Left wants to set up a commission that develops proposals for reforming Berlin's state constitution. Citizens are to be actively involved in several stages.

The Left wants to update Berlin's constitution. The constitution is the state's most important law. A commission should make proposals for this. The people of Berlin should help with the work.

The Left wants to remove barriers to the justice system, especially for people with low incomes. This includes more advice services, understandable information, a more digital and more local justice system, and better protection for victims of crime and for attorney-client privilege.

The Left wants all people to get justice more easily. This matters most for people with little money. There should be more advice and information in plain language. Victims of crime should get more help. Courts should be close to where people live.

The Left wants to improve working conditions for all occupational groups in the justice system, explicitly including non-judicial staff, in order to attract new recruits. This includes more training, digital and more uniform IT, and modernized court buildings.

The Left wants better jobs in the justice system. This applies to all jobs there. That way more people should apply. Courts should get better computer systems. The buildings should be renovated.

The Left wants to protect Berlin's state Constitutional Court from being taken over by anti-democratic forces. At the same time, a minority should not be able to block the election of constitutional judges. The party wants to work out with experts how this can be achieved.

Berlin has its own constitutional court. The Left wants to protect this court. Enemies of democracy should not be able to take it over. Also, nobody should be able to block the election of judges. Experts should look for solutions.

In the long run, the Left aims for a self-governing judiciary with independent judicial councils that decide on staffing, budget, and organization. As a first step, the judicial selection committee is to be more closely involved in hiring judges. The party wants to restore separate budget chapters for the individual courts.

The Left wants the courts to run themselves. Independent councils should decide on staff and money. Today the ministry decides a lot. First, a committee should have more say in hiring judges. Each court should again get its own part of the budget.

The Left wants to enshrine antifascism as a state goal in Berlin's constitution. It favors banning the AfD and wants Berlin to initiate a motion to that end in the Bundesrat. In the state parliament, any cooperation with the AfD is to be ruled out.

The Left wants to change Berlin's constitution. It should say: The state stands against fascism. The Left also wants a ban on the AfD party. Berlin should propose this in the Bundesrat, the chamber of the states. No parliamentary group should work with the AfD.

The Left wants a state strategy spanning all government departments to push back far-right structures in Berlin. Counseling centers, victim support and prevention programs are to receive more and more reliable funding. The platform points to a rising number of far-right incidents, including by young people.

The Left wants a plan against far-right groups in Berlin. All parts of the government should work together on it. Counseling centers and help for victims should get more money. There should be more prevention programs. Young people should find other options than violent groups.

The Left wants to require staff in education, social services, the public sector, and private security, as well as members of staff and works councils, to take training on discrimination, racism, and far-right ideologies. It also plans a contact point for volunteers and public awareness campaigns.

The Left wants required training for many workers. The training is about racism and far-right ideas. Teachers and security staff are among those who must take it. There will also be campaigns for democracy.

The Left wants to defend the tax-exempt nonprofit status of antifascist associations and to decriminalize peaceful antifascist civil disobedience. It rejects extraditing activists to other countries.

The Left wants to protect antifascist groups. They should keep their tax benefits. Peaceful protest against the far right should no longer be a crime. Activists should not be handed over to other countries.

The Left wants to protect the public service from civil servants with far-right views but rejects new Berufsverbote (bans from public employment). In addition, known neo-Nazis are no longer to be given training slots in public sports facilities.

The Left wants to protect the state from far-right civil servants. But it does not want new job bans. Each case should be checked on its own. Known neo-Nazis should not be allowed to train in public gyms.

The Left calls for a committee of inquiry into links between the NSU and other right-wing terrorist structures and Berlin. The inquiry into the series of right-wing attacks in Neukölln and the study commission against antisemitism, racism, and anti-Muslim hostility are also to be continued.

The Left wants parliament to keep looking into far-right violence. A new committee should examine links between the terror group NSU and Berlin. The attacks in Neukölln should also be examined further. A commission against racism and antisemitism should start working again.

The SPD wants the Federal Constitutional Court to declare the AfD unconstitutional. It supports a motion to that effect and intends to advance it through an initiative in the Bundesrat. The platform sees the far right as the greatest danger to democracy.

The SPD wants a ban of the AfD party. Germany's highest court decides on that. Berlin should push a motion for this in the Bundesrat. The Bundesrat is the chamber of the German states. The SPD says the far right is the greatest danger to democracy.

The SPD wants to secure and fund civil society's democracy work and democracy education permanently through a law. A competence center is to pool exit and deradicalization work. Citizen participation and civic education are to be strengthened.

The SPD wants a law to promote democracy. Groups that work for democracy should get long-term funding. A new center should help people leave extremist groups. Berlin should act against hate on the internet. People should have more say.

The SPD wants to change disciplinary law so that convicted extremists can be removed from public service more easily and quickly. It also seeks a dedicated unit to investigate criminal allegations against state employees.

Some people who work for the state are extremists. The SPD wants to dismiss them faster once a court has convicted them. It wants to change the rules for that. A special office should look into accusations against state employees.

The SPD wants court proceedings to finish faster, arguing that long proceedings weaken trust in the rule of law. Processes would be improved, digitalization advanced and more positions created. Everyone should have access to legal protection regardless of income.

Court cases often take a long time. The SPD wants to make them shorter. There should be more staff and more digital tools. Everyone should be able to get legal advice, even with little money.

The SPD wants to set up a children's and youth parliament for all of Berlin and create an independent children's commissioner. Young people are to get binding participation rights at the state and district level.

Children and young people should have more say in Berlin. There should be a parliament just for them. A children's commissioner should speak up for their interests. She checks how new political plans affect young people.

The SPD wants to give volunteer work more recognition and attract more people to it. This includes a better volunteer card, cheaper BVG transit tickets and less bureaucracy. The program sees volunteering as a pillar of cohesion and participation.

Many people help others for free. This is called volunteering. The SPD wants to reward these people more. They should ride buses and trains for less. There should be less paperwork.

The SPD wants to keep implementing Berlin's administrative reform so residents get good advice and fast decisions. Responsibilities between the Senate and the districts should be clear. The districts are to get a new, reliable funding model.

Berlin's public offices should work faster and better. It should be clear who is in charge of what. The districts should get enough money for their tasks. The SPD wants to change the money rules for this.

The SPD wants to make working for Berlin's administration more attractive in order to recruit and keep staff. Equal work is to be paid equally in the districts and at the state level. Flexible work arrangements, more women in leadership and housing for employees are also planned.

The SPD wants more people to enjoy working in public offices. Equal work should get equal pay everywhere. Staff should also be able to work from home. Berlin should build homes for its employees.

The SPD wants government data to be public by default unless it is sensitive. To that end, it aims for a transparency law and a central portal. Personal data is to remain protected at the same time.

Public offices should show their data openly. This does not apply to sensitive data. The SPD wants a new law and a website for this. Data about individual people stays protected.