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

The AfD wants to strengthen direct democracy in Brandenburg by lowering the number of signatures needed for popular initiatives and petitions for a referendum. It argues that no statewide referendum has taken place since the state constitution was adopted.

The AfD wants citizens to vote on more issues. Fewer signatures should be needed for this. Brandenburg has never had a statewide referendum. The AfD wants to change that.

The AfD wants every amendment to the state constitution to be put to a vote of the people. It points out that the constitution is the foundation of the state's order.

The constitution is the most important law in the state. The AfD wants citizens to vote on every change to it. The state parliament should not decide this alone.

The AfD wants to let citizens vote on laws already passed by the state parliament and to amend or reject them. Without that option, the program says, policy can be made against the will of the majority.

The state parliament passes laws. The AfD wants citizens to be able to vote on them afterward. That way they can change or stop a law.

The AfD wants to scrap the rule that a directly elected district administrator (Landrat) needs the votes of at least 15 percent of all eligible voters. If that threshold is missed, the district council decides today, which the AfD says can override the voters' will.

Citizens elect the district administrator directly. Today the winner needs votes from 15 percent of all eligible voters. Otherwise the district council decides. The AfD wants to end this rule.

The AfD wants to dissolve the state's Verfassungsschutz (domestic intelligence agency) unless it can be reformed to focus on what the party sees as its real task. It accuses the other parties of using the agency against the opposition, and against the AfD in particular.

The Verfassungsschutz is a domestic intelligence agency. The AfD wants to close it down in Brandenburg. That applies if it cannot be reformed. The AfD says the agency is used against the opposition.

The AfD wants to make the legal rules on opposition rights so precise that they cannot be circumvented. It complains that it is being denied posts in parliaments and public funds.

The opposition means the parties that do not govern. The AfD wants to define their rights more exactly in law. No one should be able to get around these rights. The AfD says it is denied posts and money.

The AfD wants to end postal voting without a specific reason. It considers it vulnerable to manipulation and says it undermines the equality of the vote because not everyone votes on the same day.

The AfD wants to end postal voting without a reason. It says postal votes are easier to tamper with. People who cannot come on election day should still be able to vote. Mobile polling stations should make that possible.

The AfD wants to cut the number of state lawmakers from 88 to 60 and the number of electoral districts from 44 to 30. It justifies this by comparison with other states, where each lawmaker represents more residents.

The state parliament has 88 seats today. The AfD wants only 60 seats. The number of electoral districts should also go down. The AfD says parliament can still work well.

The AfD calls for significantly more staff in all branches of the judiciary and for courts close to where people live. Access to justice should not fail because of long distances.

The AfD wants more staff for the courts. Courts should be close to where people live. Nobody should give up their rights because the court is too far away.

The AfD wants to create a municipal chamber through which counties and independent cities have a say in state legislation. In the party's view, local politicians know conditions on the ground best.

The AfD wants a new chamber for cities and counties. There they would have a say in state laws. The model is the Bundesrat. In the Bundesrat, the German states have a say in national laws.

The AfD wants to review, renegotiate, and if necessary terminate the interstate treaties with Berlin. The joint state development plan is to be reformed so that municipalities can decide more freely on residential and commercial zones and gain more financial leeway.

Brandenburg has many treaties with Berlin. The AfD says these treaties mostly help Berlin. It wants to check them and negotiate new ones. Towns should decide more for themselves about building land. They should also get more money.

The AfD wants to amend the municipal charges act so that affected residents can jointly bring test-case lawsuits against charge notices. This is meant to make court review easier while reducing the number of proceedings.

Residents sometimes get bills for high road charges. Many cannot afford to sue alone. The AfD wants people to be able to sue together. One ruling then serves as a model for all.

The AfD wants to cut state money for associations and initiatives that work against right-wing extremism or for gender, diversity and migration, and to end all climate-related measures. It justifies this with the state's duty of neutrality and the need for funds for other tasks.

The AfD wants to stop giving state money to certain associations. This affects projects against the right, and on gender, diversity and migration. Money for climate measures should also be dropped. The money should go to schools, roads and families.

The BSW wants to lower the hurdles for local citizens' initiatives and referendums and make their results binding. Participatory budgets would be expanded.

The BSW wants people to have more say locally. Votes by citizens should need fewer signatures. The result should be binding. People should help decide more often how their town spends money.

The BSW wants to permanently fund and expand publicly financed legal advice centers and to broaden legal aid for advice and court costs. In the party's view, legal advice should not depend on a person's wallet.

A lawyer costs a lot of money. The BSW wants more advice centers for legal questions. The state should pay for them. They should exist mainly in rural areas. People with little money should get more help with court costs.

The BSW wants to make the judiciary more independent of politics. Public prosecutors should no longer be subject to instructions from the government, and court locations should not be closed.

Today the government can give orders to prosecutors. The BSW wants to end this. The courts should be independent of politics. Courts should stay where they are.

The BSW wants a minimum quota for East German applicants when public-sector jobs are filled, especially in the state administration. It argues that East Germans are underrepresented in leading positions in Brandenburg.

The BSW says East Germans rarely get top jobs. So it wants a minimum number. That many state jobs should go to East Germans. The rule should only apply for a limited time.

The BSW rejects further job cuts in public administration and wants more staff in schools, hospitals, nursing homes and government offices. It also wants more digital administrative services, since in its view Brandenburg lags far behind.

The BSW does not want to cut jobs in public offices. It wants more staff, for example in schools and offices. Offices should handle requests faster. More things should work online.

The CDU wants to keep all court locations, add staff and speed up proceedings. In its view, punishment that follows swiftly after a crime deters offenders.

All courts in the state should stay open. The courts should get more staff. Trials should go faster. Punishment should come soon after the crime.

The CDU wants a judicial neutrality law. It would ban symbols, tattoos, clothing or face and head coverings in courts that express a religious, ideological or political view.

The CDU wants a new law for courts. Some signs would be banned there. This means extremist symbols and tattoos. Religious veils would also be banned.

The CDU wants to push for general compulsory service at the federal level. The goal is a larger pool of trained people for crises.

Compulsory service means young people must work for society for a while. The CDU wants this at the federal level. Then there would be more helpers in a crisis.

The CDU wants local matters to be decided locally again to a greater extent. Existing municipal structures are to remain and be strengthened. Experimentation clauses are to let municipalities deviate from standards to test new solutions.

Towns should decide more for themselves. Today's local governments should stay. Towns should be allowed to try new ideas. For this, they can skip some rules.

The CDU wants red-tape reduction laws to scrap unnecessary rules so that there are significantly fewer regulations at the end of the term than in 2024. New laws are to apply for only five years, and two old rules are to be repealed for every new one. In the program's view, unnecessary rules burden citizens and businesses.

The CDU wants fewer rules and less paperwork. New laws should only last five years. Then they must be checked. For each new rule, two old ones should go. People and companies should be able to report problems online.

The CDU wants to secure municipal finances while also cutting municipalities' workload. Mayors and county chiefs would be allowed to suspend impractical rules that do not affect fundamental rights, provided they give reasons.

The CDU wants to help towns and cities. They should have enough money. Mayors should be able to skip impractical rules. They must give a reason.

The CDU wants to fulfill the constitutional mandate for equal living conditions and avoid gaps between regions. New public agencies are to be located outside the capital region as well, and municipalities are to be allowed to test new solutions.

People should live well everywhere in Brandenburg. Not only near Berlin. New government offices should also open in other regions. Towns should be allowed to try new ideas.

The CDU wants to reduce rules for volunteers and relieve them of administrative work. Volunteering should also be rewarded more, since the party sees civic engagement as the basis of a lively society.

Many people work for free to help others. This is called volunteering. The CDU wants fewer rules and less paperwork for them. Volunteers should get more thanks. For example, cheaper bus and train tickets.

The CDU wants to support the work of the churches financially over the long term and index state payments to the Catholic Church, as is already the case for the Protestant Church. It regards Christian values as the foundation of the culture while also supporting interfaith dialogue.

The CDU wants to support churches more. The Catholic Church should get money that rises over time. The Protestant Church already gets this. The dancing ban on Good Friday should stay. Religion classes in schools should stay.

The SPD wants to hire more judges, prosecutors and other court staff to speed up proceedings. It also plans a single justice act, a victim protection office and safeguards meant to shield the judiciary from extremist influence.

The SPD wants to hire more judges and prosecutors. Courts should decide faster. The rules for the justice system should be in one single law. There should be a special office for victims of crime.

The SPD wants to continue the state's financial support for municipalities and relaunch municipal investment programs. This is meant to let towns adapt their infrastructure, especially for social services and education, to a growing population.

The SPD wants to keep giving towns and villages a lot of money. There should be new programs for investment. Towns can use them to build schools and daycare centers, for example. The state also wants to help towns with computer work.

The SPD wants to review all state tasks and legal provisions in Brandenburg in order to remove what it sees as unnecessary bureaucracy. For this, the state parliament is to set up a special committee.

The SPD wants less red tape. Red tape here means many rules and forms. All state rules should be checked. A special group in the state parliament should do this. In the end there should be fewer rules than today.

The SPD wants to strengthen the "Tolerantes Brandenburg" (Tolerant Brandenburg) action plan and fund projects against right-wing extremism permanently. The program calls right-wing extremism and racism the greatest danger to democracy in the state.

The SPD wants to strengthen the "Tolerant Brandenburg" program. It works against right-wing extremism and for democracy. Projects for this should get money permanently. Local groups should also get more help.

The SPD wants to keep pushing for more East Germans in leadership positions. The program argues that acceptance of democracy also depends on identification and that East German perspectives are often missing at the top levels.

The SPD wants more East Germans in leading jobs. The SPD says there are too few of them so far. That should change. Then more people can see themselves in democracy.