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

The AfD wants to bar members of the state government from also sitting in the state parliament. It argues that the separation of powers requires parliament and government to be staffed by different people.

The AfD wants a stricter split between government and parliament. People in the government should not be lawmakers at the same time. This applies to the state premier, ministers and state secretaries. The AfD says the branches of the state can then check each other better.

The AfD wants to detach the judiciary from the executive and let it govern itself. Judges and prosecutors would no longer be hired by the justice ministry, and prosecutors would no longer take instructions. The party also calls for considerably more staff and modern technology for the courts.

The AfD wants the courts to be more independent of the government. The justice system should decide for itself whom to hire and promote. Prosecutors should no longer get orders from the minister. Courts should get more staff and better technology. Cases should then move faster.

The AfD wants to make it a criminal offense to hand out public-sector jobs based on political ties. The new offense is meant to protect those passed over and, above all, to target the officials who make such hiring decisions.

Some public jobs go to political friends. The AfD wants to punish this. It wants a new criminal law for it. The law should mainly hit the people who decide.

The AfD wants to scrap the legal status of 'political civil servant' in Hesse without replacement. It objects that top officials can be appointed and sent into paid retirement without any reason given, and it considers their pension entitlements fiscally indefensible.

The government can appoint and remove some top officials without giving a reason. They still get money from the state afterwards. These officials are called political civil servants. The AfD wants to end this rule in Hesse. It says civil servants should be neutral and loyal.

The AfD wants voters to be able to influence the order of candidates on the parties' statewide lists. Instead of fixed lists, there would be open-list voting in which several votes can be stacked on one candidate.

In state elections, parties set the order of their candidates. The AfD wants to change that. Voters should help decide who is at the top of the list. They should be able to give one candidate several votes.

The AfD wants to introduce digital referendums in Hesse to strengthen direct participation. Citizens would sign in with their ID card number and vote along the lines of the Swiss model.

The AfD wants citizens to be able to vote online. They enter the number of their ID card to do so. Switzerland is the model. This should give citizens more say.

The CDU wants to strengthen the state economics ministry and move responsibility for labor into it. Businesses would then have a single point of contact.

The CDU wants to merge two ministries. The labor ministry will become part of the economics ministry. Companies will then have just one place to go. This should save them time.

The CDU wants to ban money from student bodies from going to organizations hostile to the constitution. According to the program, student funds should serve student interests only.

Students pay fees to their student body. This money should only benefit students. It should not go to groups that work against the constitution. The CDU wants to ban this.

The CDU wants to make volunteering easier with less red tape and lower costs. The state is to pay GEMA music licensing fees for nonprofit clubs, the Ehrenamtskarte (volunteer card) is to become digital and usable nationwide, and tax allowances for clubs are to rise.

The CDU wants to help clubs and volunteers. Volunteers work for others freely and without pay. The state should pay the GEMA fees for clubs. These are fees for music at events. The volunteer card should also come as an app.

The CDU supports a period of service to society for all young people and calls on the federal government to create the legal basis for a mandatory year. Until then, it wants to expand the Freiwilliges Soziales Jahr (voluntary social year) and make it more flexible.

The CDU wants a required year of service for young people. During this year they work for the community. The federal government should pass the laws for it. Until then there should be more voluntary programs.

The CDU wants future police officers, prosecutors, and judges to undergo a mandatory check by the domestic intelligence agency before they are hired. According to the program, those who represent the state should demonstrably stand behind the free democratic order.

The CDU wants to check new police officers, prosecutors and judges. The domestic intelligence agency should do this before hiring. The check should be required. The CDU wants to be sure these people support democracy.

The CDU wants to continue Hesse's Pakt für den Rechtsstaat (pact for the rule of law) and fully cover the calculated staffing needs of courts and prosecutors' offices. According to the program, citizens should get legal protection within a reasonable time. The judiciary is also to become a more attractive employer.

The CDU wants more staff for courts and prosecutors. Cases should then move faster. Courts should stay in rural areas too. Jobs in the justice system should become more attractive.

The CDU aims to abolish the Verbandsklagerecht (the right of associations to bring lawsuits) and wants to speed up civil proceedings with new procedural tools. Frankfurt is to be strengthened as a venue for complex commercial cases, including through more hearings in English.

The CDU wants to end the Verbandsklagerecht. This right lets associations sue in court. Civil cases should move faster. In Frankfurt, more cases should be possible in English.

The CDU wants to give more support to lay judges, local courts (Ortsgerichte) and volunteer arbitrators. The law on the arbitration office (Schiedsamt) is to be revised, and municipalities are to get help with IT equipment for local courts.

Some people work for the justice system as volunteers. They do not get paid for it. The CDU wants to help these people more. The rules for the arbitration office will be rewritten. An arbitration office settles disputes without a court.

The CDU wants to review Hesse's municipal code together with local governments and amend it selectively. It would examine an electoral threshold for local councils, dropping runoff elections for mayors and county heads, and digital meetings; it also plans experimentation clauses.

The CDU wants to revise the rules for towns and counties. It is looking at an electoral threshold. That means very small groups would no longer get council seats. It will also check whether runoff elections can be dropped. Towns should be allowed to try out new ideas.

The CDU wants a commission to review all state funding for effectiveness and simplification and to cut programs that involve excessive red tape. Applications are to become simpler so that small municipalities can also use funding.

The state has many funding programs. The CDU wants all of them checked. Programs with too much paperwork should be dropped. Applying should get easier. That way small towns can also ask for money. Advisers should help them do it.

The CDU wants to keep funding cooperation among cities, towns and counties, scaled to how far it goes. A digital pact between the state and municipalities is meant to digitalize local administration end to end.

Towns should work together more. This saves money and shares knowledge. The CDU wants to pay for this. Towns that work together more closely get more. They should stay independent. Local offices should also work digitally.

The CDU wants to further cut red tape and speed up administrative procedures without lowering the quality of decisions. A commission is to critically review the administration's tasks, and a Hessian regulatory review council is under consideration.

The CDU wants government offices to work faster. There should be less red tape. A group from business, politics and government should check which tasks are needed. The CDU is also looking at a council that reviews laws.

The CDU wants the state of Hesse to remain an attractive and competitive employer and to train more of its skilled staff itself. Entry and advancement are to depend more on performance and ability, making lateral entry easier.

The state of Hesse needs good employees. The CDU wants the state to train more people itself. After training, they should get a permanent job. Performance should count more than certificates. That way, people from other jobs can also move to the state.

The CDU wants to keep the career civil service (Berufsbeamtentum) while modernizing it. Career-track rules are to become more flexible so that performance and further qualification pay off more. The state administration should largely stop using fixed-term contracts without an objective reason.

The CDU wants to keep civil servants. These are people with a permanent job for the state. People who get more training should move up more easily. The state should avoid short-term contracts that have no reason.

The CDU wants to make working for the state of Hessen more flexible and family-friendly. This includes flexible hours, part-time work, remote work, offices close to home and more childcare. The free LandesTicket for public transit is to stay.

The CDU wants more flexible jobs in the state government. Staff should combine family, care and work more easily. They should work from home or near home more often. The free ticket for buses and trains should stay.

The CDU wants to keep raising civil servants' pay until the Federal Constitutional Court's requirements are met. Health cost subsidies (Beihilfe) and allowances are to be revised. The party stands by the state's own collective agreement.

The CDU wants to pay civil servants better. The top court has set rules for this. The CDU wants to meet these rules. The state should also cover more health costs. Hessen should keep its own pay agreement.

The CDU wants only those actually affected to be able to sue over infrastructure projects. The municipal code is to be changed so that citizens' petitions (Bürgerbegehren) do not delay important projects. A dedicated panel at the Higher Administrative Court is to decide such cases faster.

The CDU wants to build big projects faster. Only people who are really affected should be able to sue. Citizens' petitions should not hold up important projects. A citizens' petition is a local vote that residents demand. A special court team should decide such cases faster.

The CDU wants to create its own "Democracy Action Plan" to convey the value of democracy and freedom. It justifies this with attacks on democracy through hate, antisemitism, racism and fake news, and with what it sees as a damaging cancel culture.

The CDU wants to make an action plan for democracy. The plan should show why democracy and freedom matter. The CDU says hate and false news harm democracy. It also wants to keep fighting hate speech online.

The CDU does not want to lower the voting age and wants to keep it tied to the age of majority. At the same time it wants to involve young people more in political decisions and backs strong, directly elected constituency representatives.

The CDU does not want to change the voting age. People should still vote from age 18. But young people should have more of a say. Lawmakers elected in a district should stay strong.

The FDP wants to give municipalities more responsibility of their own and repeal decrees that oblige them to raise taxes. The state is to cover all costs of tasks it assigns, and municipal revenue sharing is to be revised.

Cities and towns should decide more for themselves. The state should no longer force them to raise taxes. If the state gives towns tasks, it should pay all the costs. Unnecessary rules should go.

The FDP wants an assembly law with as little state interference as possible. It rejects precautionary video recording and undercover officers at demonstrations as long as there is no danger. At the same time it wants to examine whether assemblies at certain locations can be barred by law.

People are allowed to demonstrate. The FDP wants the state to hold back. Police should not film protests without a reason. They should not send undercover officers either. But the FDP may want to ban protests on highways.

The FDP wants to keep the state of Hesse attractive as an employer and bring civil servants' pay in line with the Federal Constitutional Court's requirements. At the same time, performance-based pay elements are to be strengthened and the state's tasks critically reviewed.

The state of Hesse needs good skilled workers. The FDP wants to pay civil servants as the highest court requires. People who perform well should get more. Pay should keep up with pay in private companies.

The FDP wants to give more support to cooperation between municipalities and reward voluntary mergers financially. In the future this should also apply to counties and independent cities, whose residents would vote on it in a county referendum.

Towns can work together or merge. The FDP wants to support this with money. This should also apply to counties. Nobody should be forced. People in the county should be able to vote on it.

The FDP wants the state to simplify and support cooperation among towns and municipalities. Neighboring centers are to work together permanently so they can offset each other's weaknesses.

Towns should work together more. The state should help them do this. Neighboring towns should become fixed partners. Then one town can help out the other.

The FDP wants to reform the state election law so that the parliament reliably has no more than 110 members. This is meant to keep the parliament workable and avoid unnecessary costs for taxpayers.

The state parliament should get smaller. It should have 110 members at most. The FDP says the parliament will work better this way. It will also cost less tax money.

The FDP wants young people to be able to vote from age 16 in Hesse's state and local elections. It argues that young people bear the consequences of today's policies the most.

Young people should be allowed to vote at 16. This should apply to state elections and local elections in Hesse. The FDP says today's politics affects young people the most.

The FDP wants to make formal access to local and statewide referendums easier. It considers the quorums a local referendum must meet to succeed appropriate, and wants to keep parliamentary democracy as the main form of decision-making.

Citizens should be able to start a vote more easily. There should be less paperwork for this. The number of votes needed to win should stay the same. Elected politicians should still make most decisions themselves.

The FDP wants to limit the Hessian Ministerpräsident (state premier) to two full legislative terms in order to safeguard the state's capacity for reform. In addition, prospective ministers are to face a public hearing in the state parliament before being appointed.

The state premier should stay in office for two terms at most. The FDP says this keeps the state open to new ideas. New ministers should answer questions in parliament first. This should happen in public.

The FDP wants to pay judges, prosecutors and other court staff at a level that lets Hesse compete with other states and professions. A new recruitment strategy is meant to end what the platform describes as years of overload in the justice system.

The FDP says: Courts in Hesse do not have enough staff. So the staff should get better pay. The work should also become more attractive. Then more people should want to work at the courts.

The FDP wants to digitize Hesse's justice system quickly and aims for courtrooms without paper files. In the platform's view, the state government has let the system fall behind. The judiciary is also to present its work in a more open and understandable way.

The FDP wants digital courts. There should be no more paper files. Citizens and lawyers should be able to write to the court digitally. Court rulings should be available on the internet.

The FDP wants to expand the existing English-language chamber for commercial matters at the Frankfurt Regional Court into a full "Commercial Court." This is meant to make Frankfurt more attractive internationally as a place to litigate.

Frankfurt already has a court chamber for trade cases in English. The FDP wants to make this bigger. Companies from other countries should be able to settle disputes there. This should make Frankfurt more important.

The FDP wants to change Hesse's Freedom of Information Act so that cities and municipalities also have to provide information. It also wants to make it possible to vote online in elections and referendums.

The FDP wants this: Cities and towns must also give information to citizens. A law should be changed for this. People should also be able to vote online. The vote must be secure.

The FDP wants to involve children and young people more in politics by creating local youth parliaments with the right to submit proposals. It also favors children's rights in the Hessian constitution and wants to strengthen youth work outside school.

Young people should have more say in politics. The FDP wants youth parliaments in towns and cities. These should be allowed to bring their own proposals. Children's rights should be in the constitution of Hesse. The FDP also wants to strengthen youth work.

The FDP wants citizens to have a greater say in political decisions and would change the law to allow it. Digital tools are meant to expand existing forms of participation, and electronic voting should become possible.

The FDP wants citizens to have more of a say. Laws should be changed for this. People should be able to take part online. Voting online should also become possible.

The FDP wants a transparency law modeled on Hamburg's that requires public authorities to publish information proactively. Administrative data that does not relate to individuals should be freely available.

The FDP wants a new law for more openness. Public offices should publish information on their own. Hamburg already has such a law. Data that is not about people should be free for everyone.

The Greens want 16-year-olds to be able to vote in state and local elections. A youth council and additional formats are meant to give young people a permanent say. The platform argues that children and young people have a right to participate.

The Greens want young people to vote at age 16. This applies to state and local elections. There should also be a youth council. Young people can have a lasting say there.

The Greens want greater recognition for volunteering and more discounts tied to the Ehrenamts-Card (volunteer card). The state's support programs are to be pooled and voluntary service years made more attractive.

Many people help for free. The Greens want to thank them. The volunteer card should bring more benefits. People should be able to get it after just one year.

The Greens want a state law to secure long-term funding for initiatives that promote democracy and oppose extremism. The Marburg Democracy Center, the related state program and committed organizations are to be strengthened further. Services are to be expanded and brought more into rural regions.

Many groups in Hesse work for democracy. The Greens want a new law for them. The law should give these groups reliable money. Advice centers should stay for the long term. Rural areas should get more services too.

The Greens want to make local councils more diverse and flexible and involve residents more. To that end, citizens' councils chosen by lot, a public question time and legally secure digital meetings are to become possible. Volunteer council members are to get stronger oversight rights.

The Greens want to change politics in towns and cities. Residents should have more say. There should be citizens' councils. Their members are picked by lot. Meetings should also be possible online. Children's and youth parliaments should become stronger.

The Greens want to modernize the state administration and cut unnecessary bureaucracy so that planning and implementation become faster. Employees are to get flexible working hours, remote-work rules and up-to-date equipment. Lateral entry into public service is to become easier.

The Greens want to make public offices more modern. Rules and forms that are not needed should go. Then offices can work faster. Staff should be able to work flexibly, also from home. People from other jobs should be able to start in public service more easily.

The Greens want to strengthen the judiciary's independence from the executive and will examine more judicial self-administration and limits on the ministry's power to instruct prosecutors. At the same time, justice-sector jobs are to become more attractive so that positions are filled quickly. This includes better starting pay and modern working conditions.

Courts should be independent of the government. The Greens will look at letting judges manage more themselves. The ministry should be able to give prosecutors fewer orders. Jobs in the justice system should become more attractive. There should be better starting pay and modern workplaces.

The Greens want court proceedings in Hesse to take less time on average. To that end, vacancies are to be filled quickly, video hearings are to become routine, and legal education is to be modernized.

The Greens want faster court cases. Open jobs at courts should be filled quickly. More hearings should take place by video. Law school should also become more modern.

The Greens want to talk with the churches in Hesse about phasing out the Staatskirchenleistungen (historic state payments to churches). The condition is that the federal government first creates a framework for this.

The state pays the churches money every year because of old obligations. These payments should end one day. The Greens want to talk about this with the churches in Hesse. But first the federal government has to make a rule for it.

The SPD wants to reform the municipal fiscal equalization scheme so that structurally weak and rural areas count for more. State agencies are to be moved to regions that have so far been underserved, including one ministry to northern Hesse.

The SPD wants equally good living conditions in cities and the countryside. Rural towns should get more money. State offices should move to rural areas. One ministry should move to northern Hesse.

The SPD wants to develop a distinct youth policy for Hesse and give young people more of a say. Proposed laws are to be checked for their effects on young people. In municipalities, involving children and young people is to become mandatory.

The SPD wants young people to have more of a say. New laws should get a youth check. This check shows what a law means for young people. Towns and cities must involve children and young people.

The SPD wants young people in Hesse to be able to vote in all elections from age 16. The program considers lowering the voting age overdue. It is meant to strengthen young people's say in politics.

The SPD wants to lower the voting age. Young people should be allowed to vote at 16. This should apply to all elections in Hesse. Young people should have more of a say.

The SPD wants to strengthen prevention from the municipal to the state level and expand programs against political and religious extremism. Daycare centers and schools are to teach democracy and media literacy more intensively. The party also aims to reduce youth crime this way.

The SPD wants to do more against extremism. Children should learn about democracy in daycare already. At school they should learn to spot fake news. Youth organizations should also offer more political education.

The SPD wants to strengthen the justice system's workforce through more hiring and more training and make it a more attractive employer. It rejects privatizing the prison system because it regards carrying out prison sentences as a sovereign task of the state.

The SPD wants to hire and train more people for the justice system. Courts should be able to work faster this way. Pay should get better. Private companies should not run prisons.

The SPD wants to speed up the introduction of electronic case files in the justice system and provide the resources needed. Court decisions are to be communicated better to the public. The party also plans a Hessian victims' fund.

Courts should keep files on computers instead of on paper. The SPD wants to make this happen faster. People should be able to understand rulings better. There should be a fund to help victims of crime.

The SPD wants to push at the federal level and in the Bundesrat for people who have lived in Hessian municipalities for more than six years to be allowed to vote there, provided they hold a permanent residence permit. Until then, every municipality is to be required to have a foreigners' advisory council.

The SPD wants to widen voting rights in towns and cities. People who have lived there for more than 6 years should be able to vote. They need a permanent residence permit for this. Until then, every town should have a foreigners' council. This council speaks for people without a German passport.

The SPD wants a democracy promotion law for Hesse, a stronger state agency for civic education and new memorial and educational sites. The platform sees promoting democracy as a permanent task that needs reliable funding.

The SPD wants a law to promote democracy. The state agency for civic education should become stronger. It should get one more location. There should be new places for remembering and learning.