What do the parties in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania say on democracy and the state?

The AfD wants to noticeably reduce the length of court proceedings, especially in civil and criminal courts and in administrative proceedings. In its view, overly long proceedings damage citizens' trust in the rule of law.

Courts often take a very long time. The AfD wants cases to finish faster. Very important cases should come first. This should help citizens trust the state more.

The AfD wants judges to be chosen by an independent judicial selection committee, because it fears party-political influence when the government appoints them. It also wants to review the court structure reform to bring courts closer to citizens, organize civil and criminal courts in three tiers, and introduce a law on neighbor relations.

Today the government appoints the judges in the state. The AfD wants an independent committee to do this. Courts should be easy for people to reach. The AfD also wants a law for disputes between neighbors.

The AfD wants the federal and state flags to fly permanently in front of state agencies, courts and schools. Other flags, such as the rainbow flag, would be banned in front of public institutions because the party sees them as a breach of state neutrality.

Two flags should always fly at state offices, courts and schools. These are the German flag and the state flag. The AfD wants to ban other flags there. This includes the rainbow flag.

The AfD wants to strengthen binding referendums on the Swiss model and lower the hurdles for them. A petition signed by five percent of eligible voters would trigger a vote at state, county and municipal level, and there would be no turnout quorum.

People should vote on laws themselves more often. Fewer signatures should be needed for this. Five out of 100 eligible voters would be enough. There should be no minimum number of participants. The model is Switzerland.

The AfD wants state money to go only to organizations that commit in writing to loyalty to the constitution and political neutrality. Funding for associations and initiatives it classifies as left-wing or far-left networks would end.

Associations often get money from the state. The AfD wants a new rule for this. Associations must promise in writing to be politically neutral. They must also support the constitution. Associations the AfD sees as left-wing should get no more money.

The AfD wants to give cities and towns more money without strings attached through the municipal revenue-sharing system, rather than through individual funding programs. New tasks or higher standards imposed on municipalities would be fully paid for. The party argues that local people know best what their community needs.

The AfD wants cities and towns to decide about their own money. They should get less money with fixed rules attached. If the state gives towns new tasks, it should pay all the costs. The AfD says local people know best.

The Greens want to make citizens' assemblies possible at the state and municipal level and create a legal basis for them. The aim is for more people to take part in decisions so that these have broader support.

The Greens want citizens' assemblies. In such an assembly, ordinary people discuss political questions. There should be assemblies for the state and for towns. This way more people can have a say.

The Greens want to anchor young people's say in law and support children's and youth councils across the state. Volunteering is also to be made easier through better leave arrangements. The party argues that volunteers often lack time, support and real opportunities to take part.

The Greens want young people to have more of a say. Children's and youth councils should be made stronger. Such a council is a group that advises politicians. Volunteering should also get easier. People should get time off for it more easily.

The Greens want to make direct democracy at the state and municipal level simpler and more binding. In the party's view, initiatives currently often fail because of complicated procedures and high formal hurdles.

The Greens want to make citizen petitions for a vote easier. In these, people collect signatures to get a vote. Fewer topics should be off limits. Successful petitions should have more effect.

The Greens want 16-year-olds to be able to stand for election to municipal councils and county councils. This is meant to open a path into local politics for young people and bring in new perspectives. In addition, candidate lists are to be filled more often with equal numbers of women and men.

The Greens want to lower the age for candidates. At 16, people should be able to run for their local council. Young people should take on responsibility early. Candidate lists should also have as many women as men.

The Greens want to give people without EU citizenship the right to vote in local elections once they have lived in Germany for more than five years. The party sees a democratic deficit when people who live in the state permanently cannot take part in decisions.

Some people do not have a passport from an EU country. Today they cannot vote in local elections. The Greens want to change that. Anyone living in Germany for more than 5 years should be able to vote locally.

The Greens want to introduce a transparency law that requires public authorities to publish their information proactively. State parliament committees are to meet in public as a rule, and it is to be disclosed who contributed to a law. The party wants this to strengthen trust in political decisions.

The Greens want the state to work more openly. Public offices should publish their information on their own. This should cost nothing. Committees in the state parliament should meet in public. For each law, people should see who helped write it.

The Greens want to make government action easier to follow. Non-personal public data would be freely available at no cost, and contacts between politicians and interest groups would be disclosed. In the platform's view, a lack of transparency breeds distrust.

The state should open its data to everyone. This should be free. Private data about people is excluded. Meetings between politicians and lobbyists should be public. Lobbyists speak for companies or associations. People who report violations of the law should be protected.

The Greens want to hire more staff for courts and prosecutors' offices and make the judiciary more independent of the government. The judiciary would govern itself, and instructions to prosecutors in individual cases would be limited.

The Greens want to hire more judges and prosecutors. Court cases should move faster that way. The courts should manage themselves. The government should have less influence on the justice system. People should be able to study law in Rostock again.

The Greens want the perspectives and rights of children and young people to be systematically considered in political decisions. To that end, a child impact assessment is to be introduced in the state government's departments.

Political decisions affect children and teenagers. The Greens want these effects checked in advance. The ministries should do this when they decide things. That way children's rights should count for more.

The Left wants to expand civic education for all age groups and give the state agency for civic education more funding. The hurdles for popular initiatives and referendums are to be lowered. Participation formats such as youth parliaments and citizens' assemblies are to get more support.

The Left wants more civic education for everyone. The state agency for civic education should get more money. Citizens should find it easier to vote on laws themselves. This is called a referendum. Youth parliaments and citizens' assemblies should also get more help.

The Left wants to put programs and initiatives that promote democracy on a secure long-term financial footing. Funded projects are to run for at least two years, and a state democracy promotion law is to be drafted. The party cites the need of associations and initiatives for planning certainty and protection from political interference.

Many associations work for democracy. The Left wants to give them money for the long term. Projects should get money for at least two years. A new state law should set the rules. This helps the associations plan ahead.

The Left wants to make the judiciary crisis-proof with more staff and better organization. Justice system employees are to be better protected from threats and attacks, and the independence of courts and prosecutors is to be secured. Hate crime is to be prosecuted consistently.

The Left wants to strengthen courts and prosecutors. They should get more staff. Judges and other staff should be better protected from threats. Politicians should not interfere with courts. Crimes driven by hate should be pursued firmly.

The Left calls for an institutional separation of state and churches. State payments to the churches are to be phased out step by step, and general labor law, including the right to strike, is to apply fully in church-run institutions. The party wants to keep church asylum.

The Left wants a clearer split between state and church. The state now pays the churches money every year. These payments should end step by step. People who work for a church should be allowed to strike. Church asylum should stay.

The Left wants to invest in training, continuing education and working conditions in the justice system and keep courts within reach in cities and rural areas. Digitalization is meant to improve access to justice without shutting anyone out; artificial intelligence must not replace judges.

The Left wants to strengthen the justice system. Courts should stay within reach everywhere in the state. Staff should get better working conditions. Computer programs may help, but they must not make rulings.

The Left wants to give municipalities more lump-sum funding and more freedom to decide so they can shape infrastructure and social and cultural services themselves. Equal opportunities and participation across the state are to be written into the state constitution.

The Left wants to give towns and villages more money. They should decide for themselves how to spend it. Weak regions should get lasting support. Equal chances for all should be in the state constitution.

The Left wants to create a transparency law modeled on Hamburg's that provides for an easily accessible information register. This is meant to lower hurdles and costs for citizens and strengthen trust in democracy.

The Left wants a transparency law. Public offices should put their information into a register on their own. Anyone can read it there. Hamburg already has such a law.

The SPD wants to introduce a "qualified Volksbefragung" (a consultative popular vote) so that citizens have a greater say in decisions. Overall, it emphasizes more citizen participation.

The SPD wants to ask people in the state for their opinion more often. For this, there should be a public vote. In it, citizens give their view on an important question. The SPD also wants to support citizens' councils.

The SPD wants to review the state's child and youth participation law and widen young people's say. A children and youth report and the findings of the inquiry commission "Jung sein in MV" (Being Young in MV) are to form the basis of youth policy.

The SPD wants young people to have more say. It will check how well the youth participation law works. A report will show what is on offer for children and teenagers. The ideas of a commission on youth should be put into practice.

The SPD wants to examine how red tape for volunteers can be cut and whether a volunteering law would help. Volunteering is to be expanded for young people, working people and seniors, and voluntary service programs are to remain financially secured.

Many people help for free in clubs and groups. This is called volunteering. The SPD wants to spare them paperwork. It is looking at a special law for this. More people should be able to volunteer. Voluntary service programs should keep getting money.

The SPD says people who do not share the values of the Basic Law, such as human dignity, democracy and the rule of law, should not work in public administration or the executive. The party announces measures to enforce this.

The SPD says people who work for the state must support the constitution. People who reject democracy should not work in public offices. The SPD wants to take steps to make sure of this.

The SPD wants to keep funding and update the state program "Demokratie und Toleranz gemeinsam stärken!" (strengthening democracy and tolerance together). It sees promoting democracy as a permanent public task. Municipalities would also get support for setting up citizen participation procedures.

The state has a program for democracy and tolerance. The SPD wants to keep paying for it and update it. Local groups get help from it. Citizens should have more say in their towns.

The SPD wants to shield state and democratic institutions from anti-constitutional influence and attacks. The state constitutional court is to be protected in its ability to function. At the same time the party stands by the separation of domestic intelligence and police.

The SPD wants to protect public offices and courts. Enemies of the constitution should not gain influence there. The state's highest court should always be able to work. Police and the domestic intelligence service stay separate.

The SPD wants to expand civic education, remembrance culture and the work of memorial sites in the state. The platform counts dealing with National Socialism, the Soviet occupation and East Germany among the foundations of democracy.

The SPD wants more civic education in the state. Memorial sites remember the victims of dictatorships. These places should get more help. School classes should be able to visit them more easily.

The SPD wants to keep working conditions in the public service attractive because many positions will need to be refilled as staff retire. Civil servants' pay is to keep following collective bargaining results so the state stays competitive with other German states.

Many state workers will retire soon. The SPD wants good working conditions in public service. Civil servants should keep getting the same raises as other public employees. Unions should have a say.

The SPD wants to keep municipal funding reliable and strengthen local self-government. Whoever hands new tasks to municipalities should also provide the money; the SPD wants to press the federal government to put this principle into practice.

Towns and villages should have enough money for their tasks. The rule is: whoever orders, pays. If the federal government gives towns new tasks, it should pay for them. The SPD wants to demand this.

The SPD wants to strengthen basic services in municipalities and use money from the MV investment plan for schools, culture, sports facilities and infrastructure. People should have fair chances regardless of where they live.

The SPD wants to put money into towns and villages. The money should go to schools, sports facilities and culture. Doctors, buses and social services should exist everywhere. Fire and rescue services should be well equipped.

The SPD wants the water supply to remain in public hands. It supports returning strategic areas of basic public services to municipal ownership where this makes economic and structural sense.

Water should belong to the state or the towns. Private companies should not take over the water supply. Towns can buy back important services. The SPD will help if it makes sense.

The SPD wants to develop the municipal code further and make public participation in local decisions the norm. Advisory councils and participation tools are to be strengthened, and conditions for local elected officials improved.

People should have more say in their town. The SPD wants to strengthen advisory councils. These are groups that advise local politicians. There should also be more citizen budgets. There, citizens help decide how money is spent.

The SPD wants to keep the justice system well staffed and continue its digitization. This is meant to make proceedings simpler and faster while keeping them sound under the rule of law.

The SPD wants enough staff at courts and prosecutors' offices. Working there should stay attractive. Courts should work more digitally. This should make cases go faster.

The SPD wants to make sure no one gives up a court case because of the cost, and to expand protection for victims. This includes a federal-level initiative to allow contact rights with children to be suspended when one parent is the victim of the other.

The SPD wants everyone to be able to go to court. Money should not stand in the way. Victims of crime should be better protected. They should get compensation more easily.

The SPD wants to keep implementing the state's action plan against antisemitism and protect Jewish life. It also wants to continue its exchange with the churches and with other religious and secular communities.

The SPD wants to protect Jewish people in the state. There is a plan against hatred of Jews. The SPD wants to keep working on this plan. It also wants to keep talking with churches and other faith groups.