What do the parties in Lower Saxony say on democracy and the state?

The AfD wants to expand direct democracy at the state and local level and lower the thresholds for popular initiatives, petitions for a referendum, and referendums. The platform considers the current rules ineffective because the thresholds are so high.

The AfD wants more public votes in Lower Saxony. Fewer signatures should be needed. Citizens should also be able to vote on budget questions. Switzerland is the model.

The AfD wants to expand municipal self-government and keep tasks at the lowest possible level. In the platform's view, municipalities are increasingly being overruled by the state, the federal government, and the EU.

The AfD wants towns to decide more on their own. The state, the federal government and the EU should set fewer rules. Citizens should have a say locally. Small groups in local councils should get more rights again.

The AfD wants a strict separation of the three branches of government. Members of the government would no longer be lawmakers at the same time, and parties would lose their influence over appointing judges and prosecutors.

The AfD wants to clearly separate government, parliament and courts. Ministers should not also vote in parliament. Parties should no longer pick judges. Prosecutors should not take orders from politicians.

The AfD wants voters in state elections to be able to pile up votes on candidates and split them across lists, as in local elections. Lawmakers elected via party lists would serve no more than four terms.

The AfD wants to change how the state parliament is elected. Voters should be able to spread votes across single candidates. Lawmakers from party lists should stay for four terms at most. Fewer civil servants should sit in parliament.

The AfD wants to limit public funding of parties and reduce the number of state lawmakers. In the party's view, parliament must not serve to provide for party members.

The AfD wants parties to get less money from the state. The state parliament should become smaller. Voters should decide on lawmakers' pay.

The AfD wants all jobs in the civil service and in publicly controlled companies to be advertised openly. Party membership, gender, age, and ethnicity should play no part in the selection.

The AfD wants the state to advertise all its jobs openly. Everyone should be able to check the selection. An applicant's party should not matter. Gender, age and origin should not count either.

The AfD wants to curb the influence of interest groups on state lawmakers and introduce stricter anti-corruption rules. Secret ballots in the state parliament would also become possible to prevent enforced party-line voting.

The AfD wants lobby groups to have less influence on lawmakers. Lawmakers should disclose their side jobs. Secret votes should be possible in the state parliament. That way lawmakers can decide freely.

The AfD wants new laws to apply only for a limited time at first. Only after a review of whether they work and are proportionate could they be passed permanently.

The AfD wants new laws to apply only for a set time at first. Then someone should check whether they work. Only then should they apply for good. This should keep government simpler.

The AfD wants to bind public authorities to fixed deadlines: if an office does not decide in time, an application would count as approved automatically. Rules are also to be reviewed and scrapped, planning procedures shortened and the administration further digitized.

Public offices often take a long time to decide. The AfD wants fixed deadlines for offices. If an office misses the deadline, the request counts as approved. Many rules should go. Offices should work more digitally.

The AfD wants fewer administrative levels and agencies in Lower Saxony and wants to abolish the Ministry for Federal and European Affairs and Regional Development. Municipalities are to gain more autonomy, and responsibility for grants is to be clearly assigned.

The AfD wants fewer public offices in Lower Saxony. One ministry should be closed completely. It deals with Europe and the regions. Towns and cities should decide more on their own.

The AfD wants state agencies to no longer be led by political appointees. Positions in the public service should be filled on qualifications alone.

Some heads of public offices get their job through politics. The AfD wants to end this. Only skill should count. Party, gender or origin should play no role.

Municipal companies that provide basic public services should only be privatized if local citizens agree. Any privatization should also be time-limited or reversible.

Some town-owned companies serve everyone, for example with water. The AfD wants local citizens to decide on any sale. A sale should only last for a set time. Or the town should be able to take the company back.

The AfD wants to change assembly law so that counter-demonstrations may no longer take place in the immediate vicinity of political events. Anyone taking part in blockades or violent demonstrations should face noticeable punishment.

The AfD wants to change the law on protests. Counter-protests should not be close to a political event. People there should not see or hear them. People who join blockades should be punished hard.

The AfD wants political parties to have no more influence on appointing judges and prosecutors. The judiciary would govern itself more, through a judicial selection committee and a judicial administration council.

The AfD wants independent judges and prosecutors. Parties should have no say in choosing them. Only ability and performance should count. The courts should manage themselves more.

The AfD wants to require out-of-court dispute resolution for claims under 600 euros before a case can go to the local court. The aim is to ease the burden on courts of first instance.

For small disputes under 600 euros, people should first go to a mediator. A mediator tries to settle the dispute without a court. Only after that can people sue. This should give the courts less work.

The AfD wants to hire considerably more staff for courts, prosecutors' offices and prisons and to digitalize the justice system. This is meant to speed up proceedings and ensure crimes are punished promptly.

The AfD wants to hire more judges and prosecutors. Prisons should get more staff too. Courts should work more with computers. This should make cases go faster.

The AfD rejects any mitigation of sentences on grounds of religion, culture or ideology and wants parallel justice to be prosecuted. There should be no settling of conflicts under Sharia in Lower Saxony. The party also rejects state treaties with Islamic associations.

The AfD wants only German law to apply to everyone. Religion or culture should not make sentences lighter. Sharia is Islamic law. It should play no role in Lower Saxony. The state should not sign treaties with Islamic associations.

The CDU wants to review the tasks and structures of the state administration comprehensively and draw up a target organization called "Niedersächsische Verwaltung 2030" (Lower Saxony Administration 2030). Tasks it considers dispensable are to be dropped. The background is that almost 30 percent of staff will retire over the next ten years.

The CDU wants to rebuild the state's administration. It wants to check which tasks are needed. Tasks that are not needed will be dropped. The reason: almost 30 percent of staff will retire within ten years. The administration should still work well.

The CDU wants to fully enforce the Konnexitätsprinzip, the principle that whoever assigns tasks to municipalities must pay for them. Funding programs for municipalities are to become simpler and clearer. The platform argues that legal entitlements, benefit laws and complex funding programs increasingly restrict municipalities.

The CDU wants to strengthen towns and cities. Whoever gives towns new tasks should also pay for them. Funding programs should become simpler. Awarding public contracts should become easier too.

The CDU wants to extend the term of full-time mayors and county heads to eight years to ensure continuity at the top of local administrations. It also wants to ease the burden on local council members and help municipalities recruit staff.

Mayors and county heads should stay in office for eight years. The CDU says local offices need steady leadership. Council members should be able to join meetings by video more often. Towns should get help finding staff.

The CDU wants the injustices of the East German SED regime to be examined further in Lower Saxony as well, and wants the state to do more for the victims. It argues that many of those affected still suffer from the effects of imprisonment, flight and repression.

The East German state treated many people unjustly. Many still suffer from this today. The CDU wants to help these people more. It wants the injustice to be studied further.

The CDU wants to give volunteers better legal protection and reduce administrative work for associations. A framework contract between the state and an insurer is to cover liability and legal risks. Advice, training and volunteer agencies are also to be expanded across the state.

The CDU wants to protect volunteers better. The state should buy insurance for them. Clubs should have less paperwork. There should be offices everywhere that give advice on volunteering.

The CDU wants to expand the Ehrenamtskarte (volunteer card) and merge it with the sports volunteer card. Holders are to get a bonus on local public transport. Volunteer work is also to count toward the waiting time for a university place.

The volunteer card gives benefits to people who volunteer. The CDU wants to improve this card. There should be just one card for everyone. The card should make buses and trains cheaper. Volunteering should also help when waiting for a university place.

The CDU wants to strengthen the Landeszentrale für politische Bildung (state agency for civic education) and give it more presence across the state. People in volunteer political roles are to keep receiving support and be protected from attacks. The platform points to threats to freedom and democracy from authoritarian trends in many countries.

The CDU wants more civic education in Lower Saxony. The state agency for it should get stronger and work in more places. There should be apps and suitable information for children and teens. People who volunteer in politics should be protected from attacks.

The Greens want core public services, including hospitals, to be run by municipalities. A remunicipalization fund is meant to help financially weak municipalities in particular bring such services back under public ownership. The platform justifies this with democratic oversight and service quality.

Towns and cities should run important services themselves. These include power supply and hospitals. The Greens want to set up a fund for this. Poor towns can apply for money from it. Then they can buy services back from private companies.

The Greens want to create at least one more non-religious public holiday in Lower Saxony, since the state has fewer holidays than many other German states. The platform names March 8, May 8 and May 9 as possible dates.

Lower Saxony has fewer public holidays than many other states. The Greens want at least one new holiday. It should not be a church holiday. Options are Women's Day, the day World War II ended, or Europe Day.

The Greens want to lower the voting age to 14 and write children's rights into the state constitution. According to the platform, too many decisions are made without children and at their expense.

The Greens want young people to vote from age 14. Children's rights should be written in the state constitution. Children should also have more say in their town. New laws should be checked for what they mean for children.

The Greens want to simplify access to justice, keep all court locations and digitize the judiciary. Online hearings and digital procedures for small claims are to become possible.

The Greens want people to get justice more easily. All courts in the state should stay open. The courts should work digitally. Hearings should also be possible online. People should be able to sue for small sums easily online.

Following Berlin's example, the Greens want to create an on-call judge service that can be reached at any time, for instance for deportations and house searches. In addition, courts are to cooperate more closely, and the specialized prosecutors' offices are to be reviewed and reorganized.

The Greens want judges to be reachable day and night. This matters for deportations or searches of homes. Courts should work together better. The state should check where special prosecutors' offices make sense.

The Greens want to recruit more and more diverse new staff for the justice system, including more lawyers with a migration background. Access to judgeships should not depend on exam grades alone, and conditions for staff in the courts and prisons are to improve.

Many people in the justice system will retire soon. The Greens want to win new staff. More people with immigrant roots should become judges. Not only the exam grade should count. Prison staff should get better pay.

The Greens aim to separate church and state financially and institutionally and to end the state's regular payments to the churches through a final settlement. The ban on dancing on certain Christian holidays and the rule that urns must be buried in cemeteries are to go, while treaties with Islamic religious communities are to be concluded.

The Greens want to separate church and state more. The state should end its regular payments to the churches. The ban on dancing on some holidays should go. Urns would no longer have to go to a cemetery. There should be agreements with Islamic communities.

The Greens want a state law on promoting democracy that gives civil society initiatives lasting support. The platform argues that a democracy can only withstand right-wing extremism and conspiracy narratives through ongoing education and awareness work.

The Greens want a new law for Lower Saxony. It should help groups that work for democracy. These groups should get money for the long term. The domestic intelligence agency should not check them without a reason.

The Greens want a transparency law that gives everyone access to official information held by public bodies. The platform sees this as a precondition for the public to be able to scrutinize government action.

Public offices hold a lot of information. The Greens want a transparency law. Then everyone can get this information. Public offices should also share more information on their own.

The Greens want to improve conditions for volunteer work through a volunteering strategy. Initiatives and associations are to get support structures and reliably funded paid staff. The platform argues that a democratic society depends on volunteers.

Many people in Lower Saxony volunteer. The Greens want to make their work easier. Clubs and groups should get paid staff to help them. There should be more places in volunteer service programs. Volunteers should get benefits, such as cheaper public transit.

The Greens want cities, towns and counties to receive enough money for their tasks and want the state to represent their interests at the federal level. State agencies are to advise municipalities in a more targeted way on the path to climate neutrality.

Cities and towns have many tasks. The Greens want them to get enough money for this. The state should speak up for them with the federal government. State experts should advise towns on climate protection.

The Greens want to hand additional powers to municipalities and expand direct democracy at the local level. According to the platform, this strengthens people's right to decide for themselves where they live.

Towns should decide more things themselves. One example is speed limits on their streets. Citizens should also vote directly more often. This should include building plans.

The Greens want to reverse the rule adopted by the SPD and CDU for filling committees in local councils. The D'Hondt method would be replaced by one that takes smaller groups into account more fairly.

Local councils have committees. Seats there are shared out by a counting rule. Today's rule helps large groups. The Greens want a rule that is fairer to small groups too.

The Greens want considerably more people from disadvantaged groups to sit on local councils. At the same time, local politicians should be better protected against threats, and holding a seat should be easier to combine with family life.

Local councils should include more different kinds of people. One example is people with a migration background. The Greens want to protect local politicians better from threats. Someone who is sick or has a baby should be able to have a stand-in.

The Greens want to support cities and towns that work together more closely, including across state and national borders. According to the platform, this relieves local administrations and makes better use of regional opportunities.

Towns should work together more. This also applies across borders. The Greens want to support this with money and help. Then local offices have less work.

The Greens want to attract more staff to the administration through better pay, flexible working models and easier lateral entry. The platform cites the shortage of skilled workers and the retirement of the baby-boom generation as the reason.

The state lacks skilled workers in its offices. The Greens want to make these jobs more attractive. This includes good pay and working from home. People from other jobs should also find it easier to join.

The SPD wants to strengthen the public sector as an employer in order to attract and keep skilled staff. This includes good pay, more training, investment in buildings and an entitlement to educational leave for civil servants.

The SPD wants more people to enjoy working for the state. Pay should be good. There should be more training. Civil servants should get up to five days off a year for education.

The SPD wants to examine, together with municipalities, how processes between them and the state can be made simpler. The state is also to enable municipalities to invest in social issues of the future.

The SPD wants less red tape between the state and local governments. Local governments should more often get money as a fixed sum. Then they need to file fewer applications. Small municipalities should get simpler rules.

The SPD wants to fund 14 partnerships across the state by 2027 in which cities and counties work together on innovative topics. The platform argues that individual municipalities cannot handle some tasks well on their own.

The SPD wants cities and counties to work together more. A program called "Zukunftsregionen" is meant for this. The state should fund 14 such partnerships by 2027. Some tasks are too big for one town alone.

The SPD wants to lower the voting age for state elections to 16. Children and young people are to have more say in schools, municipalities, and at the state level. The platform argues that young people should experience democracy firsthand.

Young people should be able to vote in state elections at 16. That is what the SPD wants. Young people should also have more say at school. Every town should let young people help decide. They should get their own budget for this.

The SPD wants to equip courts and prosecutors' offices better and raise staffing in all services to the full calculated need. The court structure across the state, especially small local courts, is to be preserved.

Courts and prosecutors should get more staff. The state should invest in justice buildings. Small local courts should stay. All courts should have checks at the entrance.

The SPD wants to expand electronic legal filing, electronic case files, artificial intelligence and video formats in the justice system. Administrative courts are to get dedicated panels for planning and permitting law so that cases on wind energy, for example, move faster.

The justice system should work more digitally. Files should be electronic. Computer programs should help with large cases. But judges should still decide. Special panels should handle lawsuits about building plans faster, for example for wind turbines.

The SPD wants to make the justice system more citizen-friendly and lower barriers, for instance through service desks, accessibility and digital legal application offices. It wants to defend access to justice, widen the Musterfeststellungsklage (model declaratory action) and strengthen mediation.

The justice system should be easier for citizens to reach. Courts should have service desks. People should be able to file requests digitally. Help with the cost of court cases should stay. Disputes should more often be settled without a ruling.

The SPD wants to introduce a state law to promote democracy and continue programs against extremism and antisemitism permanently. The platform names right-wing extremism and right-wing terrorism as the greatest current threats to democracy. Jewish institutions are to remain protected.

The SPD wants a new law for Lower Saxony. It should promote democracy. Programs against extremism and hatred of Jews should stay for good. Prevention should start in elementary school. Jewish institutions should keep getting protection.

The SPD wants to revive volunteer work after the COVID-19 pandemic. Plans include a coordination office in the state chancellery, a volunteering strategy, a pact with associations and municipalities, and more benefits for volunteers.

Many people help for free in clubs. The SPD wants to strengthen this volunteer work. There should be a new office in the state government. Volunteers should have less paperwork and more benefits. Youth leaders should get free courses.