What do the parties in North Rhine-Westphalia say on digital affairs?

The AfD wants to promote fiber to the user, close all mobile dead zones, and digitize public services along the lines of Estonia. At the same time, it opposes digital surveillance and wants in-person contact with agencies and cash payment to remain possible.

The AfD wants fast internet everywhere. There should be no more mobile dead zones. Public offices should offer more online. But people should still be able to go in person. The AfD is against surveillance on the internet.

The CDU wants to keep investing heavily in digital networks, innovation and start-ups. The state itself should also make greater use of digital tools to work faster and more efficiently.

The CDU wants to spend a lot on fast internet. New ideas and new companies should also get money. Government offices should work more digitally. That should make them faster.

The CDU wants to better protect children and teenagers online through education, media literacy, and technical requirements. Secure age-verification systems are to be developed and then made binding for all providers. Smaller networks would also have to take protective measures.

The CDU wants to protect children better online. Children, parents, and teachers should learn more about the dangers. Providers should check users' age in a secure way. For the CDU, clicking a button is not enough. Small networks should also have to protect children.

The CDU wants full gigabit internet coverage across the state and to close the remaining mobile dead zones. 5G is to be available almost everywhere by the end of 2024, and the gigabit master plan is to be completed by 2025.

The CDU wants very fast internet everywhere. The cell phone network should also be good everywhere. By the end of 2024 there should be 5G almost everywhere. 5G is a fast cell phone network.

The CDU wants to make North Rhine-Westphalia a leading location for quantum computing and artificial intelligence. To that end, 50 new professorships are to be created in each field, existing research centers expanded and cybersecurity research strengthened.

The CDU wants more research on new computer technology. This includes quantum computers and artificial intelligence. There should be 100 new professorships for this. Research on internet security should also grow.

The CDU wants to digitize public administration so that people can handle official business from home. One app is to bundle all citizen services in the state, and administrative services are to be available digitally around the clock.

The CDU wants to make government offices digital. People should no longer have to go to an office. They should do everything with an app on their phone. The app should be easy and safe.

The CDU wants to organize the state administration in a more digital and decentralized way. Agencies are to get branch locations across the state, especially in rural areas, and clear rules are to be set for working from home.

The CDU wants public offices to work more digitally. State offices should also have small sites in the countryside. There should be clear rules for working from home. The staff should have a say.

The FDP wants full recognition of esports and to classify it legally as a charitable (nonprofit) purpose. Clubs should also be able to use digital tools to simplify their administration.

Esports means competing in computer games. The FDP wants to treat esports as a nonprofit activity. Clubs then get advantages for it. Clubs should also be able to run their paperwork digitally.

The FDP wants to designate selected regions as digital freedom zones with especially favorable conditions. This is meant to encourage new clusters in technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain. Existing clusters are to be expanded and linked through an innovation and transformation agency.

The FDP wants special regions for digital technology. It calls them digital freedom zones. Conditions there should be especially good. Companies and researchers should work closely together there. An agency should connect everything.

The FDP wants to introduce electronic case files at all courts and prosecutors' offices and expand video hearings. Artificial intelligence and legal tech are to support the justice system, while final decisions stay with humans.

Courts should work with digital files instead of paper. Hearings should be possible by video more often. Computer programs should help the justice system with its work. But in the end, people still decide.

The FDP wants a digital-first principle for all public administration services. Every contact with an agency should also be possible online, and a digital citizen portal should bundle access.

The FDP wants people to be able to do all government paperwork online. There should be a right to this. People should rarely have to go to an office in person. An online portal for citizens should help with this.

Citizens and businesses should have to submit standard data to public agencies only once. The FDP wants to prevent digitalization from becoming a burden through repeated data entry.

The FDP wants to introduce a guarantee. People should give their data to the government only once. After that, agencies should share the data with each other. This should save time and paperwork.

The FDP wants to use blockchain, artificial intelligence and large cloud services in public administration. A hyperscaler data center should be located in North Rhine-Westphalia and serve as the central hub of the nationwide government cloud.

The FDP wants to use new technology in government offices. This includes artificial intelligence and blockchain. A very large data center should come to North Rhine-Westphalia. Government data should be stored safely there.

The FDP wants to regulate how public agencies handle data they collect with drones. Rules on storage and deletion are meant to protect personal data and privacy.

Government agencies sometimes use drones with cameras. They may film people while doing so. The FDP wants rules for this. The rules should say how long data is kept and when it is deleted.

The FDP wants effective data protection for private individuals and businesses and more awareness of it in society. At the same time, data protection rules from the analog era should not hinder digital services.

The FDP wants to protect private data well. This applies to people and to companies. But the rules should not block new digital services. Each person should decide about their own data.

The FDP wants to make digital solutions from the model regions and central state services available to every city and town. Municipalities should be able to keep using online services on state portals free of charge after 2022.

Some regions have tested new digital services. The FDP wants to bring these services to all cities and towns. Towns should keep using the state's online services for free. By 2025, everyone should notice the digital administration.

The FDP wants to go beyond mere online access and supports a federal law on fully digital processing of government services. With artificial intelligence, services are to be delivered entirely automatically.

Today people can file some applications online. The FDP wants more: the office should handle the whole process digitally. Computers should do many tasks on their own. Staff then have time for other work.

The FDP wants to merge the fragmented landscape of public IT providers in North Rhine-Westphalia into one overall solution. A cross-ministry digital agency is meant to expand the digital check for new legislation.

North Rhine-Westphalia has many different public IT providers. The FDP wants to bring them together better. A new digital agency should advise the ministries. The ministries must use this advice.

The FDP wants to complete the gigabit broadband rollout in every part of the state by 2025 and close remaining gaps in mobile coverage. The aim is equal access and an end to locational disadvantages for rural areas.

The FDP wants fast internet everywhere in the state. The rollout should be finished by 2025. Cell phone coverage should also work well everywhere. This should help villages and rural businesses most.

The Greens want to use digital technology for climate protection while aligning it with climate neutrality and sustainability. Public administration is to lead with a green IT strategy, and fast internet is to be expanded only with fiber optics and 5G.

Computers and the internet should help protect the climate. But they should use little energy themselves. State offices should use climate-friendly technology. New fast internet should come only through fiber and 5G. Old devices should be recycled.

The Greens want to connect every household in NRW to fiber and 5G by 2030 at the latest. Permits are to be issued faster and the rollout is to receive targeted funding. Public facilities are to get free Wi-Fi.

Internet in NRW is often still slow. The Greens want fast internet everywhere by 2030. Permits should be issued faster. Public buildings should have free Wi-Fi.

The Greens want all dealings with public authorities to be available digitally as well, with services that are accessible, easy to understand and multilingual. Municipalities are to receive advice and funding for digitalization. No one is to be excluded from digital services, and in-person contact at offices is to remain.

People should be able to do all official business online too. The services should be easy to understand. Older people should get help using the internet. Anyone who wants can still go to the office in person.

The Greens want more support for digitalization research and for developing digital solutions in NRW, to reduce dependence on non-European providers. AI research would receive considerably more funding, and science would move toward open science.

The Greens want more research on digital technology in NRW. Artificial intelligence in particular should get more money. The technology should protect data and use little energy. Research results should be open to everyone.

The Greens want to simplify administrative procedures and offer them digitally by default without ending in-person contact. The E-Government Act is to apply to municipalities as well, and new ways of working are to be tested in pilot agencies.

Dealing with public offices is often complicated. The Greens want people to handle almost everything online. In-person appointments should stay. The state should help towns with the technology. Some offices should try out new ways of working.

The Greens want to enshrine high standards for IT security and data protection at state and municipal agencies in law. An information access law is to require public bodies to publish their information proactively in open, machine-readable form.

Public offices store a lot of important data. The Greens want a law to protect this data better. Offices should also publish much information on their own. This does not apply to data about individual people. Everyone should be able to use this information.

The SPD promises that the entire state will have access to very fast internet within five years. In mobile service, 5G is to become the standard everywhere.

The SPD wants fast internet for all of North Rhine-Westphalia. This should be done in five years. No place should be left out. For mobile phones, 5G should be normal everywhere.

The SPD wants to digitalize public administration faster so that all services for residents are available online. It also wants to promote open-source software and municipal platforms and invest heavily in IT security research.

The SPD wants government offices to be more digital. People should be able to handle all their requests online. The state should help local staff with the change. The SPD also wants to spend a lot on research into secure computer technology.

The SPD wants to make state and municipal administration more digital and to present a master plan at the start of the legislative term. The party wants North Rhine-Westphalia to be a digital model for Germany by 2030. Digital services should be easy for everyone to use without shutting out people who cannot or do not want to use them.

The SPD wants public offices to offer more services online. There would be one big plan for this. By 2030 the state should be a role model on this. People who cannot or do not want to go online should still be able to visit an office.

The SPD wants to counter disinformation and hate speech online mainly through better media literacy for all age groups. Search engines and social networks are to be regulated more closely through the Interstate Media Treaty in order to protect diversity of opinion.

The SPD wants to make the internet safer. Everyone should learn how to use media well. Then people can spot false news more easily. Search engines and social networks should get more rules. Children should be better protected online.