What do the parties in Hesse say on the economy?

The AfD wants to protect competition by tightly limiting the business activities of cities and towns. The limits in the Hessian Municipal Code (HGO) should be strictly enforced. The state antitrust authority should also be adequately resourced.

The AfD wants fair competition between companies. Cities and towns should not run many businesses themselves. There are already rules for this. The AfD wants these rules to be followed strictly. The state antitrust office should have enough resources. It checks whether companies have too much power.

The AfD rejects the EU taxonomy and the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). In the party's view, these rules steer companies in a direction the state wants and lead to a kind of planned economy.

The EU has made rules for sustainable business. Companies have to write many reports for this. The AfD is against these rules. It says the state steers companies too much this way. It says this hurts prosperity.

The AfD wants broad deregulation, with rules reviewed and scrapped where necessary. Small businesses would be relieved of reporting and statistical duties and of labor-law requirements. The growth in public-sector staff would also be reversed.

The AfD wants fewer rules for companies. Laws that are not needed should go. Small businesses should have to write fewer reports. The administration should get smaller too. This should save money.

The AfD wants to check state funding programs systematically for results and cut money for ineffective projects. Independent expert panels should accompany the programs and help decide how grants are awarded.

The state of Hesse pays for many funding programs. The AfD wants to check whether these programs work. Programs that do not work should lose their money. Experts with no party ties should have a say.

The CDU wants to create a "Hessenfonds" (Hesse fund) to support new ideas across all industries. It also wants tax relief for newly founded businesses and more help for small and midsize firms going digital.

The CDU wants to set up a new fund. A fund is a pot of money. It will help companies with new ideas. New businesses should pay less tax. Small and midsize firms get more help with going digital.

The CDU wants to set up a commercial court in Frankfurt that hears business disputes in English. In addition, a new "Made in Hessen" concept is meant to raise the state's profile abroad.

The CDU wants a special court in Frankfurt. Companies can settle their disputes there in English. The CDU also wants to promote Hesse more abroad. This should bring workers and companies to Hesse.

The CDU wants to keep and expand key industries in the state, including carmaking, pharmaceuticals, mechanical engineering, heavy industry and aerospace. For the party, the car is part of mobility.

The CDU wants to strengthen key industries in Hesse. These include carmakers and drug companies. Machine builders and heavy industry should stay too. The space sector in Darmstadt should grow.

The CDU wants to strengthen city centers and retail with funding programs. Stores without staff are to be allowed to open on Sundays, and four Sunday openings without a special occasion are to be examined.

The CDU wants lively city centers. Funding for this should continue. Stores without staff should be allowed to open on Sundays. This should help rural areas most of all. The CDU will also look at four open Sundays a year.

The CDU wants to speed up and better support business start-ups. Founders should be able to set up within two days; this comes with more financing options and a continued start-up initiative.

The CDU wants to make starting a company easier. It should take just 48 hours. There should be more loans for founders. Women who start companies get their own funding program. Students should learn more about business.

The CDU wants a funding program that helps mainly small and medium-sized companies become more attractive employers. It adds skills camps for teenagers, the skilled-labor alliance and more employee ownership in companies.

The CDU wants to help small and medium-sized firms. The firms should become more attractive for workers. One example is housing for employees. Teenagers should get to know jobs in camps. Workers should be able to buy shares in their own firm.

The CDU wants to boost start-ups from universities and science with the ZusePower initiative, which gives every university ten euros per student. An innovation and founders' fund is to provide venture capital as well.

The CDU wants more students to start companies. Every university gets 10 euros per student for this. A new fund should give money to founders. In return the fund can get shares in the company. Founders should be better connected.

The CDU wants to create better economic conditions for the health and pharmaceutical industry in Hesse. In the program's view, medicine shortages can only be avoided with a strong industry and domestic production.

The CDU wants to strengthen drug companies in Hesse. They should get better conditions. Medicines should also be made here at home. This is how the CDU wants to prevent shortages of medicines.

The CDU wants to secure raw material deposits in Hessen for the long term, including fossil fuels. It rejects a special levy on extracting gravel, sand, and rock as well as a general water charge, arguing these would burden businesses and consumers.

Hessen has raw materials in the ground. The CDU wants to secure them for later. This includes natural gas and other fossil fuels. The CDU does not want a new charge on gravel, sand, or water. It says this would make things more expensive.

The CDU wants to strengthen tourism as an economic factor and above all keep inns and hotels in rural areas open. This includes funding programs, a family-friendliness label, further development of garden shows, and time-limited trials of new working-time models.

The CDU wants to strengthen tourism in Hesse. Country inns should not have to close. There should be funding for this. Hotels and restaurants should be allowed to try out new working hours. There should be a label for family-friendly businesses.

The CDU wants to overhaul planning and permitting law at all levels so that infrastructure and investment projects are built faster. Applications are to count as approved if the authority does not respond within a deadline. Procedures are to be fully digital.

The CDU wants faster permits for building projects. It wants to change the planning rules. If an office does not answer in time, the request counts as approved. The process should be digital.

The CDU wants noticeably fewer regulations at the end of the legislative term than at its start. To that end it is considering the "one in, two out" principle and pilot projects for "bureaucracy-free zones." Small and mid-sized businesses and the skilled trades are to help draw up a list of measures.

The CDU wants fewer rules in Hessen. For each new rule, two old ones should go if possible. The CDU is looking at test areas with very little red tape. Businesses and tradespeople should make suggestions.

The CDU wants to bring the European anti-money-laundering authority AMLA to Frankfurt and make Hesse an international leader in sustainable finance. Universities and training institutions for the finance sector are to be strengthened as well.

Frankfurt is an important place for banks and the stock exchange. The CDU wants a new EU agency against money laundering to come to Frankfurt. Hesse should also lead in sustainable investing. Training for finance jobs should get better.

The CDU wants European banking regulation to take savings banks and cooperative banks into account rather than being built around large banks. It is skeptical of a ban on commissions in investment advice and wants investors to keep the choice between commission-based and fee-based advice.

The EU makes rules for banks. The CDU says these rules often fit only big banks. Small banks and savings banks should get rules that fit them. Advisers should still be allowed to earn commissions. A commission is money paid for arranging a contract.

The CDU wants to expand Hesse's foreign trade, achieve more free trade and attract international companies. At the same time it expects the federal government to protect key companies and infrastructure from investments by autocratic states.

The CDU wants more trade with other countries. It wants new trade deals, for example with the US. More foreign companies should come to Hesse. Important companies should be protected from the influence of dictatorships.

The FDP wants to make it easier to found or take over a business and to turn Hesse into a stronger start-up location. Plans include a statewide founding strategy, more venture capital, more founder scholarships and an entrepreneurial culture in schools and universities.

The FDP wants more people to start a company. There should be more money and less red tape for this. Schools should teach about starting a business. People who take over an existing business should also get help.

The FDP wants to establish regional Centers of Innovation that combine start-up support, digitalization for small and midsize firms, and vocational education. They are meant to give young people outside the big urban areas prospects in new technologies.

The FDP wants new centers for ideas and technology. They should also be set up outside the big cities. Founders and small firms get help there. Trainees, skilled workers and students can learn there too.

The FDP wants to reduce bureaucratic requirements for founders and companies as far as possible and bundle contact with authorities in one place. The state audit office would regularly review laws and regulations for the red tape they cause.

Companies should have less paperwork. They should enter their data digitally only once. One contact point should guide them through the authorities. The state audit office should check laws. It should say what can be made simpler.

The FDP wants to make the Frankfurt-Rhine-Main financial center a priority of state policy. The headquarters of financial regulator BaFin would move from Bonn to Frankfurt, and the planned EU anti-money-laundering authority (AMLA) would be based there.

Frankfurt is an important place for banks. The FDP wants to strengthen this financial center. Germany's financial regulator should move from Bonn to Frankfurt. A new EU agency against money laundering should also come to Frankfurt.

The FDP wants to turn Frankfurt into a center for financial technology start-ups. It proposes a "German Tech Festival" modeled on Singapore's fintech event. It also wants euro clearing to take place in Frankfurt in the future.

The FDP wants more young finance companies in Frankfurt. It plans a big industry meeting there. It is called the "German Tech Festival." Founders, banks and investors would meet there.

The FDP wants to make Hesse Europe's most innovative industrial location. A new "House of Production" would bring business and science together to develop digital manufacturing technology. The chemical and pharmaceutical sector and research on autonomous vehicles would also get more support.

The FDP wants to strengthen industry in Hesse. Companies and researchers would work together in a new center. It is called the "House of Production." It deals with digital technology for factories. The pharma industry would also get more help.

The FDP wants the master craftsman title and the master's degree to be treated as equal and wants training for the former funded like a master's program. It calls for a master craftsman bonus at the level paid in Bavaria. It also wants to ease business succession in the trades and expand dual study programs across Hesse.

The FDP wants to strengthen the skilled trades. People training to become master craftsmen should get money from the state. The amount should match what Bavaria pays. There should also be more dual study programs. In these, people learn at a company and at a college.

The FDP calls for a clear commitment by the state to Messe Frankfurt. Existing trade fairs should stay in Frankfurt and new events should be won. New event formats should also be supported, as digital offerings are changing the trade fair business.

The FDP wants to strengthen the Frankfurt trade fair company. The state should clearly back it. Trade fairs should stay in Frankfurt. New fairs should also come.

The FDP wants to make Hesse's public procurement law simpler for mid-sized companies and remove bureaucratic hurdles. Additional state requirements such as a state minimum wage should not apply to public contracts. In the party's view, procurement law should be limited to ensuring fair competition.

The state gives contracts to companies. There are many rules for this. The FDP wants to make these rules simpler. Small and mid-sized companies should have an easier time. Hesse should not add its own extra rules, such as its own minimum wage.

The FDP wants to give tourism more weight in state policy and to concentrate responsibilities within the administration. Restaurant licensing law should contain fewer requirements so that investment pays off. In state planning, tourism interests should count for more, including relative to wind energy expansion.

The FDP wants to strengthen tourism in Hesse. Restaurants and inns should face fewer rules. Applying for funding should become easier. Wind turbines should not automatically matter more than tourism projects.

The FDP wants to change Hesse's shop opening law so that stores can reliably use the four permitted Sunday shopping days. To do so, the requirement that an opening be tied to a specific occasion would be removed. The party also wants to examine whether more Sunday shopping days are possible.

Stores in Hesse may open on four Sundays a year. Unclear rules often prevent this. The FDP wants to change the law. Then stores can safely open on these Sundays. The FDP will also check whether more Sundays are possible.

The FDP wants every university to have a start-up and innovation center. The aim is to make spin-offs easier, move research results into companies faster and let universities share more in patent revenue.

Every university should get a center for start-ups. Researchers get help there when they want to found a company. Research ideas should reach companies faster. Universities should earn money from their inventions.

The FDP wants to expand support for the creative industries in Hesse and clearly assign responsibilities within the state government. According to the platform, Hesse ranks near the bottom nationally on such support even though the sector is the state's third most important industry.

The creative industries include music, books, film and video games. The FDP wants to support this sector more. There should be clear contacts in the ministries. Founders should get advice and easier access to money.

The FDP supports open, rules-based world trade and free trade agreements such as CETA and the Mercosur deal. At the same time, excessive economic dependence on individual countries should be avoided or reduced so that the EU is more resilient in crises.

The FDP is for free trade between countries. It supports trade deals with Canada and with countries in South America. But Europe should not depend too much on single countries. Raw materials should come from more countries. Europe should also make more itself.

The FDP wants to bring a video game trade fair to Hesse, preferably to Frankfurt. It cites the importance of the industry and the software companies already based there.

The FDP wants a trade fair for video games in Hesse. Frankfurt would be the best place for it. Many companies from this industry are already there. The FDP thinks the industry is important.

The Greens want to set up a climate and transformation fund of at least €6 billion in the next legislative term. It is to pool and develop existing state programs. Support is to go mainly to small and mid-sized businesses and to municipalities for climate action.

The Greens want a big pot of money for climate action. It should hold at least 6 billion euros. The money helps small companies and towns protect the climate. This should keep jobs in Hesse.

The Greens want to secure Hesse as an industrial location and help companies move to climate-neutral business. Small and medium-sized companies are a particular focus.

The Greens want to keep industry in Hesse. Companies should get help to work in a climate-friendly way. Small and medium-sized companies should get special advice. Government offices should become digital and simpler.

The Greens want to make the Meisterbrief (master craftsman certificate) free of charge to lower financial barriers and counter the skills shortage. Bonuses are to support start-ups and business takeovers in the skilled trades.

The Greens want to strengthen the skilled trades. The master craftsman certificate should cost nothing. People who start or take over a business should get money. There should be a short training course for solar installers.

The Greens want to support start-ups that build on the region's strengths and on sustainability. Start-ups with measurable social or environmental impact are to get higher funding rates, and women are to gain easier access to start-up finance.

The Greens want to support new companies. Companies that help people or the environment should get more money. Women should find it easier to start a company. Hesse should be a good place for founders.

The Greens want to strengthen businesses committed to the common good, such as cooperatives and social enterprises. An impact strategy is to show how social innovation can advance in Hesse.

Some companies mainly want to help society. The Greens want to support such companies. They also want to support companies that avoid waste. Companies should get advice on new reporting duties.

The Greens want to help municipalities strengthen town centers and reduce vacancies through the "Lebendige Zentren" (lively centers) funding program. In rural areas, local supply is to be secured and regional value creation supported.

The Greens want lively town centers. Towns should get money for this. Empty shops should be used again. In the countryside, shops should be close to home.

The Greens want to strengthen tourism again after the slump caused by COVID-19 and raise the profile of the regions. Funding is to focus especially on compatibility with nature.

The Greens want more visitors to come to Hesse. Tourism should protect nature. There should be more advertising for Hesse. Trails for hiking and cycling should get better.

The Greens want to support businesses in the digital transition with funding programs and training. Existing programs for skilled trades and small and midsize firms are to be developed further, and a new one for IT security launched. Funding for the games industry is also to grow.

Companies should become more digital. The Greens want the state to give money for this. Small firms and craft businesses should get help. There should be a new program for safe computers. Companies that make video games should also get more support.

The SPD wants to create a transformation fund to financially support the restructuring of Hesse's economy. According to the program, this is meant to keep Hesse a strong location for industry and services with secure jobs and good wages.

The SPD wants a new pot of money for the economy. It is called the transformation fund. The money should help companies change. This should keep jobs in Hesse safe. Private investors should be able to join in.

The SPD wants to review the state's business subsidy system and reorganize it around social, innovative and sustainable criteria. The program describes current practice as confusing and inefficient. It adds subsidy guides, an active policy to attract companies and support for resource efficiency.

The SPD wants to check the support programs for companies. Then the state should reorganize them. Social goals and green goals should matter. Subsidy guides should advise companies. The state should bring new companies to Hesse.

The SPD wants to put new businesses and business successions at the center of its economic policy. By the end of the legislative term, founding a startup should be possible within 48 hours. Women founders would get targeted support.

The SPD wants to make it easier to start a company. A new company should be fully set up in 48 hours. Taking over an existing business should also get easier. Women should get special help when they start a company.

The SPD wants to develop a statewide industrial strategy and make a three-way industry dialogue with employer associations and unions the guiding principle of its economic policy. Regional transformation networks would get lasting support. The auto industry and its suppliers would receive help with their restructuring.

The SPD wants a plan for industry in all of Hesse. The state should talk with employers and unions about it. Regional networks should get lasting help from the state. The car industry should get support as it changes.

Under the label "Hessentempo" (Hesse speed), the SPD wants to accelerate planning and permitting procedures. The program sees faster modernization of infrastructure and industrial plants as key to prosperity and to preserving natural resources.

The SPD wants planning and permits to go faster. It calls this Hesse speed. Offices and courts should get more skilled staff. Applications to the state should become digital. Building projects should be finished sooner.

The SPD wants to fund projects that keep local shops open or help new ones start. The program treats lively town centers as essential to a livable state. Support would go mainly to sustainability-oriented offerings, local economic cycles and owner-run businesses.

The SPD wants to keep town centers lively. There should be money for local shops. Small owner-run shops should get help. Cooperatives in villages and neighborhoods should get help too. A cooperative is a business owned jointly by its members.

The SPD wants to make the state's co-funding of Hesse's tourism regions permanent and firmly anchored. Responsibilities for tourism would be pooled. The goal is higher-quality tourism in rural areas.

The SPD wants to strengthen tourism in Hesse. The state should keep helping to pay for vacation regions. There should be one fixed contact point for tourism. Tourism in the countryside especially should get better.

The SPD wants to expand links between research, companies and start-ups. To that end, Hesse is to get its own transfer agency modeled on the planned federal agency DATI. Companies are also to receive advice on EU funding.

Research should reach everyday use faster. The SPD wants a new office in Hesse for this. It should support networks in the regions. Companies should get advice on money from the EU. A visitor center for space travel should be built in Darmstadt.