What do the parties in Lower Saxony say on the economy?

The AfD demands immediate state payments for businesses that suffered losses from COVID measures. For future restrictions, income protection and full compensation should be set up from the start, especially for small businesses and the self-employed.

Many businesses lost money during COVID. The AfD wants the state to pay for these losses. This should apply above all to small businesses. If there are new restrictions, help should come right away.

The AfD wants Lower Saxony to keep its full stake in the VW/Porsche group. It justifies this with the importance of large industrial companies for jobs in the state.

The state of Lower Saxony owns part of Volkswagen. The AfD wants this to stay that way. The state should not sell any shares. The AfD says the big companies secure many jobs.

The AfD wants to reorganize the chambers of commerce and industry and the chambers of crafts. Official tasks such as training and expert certification would stay with levy-funded chambers, while lobbying and services would become voluntary.

Today, businesses must be members of a chamber. The AfD wants to change that. The chambers should still set rules for job training. For other chamber services, membership should be voluntary. Then only those who want to join will pay.

The AfD wants to attract companies and founders to rural areas with incentives and to make broadband expansion a top priority. The state should do more to promote tourism, which the party says should take precedence over wind and solar installations.

The AfD wants more jobs in the countryside. Companies should get benefits when they move there. Fast internet should reach everywhere quickly. The state should do more for tourism in Lower Saxony. Tourism should matter more than wind turbines and solar plants.

The CDU wants to help businesses find skilled workers and bundle the measures in the Fachkräfteinitiative Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony skilled labor initiative). The platform points to the gap that retiring baby boomers will leave in the labor market.

Many older workers will retire soon. Then skilled workers will be missing. The CDU wants to help companies find them. The state should watch closely which jobs are needed.

The CDU wants to make Lower Saxony Germany's leading state for start-ups and innovation and plans a statewide innovation and transfer strategy for this. It is meant to align the many players behind shared goals and allocate resources within a strategic framework.

The CDU wants many new ideas to come from Lower Saxony. There should be one shared plan for this. Universities, companies and trades should work together. A new agency should support new tech companies.

The CDU wants to set up innovation regions where new solutions can be tested with fewer regulatory requirements. Deviations from legal standards are also to be allowed there.

The CDU wants special regions for new ideas. Fewer rules should apply there. This makes it easier to try new things. Examples are transport, energy and health care.

The CDU wants to make it easier to start a business through less red tape, faster procedures and more venture capital. Lower Saxony is to become the German state where the legal steps of founding a company take the least time.

The CDU wants people to start a company more easily. There should be less paperwork. Procedures should be faster. New companies should also get money more easily.

The CDU wants to pool the state's high-tech expertise and target funding at specific research fields. These include quantum technology, artificial intelligence, high-performance computing and aerospace.

The CDU wants to fund research on new technology more. This includes quantum technology and artificial intelligence. It also includes aviation and space. Researchers in the state should work together more closely.

The CDU wants to strengthen the state-owned NBank as the central development bank and expand funding considerably. The bank is to offer advice and financing from a single source and provide venture capital, because the program sees a market gap for it in Lower Saxony.

NBank is the development bank of the state of Lower Saxony. The CDU wants to make this bank stronger. It should advise companies and give them money. It should also fund risky new business ideas. For this, the bank should get more staff and more money from the state.

The CDU wants to support small and mid-sized companies with a grant program of €250 million over two years. It justifies this with the pressure that the crises of recent years have put on these firms and on business start-ups.

The CDU wants to help small and mid-sized companies. There should be 250 million euros over two years for this. About 25,000 companies could get money this way. Companies should also get more money for staff training. Applying for support should be simple and digital.

The CDU wants to keep the start-up bonus and the master craftsman bonus in the skilled trades and extend the start-up bonus to solo self-employed people. At the same time, the trades are to be relieved of red tape. The program calls the skilled trades a pillar of mid-sized business and of dual vocational training.

The CDU wants to support the skilled trades. People who start or take over a trade business should keep getting a bonus. The bonus for the master craftsman certificate should stay too. The state should pay more for the training centers of the trades. Businesses should have less paperwork.

The CDU wants to back brick-and-mortar retail, which it considers necessary for lively town centers and for supply in rural areas. It plans a new state program for town and village centers, help with digitalization, and legally secure rules for Sunday openings.

The CDU wants to help shops in town centers. Towns and villages should get money from the state for this. Shops should get help with going digital. The CDU also wants to change the law on Sunday opening. Sunday should stay protected.

The CDU wants to keep Lower Saxony an industrial state and secure its value chains and jobs. It relies on fast permits, low energy prices, and support for the shift to Industry 4.0. Companies are also expected to contribute to meeting climate targets.

The CDU wants Lower Saxony to stay an industrial state. Jobs in industry should be safe. Companies should get permits quickly. Energy should be reliable and cheap. The state should support change in industry with money.

The CDU wants to keep the VW law, which secures the state of Lower Saxony special influence at Volkswagen, and to preserve and expand the company's sites in the state. It wants to shape the auto industry's shift to climate-friendly mobility so that it succeeds economically and is socially acceptable.

Volkswagen is the biggest company in Lower Saxony. The CDU wants to keep the VW law. This law gives the state a say at Volkswagen. The plants in Lower Saxony should stay and grow. The state should also support charging stations and battery factories.

The CDU wants to make Lower Saxony more attractive to aerospace companies and bring such firms to the state. Hannover Airport is to be secured economically and made greener through funding projects, without additional night flights. The research airport in Braunschweig is to be expanded.

The CDU wants more aircraft and space companies in the state. Hannover Airport should get money for new projects. There should be no extra night flights for this. The airport in Braunschweig should get more money for research.

The CDU wants to increase support for tourism in Lower Saxony, focusing on sustainability and adaptation to climate change rather than just higher overnight-stay figures. It plans a new funding program, more offerings inland, and specific measures for the islands and the coast.

The CDU wants to spend more money on tourism. Guests should come all year round. Tourism should be kind to the environment. The islands should get their own contact person. Tourism workers should be able to find affordable homes.

The CDU wants to allow private partners to take part in state-owned holdings because, in its view, this often increases efficiency. The NBank, the state's development bank, is to remain profitable, and savings banks and cooperative banks are to stay on a stable footing. In addition, an initiative is to strengthen Lower Saxony as a financial and stock exchange location.

The state owns shares in companies. The CDU wants to let private partners join in. The state's development bank should keep making a profit. Savings banks and cooperative banks should stay stable. Lower Saxony should grow as a place for banks and the stock exchange.

The Greens want to link the energy and port industries and back a green harbor strategy as well as port cooperation among the northern German states. Offshore wind is to be expanded further, and importing green gases is meant to secure jobs and value creation in the region.

The Greens want to make ports greener. The northern states should work together on their ports. More wind turbines should stand at sea. Climate-friendly gas should come into the country through the ports. This should bring jobs.

The Greens want no new cars with fossil-fuel combustion engines to be registered from 2030 at the latest. The state is to use its stake in Volkswagen more actively to promote the shift to a mobility company. According to the program, Lower Saxony should become a pioneer of climate-friendly mobility.

The Greens want no new gasoline or diesel cars from 2030. The state owns part of VW. It should use this influence more. VW should build more electric cars.

The Greens want to steer structural change in the auto industry and its suppliers through government industrial and regional policy. Companies are to receive investment aid, loan guarantees and training programs. Workers are to be financially secure during further training, and more companies are to pay collectively agreed wages.

Electric cars mean some jobs will go away. The Greens want new jobs to come to the same places. Companies should get money and loan guarantees for this. Workers should be secure during further training.

The Greens want to launch a large training and retraining initiative together with the skilled trades. The platform argues that trade businesses are needed for building renovation, renewable energy, housing construction and digital networks, and that many apprenticeship positions remain unfilled.

The Greens want more skilled workers in the trades. They plan a big program for training and retraining. Apprenticeships should become more attractive. The platform says the trades are important for climate protection.

The Greens want to set up a capital fund for sustainable and innovative start-ups to close gaps in seed funding. In addition, private venture capital is to be mobilized, and the state is to be able to take temporary stakes in young companies.

New companies need money to get started. The Greens want to create a fund for this. A fund is a pot of money for a set purpose. Private investors should join in too. The state should be able to become a part owner for a while.

The Greens want to make tourism in Lower Saxony more sustainable and nature-oriented and to fund tourism regions on a lasting basis. The platform sees trends such as domestic vacations, sustainability and regional focus as opportunities for the sector.

Many people vacation in Lower Saxony. The Greens want this tourism to be gentle on nature. Tourist towns should get reliable money from the state. Getting there by bus and train should become more attractive.

The Greens want to strengthen value creation in the regions through pilot projects for regional economic cycles. This is meant to benefit rural areas, small and mid-sized businesses and sustainability. According to the platform, profits then stay local and regions become less dependent on global crises.

The Greens want to strengthen the economy in the regions. Goods should travel short distances. The money should stay in the region. The Greens will fund pilot projects for this. This should help rural areas and small companies most.

The Greens consider gross domestic product alone unsuitable for measuring economic success. They want to introduce pilot projects for common-good balance sheets that show how companies affect society and the environment. Private firms are to get funding for such a balance sheet where needed.

The Greens want to measure economic success differently. It should not only be about growth. Companies should also show what they do for the environment and society. This is called a common-good balance sheet. The Greens want to try this out in projects.

The Greens want to gear EU and state funding programs for urban and rural areas toward social and ecological transformation. Funding that runs against environmental and climate goals would be dropped. Applications would become simpler and more digital.

The state and the EU give money to regions. The Greens want to use this money for climate protection and social services. Things that harm the climate should get no more money. Applying should become easier.

The SPD wants economic and industrial policy to focus more on innovation. Companies, especially mid-sized firms and skilled trades, are to work more closely with universities, and there are to be more start-up centers.

The SPD wants to support new ideas in business. Companies should work more closely with universities. Universities should get more centers for new companies. People who start a company should get help. The topic should already come up in school.

The SPD wants to turn the state-owned NBank from a development bank into an investment bank and create an innovation fund. The state is to invest alongside companies in infrastructure, research and transformation.

The SPD wants to change NBank. NBank is the state's development bank. In the future it should put money into important future fields itself. For this it should get more money. There should also be a fund for new ideas.

The SPD wants jobs lost in combustion-engine production to be replaced by new jobs making electric motors, battery cells and other components. More sites for battery cell production are to become possible.

Many people in Lower Saxony work in the car industry. In the future, cars will run on electricity. The SPD wants new jobs to come from this change. More battery factories should be built. Workers should get further training.

The SPD wants to expand Lower Saxony's seaports and keep them reachable for large ships. Priority goes to deepening the lower Weser up to Brake and the outer Ems.

The SPD wants to expand the ports on the coast. Large ships should be able to reach the ports. For this, the rivers Weser and Ems should become deeper in certain places. New berths for ships should be built in the ports.

The SPD wants to support city and town centers with funding programs because retail is retreating in many places and leaving vacancies. In the program's view, centers should become greener and livelier and offer more than shops.

Shops are closing in many city centers. The SPD wants to help cities with money. Poor cities should have to pay less themselves. City centers should become greener. There should be more leisure and culture there.

The SPD wants to expand the state's startup initiative and add a growth fund. Founder stipends are to run longer, and more women are to start companies.

The SPD wants more support for young companies. There will be a new fund for this. Stipends for founders should last ten months. More women should start companies.