What do the parties in Saarland say on the economy?

The AfD wants to support new businesses and business handovers with little red tape. The state of Saarland is to act as a venture capital provider and as a broker. The goal is to make Saarland Germany's leading state for founders.

The AfD wants to help new companies. The state should give founders money and connect them with investors. Handing a company over to a successor should also work better. Saarland should become the best German state for founders.

The AfD wants more money for state roads, a new digital agency for mobile and fiber networks, and an end to the EEG surcharge. Structurally weak regions are to be strengthened with programs, tax incentives and bonuses. The platform argues that Saarland lags behind the national average.

The AfD wants to spend more money on roads in Saarland. A new agency should push mobile networks and fast internet. The EEG surcharge should go. That is an extra charge on power bills for green electricity. Weak rural regions should get special help.

The AfD wants to support small and mid-sized businesses through less red tape and a business-friendly administration. Applications would have a maximum processing time, and public tenders would become simpler. The party sees these firms as the backbone of Saarland's economy.

The AfD wants to help small and mid-sized companies. There should be less red tape. Offices should handle applications within a fixed time. Public contracts should be easier to get.

The AfD wants to strengthen tourism in Saarland through targeted marketing, better infrastructure and less red tape for hotels and restaurants. It sees tourism as an important factor for attracting businesses and skilled workers.

The AfD wants more tourists to come to Saarland. The state should advertise better for this. Roads, bike paths and fast internet should improve. Hotels and restaurants should face fewer rules.

The AfD wants more support for restaurants, pubs, and hotels, pointing to many insolvencies among small businesses after the coronavirus crisis. The platform describes inns as key meeting places for villages, towns, and local clubs. It proposes a funding program, more flexible working hours, and no bed tax.

Many small pubs and restaurants are closing. The AfD wants to stop this. It wants to give money to pubs in rural areas. Workers in hotels and restaurants should be able to work more flexible hours. The AfD rejects a bed tax. That is a charge on overnight stays.

The CDU wants to defend the competitiveness of Saarland's industry at EU, federal and state level against regulation it considers hostile to industry. In its view, climate protection should come through technological innovation and fair competition, not by moving production abroad.

The CDU wants to protect industry in Saarland. It rejects rules that hurt industry. This is especially true for steel and cars. The CDU says new technology helps the climate more than factories abroad.

The CDU wants Saarland to remain a car-making state where the car of the future is built. To that end, the industry is to gradually reduce its dependence on the combustion engine, supported by a new mobility competence center at the university.

Cars should still be built in Saarland in the future. Companies should depend less on gasoline and diesel engines. The CDU wants to set up a new center at the university. It will do research on new car technology.

The CDU wants to bring more companies to Saarland and make attracting them a task for the state premier personally. To do so, industrial land is to be made available continuously, preferably on former industrial sites.

The CDU wants to bring new companies to Saarland. The state premier should take care of this himself. There should always be enough land for companies. Old industrial sites should be reused first.

The CDU wants to position Saarland as a location for a circular economy, especially in recycling vehicle batteries. A dedicated strategy is meant to attract new companies and strengthen existing ones.

The CDU wants more recycling in Saarland. Recycling means using raw materials again. This is especially true for old car batteries. A plan should bring new companies for this to the state.

The CDU wants to draw up a raw materials plan for Saarland so that local mineral resources can be extracted and processed in the state. In the platform's view, short transport routes benefit the environment.

Saarland has raw materials in the ground. The CDU wants to use them in the state itself. There should be a plan for this. The CDU says short routes are good for the environment.

The CDU wants to create a statewide advisory service for mid-sized and family-owned businesses. It is meant to help them adapt their business models to new technologies, energy efficiency and online markets.

The CDU wants to help small and mid-sized companies. There should be a new advice service all over the state. The first session is free. This should help companies deal with new technology and online retail.

The CDU wants to help downtown retailers catch up with online shopping and win customers back. A pilot project is to test local platforms with ordering from the local shop and pickup stations.

The CDU wants to help downtown shops. Customers should be able to order online from a local shop. They then pick up the goods, for example from a locker. The CDU wants to test this in a project.

The CDU wants to attract more young people to training and self-employment in the skilled trades and to keep the Meisterbonus (a bonus for master craftspeople). According to the platform, tradespeople are also needed for the energy transition.

The CDU wants to strengthen the skilled trades. More young people should train there. People who become master craftspeople still get a bonus from the state. Tradespeople should find it easier to work in the neighboring country.

The CDU wants a joint tourism strategy for all of Saarland that every county supports. The sector is to get help with digitalization and stand out through cycling, hiking, health and cultural tourism.

The CDU wants a tourism plan for all of Saarland. All counties should take part. The state should become known for cycling, hiking, health and culture. Buses and trains should fit tourist destinations better.

The CDU wants to fundamentally reorganize startup support in Saarland and make the state a location for technology-based startups. At the core are the "Saar Tech Cycle" concept with coaching and a well-funded state startup fund.

Few companies are founded in Saarland. The CDU wants to change that. Founders should get better advice. A new state fund should give young companies money. There should also be more spaces for young companies.

The CDU wants young companies to take a larger part in public contracts. A clause is meant to keep them from being shut out of tenders for lack of experience and references.

The state awards many contracts to companies. Young companies often do not get them. They lack years of experience. The CDU wants to change the rules. Young companies should then get a chance too.

The CDU wants to bring founders together with companies and investors and raise the Saarland's profile as a place to start a business. It plans regular events, a state prize, and cooperation with startup centers in Luxembourg and Paris.

The CDU wants to help people who start a company. They should meet investors and companies more easily. There will be a prize for good ideas. This should make the Saarland better known as a place for new companies.

The CDU wants to turn more university knowledge into economic value, especially in the health sector. To that end, a startup center is to be set up at the university hospital in Homburg.

The CDU wants a center for new companies at the university hospital in Homburg. Research there should lead to new businesses. The focus is on medicine and health. The center helps with planning a company.

The CDU wants to manage structural change through more public investment, stronger innovation funding, and better depreciation rules. Industrial policy is to support the shift to a climate-neutral and circular economy.

The CDU wants more money to go into infrastructure and new technology. Companies should be able to deduct spending on new technology from taxes faster. The state should support new ideas in companies more. This should make the economy climate-friendly.

The CDU wants to market the Saarland more assertively abroad as a business and research location and fund this marketing on a lasting basis. Business promotion, currently spread across many bodies, is to be better coordinated.

The CDU wants to advertise the Saarland more in other countries. There should be lasting money for this. Many offices in the state support companies. These offices should work together more closely.

The CDU wants better tax incentives for research and development in companies. It sees the low private research rate as a locational disadvantage for Saarland.

Companies in Saarland do less research than companies in other states. The CDU wants to change that. Companies should pay less tax when they do research. This should bring new ideas and products.

The CDU wants to make Saarland a European hub for artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. To that end, research institutions such as CISPA and DFKI are to grow and get additional land and buildings.

The CDU wants Saarland to be strong in artificial intelligence and internet security. Research institutes should grow. They get new buildings. New companies should come out of this too.

The CDU wants to expand business-oriented research institutes, bring new top-tier institutions to Saarland and link them closely with companies. University spin-offs are to be allowed to market the results they obtained there in exchange for compensation.

The CDU wants to bring more research institutes to Saarland. They should work closely with companies. People who invent something at a university should find it easier to start a company. There should be clear rules for this.

The CDU wants to significantly increase cooperation between research and industry, creating a central point of contact and additional capacity for industrial research. New technological developments are to be spotted and used more quickly.

Research and industry should work together more. The CDU wants to set up one central office for this. Companies can turn to it. The state should spot and use new technology faster.

The CDU wants to strengthen Saarbrücken as a location for research, business and culture and to decide quickly on major investments. These include more space at the university campus, fiber-optic connections for everyone, a cultural mile and an overall urban development concept.

The CDU wants to strengthen Saarbrücken. Decisions on big investments should come quickly. The university should get more space for new companies. All homes and companies should get fast fiber-optic internet.

The CDU wants to put support for the video game industry in the Saarland on a permanent footing and give it more money as far as the budget allows. The state is also to become a training location for games. The platform sees great potential for creativity, innovation and growth in the industry.

The CDU wants to support companies that make video games. The support should become permanent and get more money. People should also be able to train for this work in the Saarland. A new professorship is planned for that.

The CDU wants to cut legal and administrative obstacles to living, working and doing business across borders. To do so, it backs a European Business Code, a fresh attempt at the European Cross Border Mechanism and more advice for cross-border commuters.

Many people and companies work across the border. There are still many obstacles. The CDU wants to remove these obstacles. It wants one shared business law code for Europe. Cross-border commuters should get more advice.

The SPD aims for climate-neutral steel production in Saarland using hydrogen. It wants to lobby the federal government and the EU for the necessary funding. It also calls for EU protective measures against high-emission steel imports so that climate action does not weaken competitiveness.

Steel from Saarland should become climate-neutral. Hydrogen should help with that. The SPD wants money from the federal government and the EU. The EU should protect steel that is made cleanly. Cheap steel with high CO2 should cost more at the border.

The SPD wants to preserve the automotive and supplier industry in Saarland and expand it by attracting new companies. It takes a technology-neutral approach, supporting hydrogen, electric mobility, and efficient combustion engines for synthetic fuels. It backs the arrival of battery maker SVOLT.

Many people in Saarland work in the car industry. The SPD wants to keep these jobs. It supports different kinds of engines: electric, hydrogen, and efficient combustion engines. The SVOLT battery factory should come.

The SPD wants to accompany the economy's transformation with public support. It plans "transformation mentors" as advisers, an active role for the Gesellschaft für Transformationsmanagement Saar (GeTS), and a "TransformationsBooster" funding program for small and medium-sized businesses.

The economy in Saarland is changing a lot. The SPD wants to help companies and workers with this. There should be advisers for the change. Small and medium-sized companies should get money for new technology. Nobody should lose their job.

The SPD wants to create 10,000 new jobs in future industries and trigger at least five billion euros in investment by 2025. A transformation task force in the minister-president's office is to shorten decision-making paths. Old industrial sites are to be prepared for new companies.

The SPD wants 10,000 new jobs in new industries. For this, five billion euros should be invested by 2025. The money comes from the state and from companies. A task force with the head of government should help. Old factory land should be used again.

The SPD wants to keep value-added tax for hotels and restaurants permanently low and expand tourism. By 2025, overnight stays are to rise to 3.3 million a year. A new trade fair, convention, and culture forum in Saarbrücken is to receive 99 million euros.

The SPD wants more visitors in Saarland. Hotels and restaurants should pay less sales tax for good. By 2025 there should be 3.3 million overnight stays a year. Saarbrücken should get a new trade fair center.

The SPD wants to improve the transfer of research results into Saarland companies, especially small and mid-sized ones. To that end, 20 million euros are to go into the CISPA Innovation Campus, and clusters linking business and science are to be funded.

Saarland has many research institutes. The SPD wants companies to use their ideas. This should create new jobs. The state will spend 20 million euros on a new campus for IT firms.

The SPD wants to strengthen Saarland as a place to start a business. The Co:hub66 is to act as a central hub for advice and capital, and a stipend is to fund promising founders for one year.

The SPD wants to help people start a company. There is a central place for advice. Good ideas get money from the state for one year. Firms from abroad should also come to Saarland.