What do the parties in Saxony say on the economy?

The AfD wants to strengthen trades, service firms and manufacturers by cutting rules, lowering energy and fuel prices and improving infrastructure. Starting a business is to become easier, backed by loan guarantees and longer founder grants. It rejects tax-subsidized flagship projects.

The AfD wants to help small and mid-sized companies. It wants to remove rules. Energy and fuel should cost less. People who start a company should get more help. The AfD does not want big projects paid for with tax money.

The AfD wants to bring back the Meisterpflicht (the requirement to hold a master craftsman certificate to run a business) in all trades. It says this would ensure fair competition and higher quality. More vocational training centers are also to be set up in rural districts.

The AfD wants the master craftsman rule back in all trades. This means only a master may run a trade business. The AfD says this makes work better. There should be more training centers in the countryside.

The AfD wants regional considerations to take priority in public tenders in order to secure local jobs. To support Saxony's breweries, the beer tax is to be scrapped.

The state gives contracts to companies. The AfD wants companies from the region to count more. This should keep jobs in Saxony. The tax on beer should end. This should help breweries.

The AfD wants to create special economic zones in border regions with little industry, such as Lusatia, the Ore Mountains and the Vogtland. Better infrastructure, simpler rules and well-trained staff are meant to boost these areas economically.

Some regions in Saxony have little industry. These include Lusatia, the Ore Mountains and the Vogtland. The AfD wants special zones for business there. Simpler rules should apply there. Roads and networks should get better too.

The BSW wants health care, housing, and energy and water supply to be under municipal control and not serve profit-making. The party rejects privatization and outsourcing. Municipal and nonprofit providers as well as cooperatives are to be supported.

Important services should belong to the town or city. These include hospitals, housing, electricity and water. Companies should not make profits from them. The BSW is against selling them to private firms. Cooperatives should get support, for example for shops in small towns.

The BSW aims for an economy with fair competition, a strong Mittelstand (small and midsize firms) and a large industrial share. To get there, dominant corporations should be broken up and unavoidable monopolies handed to nonprofit providers.

The BSW wants to limit the power of big corporations. Very powerful corporations should be split up. Sometimes there can be only one provider. Then a nonprofit provider should do the job. It does not work for profit.

The BSW wants to relieve businesses of bureaucracy, reduce reporting and documentation duties, and speed up digital government. Small and midsize firms should get financial and administrative support, and funding programs should be merged and made easier to navigate.

The BSW wants less red tape for companies. Companies should have to file fewer reports and proofs. Small firms should get help and money. New companies should face fewer rules for a while. A funding scout should show which aid exists.

The BSW wants to expand tourism as an economic factor while paying more attention to residents' interests. Skilled workers are to be kept and recruited through fair pay, good working conditions, and practical training.

Many guests visit Saxony. The BSW wants to strengthen tourism further. The wishes of residents should count more. Workers in tourism should get fair pay. Training should be close to real work.

The CDU wants to double the Meisterbonus (a state payment for new master craftspeople) and make low-interest loans available. A scholarship is to make training entirely free for the best master craftspeople. The aim is to make skilled trades and self-employment more attractive.

People who become master craftspeople in Saxony get money from the state. This is called the Meisterbonus. The CDU wants to double it. The best ones should pay nothing for their training. There should also be cheap loans.

The CDU wants no new bureaucratic burdens from state laws in 2025 and 2026 and plans to review existing rules during that time. This is meant to relieve small and mid-sized businesses; the platform cites the strained economic situation.

The CDU wants less red tape for businesses. Red tape means many rules and forms. In 2025 and 2026, state laws should add no new burdens. During that time, the CDU wants to check old rules and make them simpler.

The CDU wants to support new businesses, start-ups and the handover of companies to successors. Existing founder initiatives are to continue, and companies should be able to handle all dealings with authorities digitally.

The CDU wants to help people who start a business. It also wants to help when a business needs a new owner. Businesses should be able to do everything with state offices online. Young parents should find it easier to work for themselves.

The CDU wants to diversify Saxony's economy so that it can better withstand crises. This includes making it possible for security and defense companies to set up or expand in the state. It also wants to promote innovation, start-ups and new business sites in general.

The CDU wants Saxony to have many different kinds of companies. This should help the state get through crises. Companies for security and defense should also be able to come to Saxony. New companies and new technology should get good conditions.

The CDU wants to support large investments, such as chip plants and major research facilities, and link them with local businesses and research. The aim is to create new growth hubs and value chains.

The CDU wants to support big business projects in Saxony. One example is factories for computer chips. These projects should work with local companies and researchers. This should create new jobs and new ideas.

The CDU wants to focus Saxony's funding programs on core topics, make them easier to understand, and handle them digitally. Instead of non-repayable grants, the state would more often take temporary equity stakes in small and medium-sized companies and start-ups.

Saxony has many funding programs for companies. The CDU wants fewer and simpler programs. Applications should be digital. The state should give away money less often. Instead, it should own a share of companies for a limited time.

The CDU wants faster planning and permitting procedures. To get there, environmental requirements would be limited to the legal minimum, among other things to build roads more quickly.

Building projects often need permits that take a long time. The CDU wants to speed this up. Environmental rules should only go as far as the law requires. This should help roads get built faster, for example.

The CDU wants to push the exchange of knowledge and technology between universities and companies through target agreements with the universities. Existing transfer platforms and state-backed equity funds for founders and mid-sized firms would continue.

Universities and companies should share more knowledge. The CDU wants to agree on fixed goals with the universities. Saxony also has funds for young companies and mid-sized firms. These funds should stay.

The CDU wants to strengthen tourism as an economic factor in all regions of Saxony and carry out the tourism master plan. The hospitality sector would get its own state program, and the federal government is asked to set the value-added tax there permanently at 7 percent.

More guests should come to Saxony and stay longer. The CDU wants to carry out a plan for tourism. Restaurants and hotels should get support from the state. The federal government should lower the sales tax for restaurants to 7 percent for good.

The CDU wants equal living conditions in urban and rural areas, relying on local services, funding programs and attractive town centers. Existing rural programs are to continue, and rules for cashierless village shops are to be eased.

Life in a village should be as good as in a city. The CDU wants to support village shops and delivery services. Shops without a cashier should be easier to open. Funding programs for villages should continue. Empty buildings in town centers should get a new use.

The CDU wants to set up a state-owned development company that buys and prepares land for commerce and industry. At the same time, the 2013 State Development Plan is to be revised so that rural municipalities can grow more easily.

Saxony should get its own company for business land. It buys land and gets it ready for companies. The CDU also wants to change the state's development plan. Rural towns should then be able to grow more easily. Planning should go faster.

The CDU wants to steer the upheaval in the automotive, mechanical engineering and logistics sectors in southwestern Saxony with a master plan. The "Silicon Saxony" semiconductor hub is to grow, and the coal districts are to remain energy regions with the help of new technologies.

In southwestern Saxony, the car industry and machine building are changing a lot. The CDU wants to make a big plan together with the region. Saxony's microchip hub should grow. The coal regions should keep producing energy. They should get new technology for that.

The CDU wants to promote the circular economy as an industry and expand regional value chains, especially for timber. Mining and regional raw material extraction are to remain possible. Waste is to be treated as a resource and recovered as cheaply as possible, with no technology ruled out.

The CDU wants materials to be reused more often. This is called a circular economy. Wood from Saxony should be processed in Saxony. Mining should stay possible. Waste should be recovered cheaply, including by burning it.

The Free Voters want to make a principle of proximity a guiding idea for the economy. Municipalities should be allowed to award more contracts to local providers, and regional products should be marketed more within the region.

The Free Voters want to strengthen the local economy. Towns should be allowed to give more contracts to nearby companies. Products from the region should also be sold there. This should turn makers and buyers into partners.

The Free Voters want to relieve businesses of financial and bureaucratic burdens, especially small and mid-sized firms. For every new regulation, two existing ones are to be scrapped. The platform frames this as a social market economy built on competition and merit.

The Free Voters want fewer rules for companies. For every new rule, two old rules should go. Government offices should work faster and digitally. This should help small companies most of all.

The Free Voters want to reduce the regulatory burden on skilled-trade businesses as far as possible. A vocational preparation year and more appreciation are meant to make trade careers more attractive.

The Free Voters want to help the skilled trades. Businesses should have to follow fewer rules. There should be a year to prepare for a trade job. This should bring more people into the trades.

The Free Voters stand for open markets and free trade because Saxony's economy depends on exports. Sanctions should be used only as a last resort, while the platform also warns against one-sided dependence.

Saxony sells many goods abroad. That is why the Free Voters want free trade. Sanctions are trade penalties against other countries. The party wants them only in an emergency. But Saxony should not depend on just one country.

The Free Voters want to focus funding on future technologies such as artificial intelligence, autonomous driving, and aerospace. Products from Saxony would also carry a "Made in Saxony" label.

The Free Voters want more support for new technology. This includes artificial intelligence and self-driving cars. It also includes aircraft and space technology. Products from Saxony should get their own label. It is called "Made in Saxony."

The Free Voters want to attract founders to Saxony and keep them there. They plan help with grants, equity capital, and loans, along with lower business taxes in the early years. An international advertising campaign is meant to improve Saxony's image.

The Free Voters want more new companies in Saxony. Founders should get help finding money. They should pay less tax in the first years. An ad campaign should make Saxony better known abroad.

The Greens want to implement the Green New Deal in Saxony faster and shift the economy toward climate-friendly business. Saxony is to remain an energy and industrial state. The platform argues that a swift transition keeps the state's economy competitive.

The Greens want Saxony's economy to become climate-friendly. This should happen faster than now. Saxony should stay a state with a lot of industry. The party says this keeps companies strong.

The Greens want to make the health economy a priority of Saxony's economic policy. The platform points to the strong growth of the life sciences and argues that this sector can grow in a carbon-neutral way more easily than others.

The Greens want to strengthen the health economy in Saxony. This includes companies in medicine and life sciences. These companies are growing fast. The party says they can grow without harming the climate.

The Greens want to support regional producers, direct marketing, the food industry, and skilled trades. Public contracts are to take regional quality criteria into account. The platform argues that regional economic cycles make the economy more independent and protect the environment.

The Greens want to give more support to local businesses. This includes farmers, food companies, and craftspeople. The state should look at regional quality when it awards contracts. A website should show products made in Saxony.

The Greens want to further develop the state's tourism strategy with a focus on sustainability, variety of offerings, and securing skilled workers. Winter sports regions are to become independent of artificial snowmaking; the platform calls for a year-round tourism plan and a winter sports strategy. Climate-damaging investments are to be excluded from tourism funding.

Climate change means less snow. So the Greens want tourism all year round. Winter sports towns should no longer depend on artificial snow. Projects that harm the climate should get no funding. Small businesses should get help.

The Greens want to steer public investment toward infrastructure, education and green technologies. A guideline with sustainability standards is meant to shape planning and financing decisions, and planning and permitting authorities are to be better equipped.

The Greens want the state to invest money in a targeted way. The money should go to infrastructure, education and green technology. A guideline should set rules for sustainability. The offices for planning and permits should get more resources.

The Greens want to overhaul Saxony's funding system: support programs are to become simpler, transparent and digital while pursuing ecological and social goals. Longer-term, institutional funding is meant to cut red tape and provide security, especially in the social sector.

The Greens want to make funding in Saxony simpler. Applications should be digital and easy to understand. Funding should come with conditions. Some areas should get money for a longer time. Founders should have less paperwork.

The Greens want to give preference in funding to sustainable product design and circular-economy business models. In construction, durable, repairable and reusable building methods are to be strengthened. This is meant to bring investment in innovative fields especially to regions undergoing structural change.

The Greens want to fund companies that reuse things. This is called a circular economy. Buildings should last a long time. Building parts should be usable again. The paperwork for funding should get simpler.

The Greens want to bring companies from strategically important industries such as solar manufacturing to Saxony. For new commercial projects, adding renewable energy installations is to be a binding criterion, and new business parks are to require good public transit access.

The Greens want to bring certain companies to Saxony. These include companies from the solar industry. New business parks should get power from wind and sun. People should be able to reach them easily by bus and train. If there is a dispute, a mediator should help.

The Greens want funds for structural change in the coal regions to arrive faster and be awarded transparently. Local people are to have a say, and the regional advisory committees are to get real decision-making powers. Companies are to be able to receive funding directly in the future.

The Greens want to hand out the money for the coal regions faster. People there should help decide. The process should be open. Companies should be able to get money directly too. Sorbs, women and young people should have more of a say.

The Greens want to strengthen the skilled trades through better business conditions and fewer bureaucratic hurdles. A broad appreciation campaign is meant to raise the standing of the trades and win young people for vocational training.

The Greens want to help the skilled trades. There should be less paperwork. More people should start their own trade business. A campaign should show how important the trades are. Young people should become interested in training.

The Greens want to fund IT security and digitalization at small and medium-sized trade businesses. To transform the construction sector, businesses are to cooperate more closely so that regional value chains for sustainable building emerge.

The Greens want to help small trade businesses. They should get money for secure computers and digital tools. Building firms should work together more. Used building parts should be reused through special exchanges.

The Greens want to keep energy-intensive industry in Saxony and cap the electricity price during the transition period. The state is to catch up on expanding renewable energy, which the platform says secures low prices in the long run. Companies should also become less dependent on authoritarian states.

The Greens want to keep industry in Saxony. Many companies need a lot of electricity. So the price of electricity should have an upper limit for some time. Saxony should make more power from wind and sun.

The Greens want to make it easier to start a business by cutting red tape and improving access to capital. Women, people with a migration background, and other underrepresented groups are to get dedicated funding budgets. Social enterprises are also to receive more support.

The Greens want more people to be able to start a company. There should be less paperwork for that. Women and people with a migration background should get extra funding. Companies with social goals should get more help too.

The Greens want to use the European Chips Act and federal support to strengthen Saxony as a leading IT location in the EU. The chip industry, research, training, and other businesses are to be linked so that technologies such as artificial intelligence are developed in the state.

The Greens want many computer chips to be made in Saxony. They want to use money from the EU and the federal government for this. Companies, research, and training should work closely together. New technology should come from Saxony.

The Greens want to link public contracts to environmental and social criteria, including compliance with collective wage agreements and a procurement-specific minimum wage. Bids are to be judged on costs over the entire life cycle. Government purchasing is meant to help sustainable products reach market maturity.

The state buys many things and awards contracts. The Greens want new rules for this. Companies should pay fair wages and protect the environment. The state should not look only at the purchase price.

The Greens want the state to buy only fairly produced goods and to secure this in the procurement law. Saxony is to set an example and support the supply chain law.

The state buys many products. The Greens want these products to be made fairly. This should be written into law. Saxony should use fair products at its own events.

The Left wants to tackle the shortage of skilled workers with better working conditions rather than by forcing people to work more. The state's economic development funding should strengthen automation where employees support it, making shorter working hours possible.

Saxony does not have enough workers. The Left does not want to force anyone to work more. It wants better pay and conditions. Machines and computers should take over dull tasks. Then people can work fewer hours.

The Left calls for price caps on raw materials and equipment that businesses depend on. In addition, jointly managed stockpiles would be set up and speculation in these materials would be banned.

Materials have become more expensive for craft businesses. The Left wants a maximum price for important raw materials. There should be shared stockpiles. Nobody should be allowed to bet on rising prices for these materials.

The Left wants to raise the Meisterbonus (a state bonus for new master craftspeople) to 2,500 euros, and to 3,500 euros for women. In the future it would also go to certified specialists and business managers, and master training backed by BAföG (student aid) would be possible without being employed at a firm.

People who become master craftspeople in Saxony get money from the state. The Left wants to raise this bonus to 2,500 euros. Women should get 3,500 euros. People should be able to become masters without a fixed employer.

The Left wants to reform Saxony's economic development funding and focus it on industries of the future. Funding would be available only where working conditions are good, wages are adequate and operations are environmentally sustainable, and small companies would get easier access to programs.

The state gives companies money so they can invest. The Left wants to attach conditions to it. Companies should pay well and protect the environment. Small companies should get the money more easily. There should be limits for large companies.

The Left calls for an industry foundation financed by the federal government through which the state would buy targeted stakes in companies. The aim is to put the transformation of industry under public control and to protect key energy infrastructure.

The Left wants a new foundation for industry. The federal government should pay for it. The foundation buys shares in companies. This way the state can have a say in how industry changes.

The Left calls for a fresh start to the economic transition in Saxony's coal regions. It should be geared more toward sustainability, involve local people in a binding way and concentrate funding on the regions most affected.

Coal mining is ending in Lusatia and near Leipzig. The regions get money for new projects. The Left wants local people to have a say first. Children and young people should help plan too. The money should go mainly to small companies.

The Left wants to strengthen tourism in Saxony and make vacations possible for people with little money. Businesses would get funding if they set aside places for people in need or operate more sustainably. Day tourism is to be expanded.

The Left wants to strengthen tourism in Saxony. People with little money should be able to take a vacation too. Hotels get public money if they offer places for poor people. Those that save energy and water get money as well. Buses and trains should get better.

The Left rejects further privatization and the sale of municipal property. Essential public services should be provided by municipally run enterprises that pay collectively agreed wages and are overseen by elected local representatives.

Water, housing and health matter to everyone. The Left wants such tasks to stay with the state and the towns. Towns should not sell their property. The town's own enterprises should do the work.

The Left wants the state to fund consumer protection permanently and adequately. Advice should also be available in rural areas and smaller towns. Consumer organizations would get state money for collective lawsuits.

The Left wants to protect consumers better. Consumers are people who buy things. The state should reliably pay for advice services. Advice should also be available in the countryside. The state should give money for lawsuits on behalf of many consumers.

The Left wants to introduce a levy on companies to finance dual vocational training. Companies able to train would pay into a fund, and those that actually train would receive money from it.

Companies should pay money into a shared fund. Those that train apprentices get money from the fund. The Left says this makes paying for training fairer. The money should also help young people without a training place.

The SPD wants to make Saxony a state of climate-neutral future industries and puts innovation funding at the center of its economic policy. It relies on rapid digitalization, climate-neutral energy, and strong infrastructure. The transition is to be socially acceptable.

The SPD wants to support new industries in Saxony. They should not harm the climate. The state should back new ideas and new technology. The change should be fair for everyone.

The SPD wants to focus state funding mainly on small and medium-sized firms and the skilled trades. The aim is to help them manage the shift to digitalization, automation and renewable energy, for which the platform says they often lack money, know-how or time.

The SPD wants to help small firms and the skilled trades. They should be able to use new technology. This includes robots and artificial intelligence. The state should give funding for this.

The SPD wants to eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy for businesses and the skilled trades and simplify administrative procedures. Funding applications are to be handled entirely digitally through a single portal.

The SPD wants less paperwork for businesses. Firms should apply for funding online. There should be one single portal for this. The state should only check random samples.

The SPD plans a broad initiative for the skilled trades and wants to review every policy area for ways to support these businesses. The Meisterbonus (a grant for master craftsman graduates) is to be raised, recruitment of young people promoted, and hiring skilled workers from non-EU countries made easier.

The SPD wants to help the skilled trades. People who become master craftsmen should get a bigger bonus. Firms should find it easier to hire skilled workers from abroad. Young people should get to know the trades better.

The SPD wants to respond to the labor shortage with automation, artificial intelligence and robotics. Top-level research and its transfer to companies are to be expanded, and small businesses advised and supported through the transition.

Soon there will be fewer workers. So machines and computers should take on more work. The SPD wants to fund research on this. Small companies and skilled trades should get help and advice.

The SPD wants to create a "Sachsenfonds 2050" through which the state invests at least four billion euros in the economy and in future jobs. A new investment company would manage the money and earn its own profits. The platform cites the US Inflation Reduction Act as a model.

The SPD wants a new fund for Saxony. It is called Sachsenfonds 2050. The state should invest at least four billion euros from it. The money should go to companies and new jobs. A state-owned company should manage the money.

The SPD wants to strengthen Saxony as a location for microelectronics, artificial intelligence and other future technologies. Around 100,000 people are to work in the Silicon Saxony chip cluster by 2030. The state's AI strategy would be developed further and research expanded.

The SPD wants more modern technology in Saxony. This includes computer chips and artificial intelligence. By 2030, about 100,000 people should work in the chip industry. The state should do more research on artificial intelligence. Developers of such programs should follow rules on openness.

The SPD wants to actively steer the transformation of Saxony's industrial regions. Lusatia is to become a center for renewable energy, and the Central German coal district a core of the green hydrogen economy. A transformation council of politics, science, business and unions would agree on the path.

The SPD wants to guide the change of industry in Saxony. Lusatia should become a center for clean energy. The Central German coal district should produce green hydrogen. That is a gas made with green power. A new council should give advice on the change.

The SPD wants to create a small team that reviews rules and procedures across all ministries and simplifies them substantially. It considers blanket rules such as sunset clauses for laws to be of little use.

The SPD wants less red tape. A small team should check the rules in all ministries. It should make the rules much simpler.

The SPD wants to build a campus for young companies, paid for jointly by the state and the private sector. Start-ups are to get more funding, including beyond the founding stage, and work more closely with established industrial firms.

The SPD wants to give new companies more support. A campus for young companies should be built. The state and businesses should pay for it together. New companies should also get money after they have started.

The SPD wants a new, low-bureaucracy procurement law that ties public contracts to compliance with collective wage agreements and to social and environmental criteria. At the same time, as many contracts as possible should go to companies in Saxony, especially small and medium-sized ones.

The state gives contracts to companies. The SPD wants a new law for this. Companies should pay union-agreed wages. Environmental and social issues should count too. Many contracts should go to companies from Saxony.