Focal points of the election programs

General positions

In order to boost economic growth, the SPD's draft election manifesto is focusing on cheaper electricity prices, among other things. To do this, it wants to cap network charges.

In addition, companies should receive tax refunds for investments. A so-called Germany Fund should also promote investments with public and private capital. The SPD wants to reform the debt brake.

According to the SPD's election manifesto, the minimum wage should increase so that domestic demand stimulates the economy. In addition, 95 percent of people should receive tax relief, while top incomes and assets should be taxed more heavily. The rent cap should be extended and apply indefinitely in the future.

In defense policy, the SPD is sticking to Olaf Scholz's decision not to supply "Taurus" cruise missiles to Ukraine. The defense budget should in future be two percent of gross domestic product.

On January 11, the delegates at the party conference adopted the election manifesto.

Positions on rejections and asylum procedures in third countries

The SPD rejects border closures and rejections at the border. It advocates for an acceleration of asylum procedures – decisions should be made within six months, processes should become more efficient – ​​for example through more digitalization. The Social Democrats also reject asylum procedures in third countries. They affirm the individual right to asylum within the EU.

Positions on deportations

The SPD relies on "humane" and "consistent" deportations, prefers voluntary departures and emphasizes the importance of constitutional standards. Deportations should primarily take place in the case of criminals – and "people who pose a threat to public safety".

Positions on social benefits for refugees

The SPD advocates appropriate social security for refugees, which should promote integration. Social benefits should benefit those in need of protection, but avoid "wrong incentives" – for example when taking up work. Integration courses should be expanded and increased.

General positions

According to the draft of their election manifesto, the Greens want to introduce climate money to relieve the burden on people with low and middle incomes. The traffic light coalition had also already agreed on climate money, but it was not implemented.

With a so-called citizens' fund, the Greens want to secure old-age provision and make the pension system fairer. The fund is to be fed by loans and federal government equity and to take sustainability criteria into account. Lead candidate Robert Habeck has also proposed a billionaire tax.

The Greens want to relieve the burden on those who pay contributions to nursing and health insurance - and provide better support to relatives who provide care. Non-insurance benefits such as contributions for citizens' allowance recipients are to be financed by the state. In order to finance this, privately insured people are also to be included in the financial equalization of the health and care system.

According to the election manifesto, the "fight against organized crime" is a priority for the Greens. There is to be a joint center for federal and state security authorities. The Greens also want to combat money laundering with an effective financial police force.

On January 26, the Greens will meet for a special party conference to adopt their election program.

Positions on rejections and asylum procedures in third countries

The Greens emphasize: "Germany is and remains a country of immigration." The party is clearly committed to the right to asylum. The Greens reject asylum procedures in third countries, as well as rejections and stationary controls at the borders.

Positions on deportations

The Greens emphasize compliance with human rights and reject blanket deportations to unsafe countries. They rely on voluntary return programs and better residence permit regulations for well-integrated people or people in training.

Positions on social benefits for refugees

The Greens are committed to better integration into existing social systems. They are calling for a stronger range of integration and language courses to get refugees into work more quickly. Digital offers should simplify and accelerate access to social benefits.

General positions

The Union wants to lower taxes and abolish the solidarity surcharge. It rules out pension cuts in its election manifesto. Instead, it wants to cut citizens' income.

The CDU and CSU have a hard line on asylum policy. "A strict limitation of migration is urgently needed," says the draft election manifesto. There should be more safe countries of origin and deportations should also be made to Syria and Afghanistan.

The Union wants to spend more money on defense. In addition, "hot spots and danger areas" should be equipped with video cameras and facial recognition systems.

The Union wants to completely overturn the self-determination law implemented by the traffic light coalition.

The Union wants to reduce electricity tax and network charges and expand networks, storage and all renewables. The traffic light coalition's heating law to reduce climate-damaging emissions should be abolished and the "nuclear energy option" should be retained - including examining the possibility of restarting the "recently shut down nuclear power plants".

The CDU will meet on February 3, 2025 for an early federal party conference in Berlin, and the CSU will meet on February 8 for a party conference with a view to the federal election. However, the election program is already considered to have been decided.

Positions on rejections and asylum procedures in third countries

The Union announces a "fundamental change" in migration policy and wants to enforce a "de facto admission freeze". They want to turn refugees away at the border - border controls are to be extended and improved, and asylum procedures are also to be carried out in safe third countries.

Positions on deportations

The Union calls for the consistent deportation of rejected asylum seekers, especially criminals and dangerous people. They rely on "federal departure centers" to carry out deportations effectively and also want to work with the countries of origin to achieve this.

Positions on social benefits for refugees

The Union supports the introduction of a payment card for refugees. For refugees who are required to leave the country, social benefits are to be reduced to the absolute minimum ("bed, bread and soap"). Refugees from Ukraine are no longer to receive citizen's allowance.

General positions

The FDP is planning extensive tax relief in its election program. In income tax, the FDP wants to increase the basic allowance by at least 1,000 euros. This should ensure that work is more worthwhile than receiving social benefits. "In order to create additional work incentives, we want to exempt overtime bonuses for full-time workers from income tax," the draft states.

The top tax rate should not apply to annual incomes of just over 68,000 euros, but only from 96,600 euros. A wealth tax is rejected. In the catering industry, a reduced VAT rate of seven percent for food should apply uniformly.

The Liberals also want to relieve the burden on companies. A tax reform commission is to be set up for this purpose. The aim is to reduce the tax burden on companies to below 25 percent, according to the paper. To this end, the solidarity surcharge should be completely abolished and the corporate tax reduced.

The Liberals want to "fundamentally reform" the citizen's allowance and reduce bureaucracy. The FDP is also continuing to promote a share pension. Compliance with the debt brake is a "central requirement", it continues.

The FDP met on January 9th for an extraordinary party conference. The election program has already been approved.

Positions on rejections and asylum procedures in third countries

The FDP wants to limit "irregular" migration and shape immigration according to economic interests. All legal bases are to be bundled in a "uniform immigration code". Asylum procedures should also be able to take place in third countries. The FDP also wants to "test" rejections at the border.

Positions on deportations

The FDP is calling for a centralization of responsibility for deportations at the federal level and faster procedures. People without a right of residence should leave Germany "immediately".

Positions on social benefits for refugees

The FDP also relies on benefits in kind rather than cash, and payment cards are to be introduced across the board. Social benefits are to be kept lower than the citizen's allowance - even for refugees from Ukraine.

General positions

The Left Party is focusing on social justice in its draft election manifesto for the federal election. The party wants to introduce higher taxes for the wealthy - for example, a top inheritance tax rate of 60 percent for "large assets from a taxable inheritance of three million euros plus the allowance."

According to the Left Party's election manifesto, the minimum wage is to rise to 15 euros. There is also to be a pension level of 53 percent and a minimum pension of 1,310 euros.

For rural areas, the Left Party is planning at least hourly bus and train connections. The party wants to ban flights that are shorter than 500 kilometers or five hours by train.

The Left Party wants to take up initiatives such as those from China and Brazil in order to negotiate peace in Ukraine. The Left Party rejects the stationing of US medium-range missiles in Germany.

The Left Party's special party conference to adopt the election manifesto took place on January 18th.

Positions on rejections and asylum procedures in third countries

The Left Party is committed to the right to asylum. It rejects all previous tightening measures at national and European level. It rejects fast-track procedures, detentions and repatriation centers, as well as the classification of safe countries of origin and the relocation of asylum procedures to third countries.

Positions on deportations

The Left Party fundamentally rejects deportations, especially to crisis areas. Criminals should not be deported, but prosecuted in Germany. Instead, it wants to offer people without a secure residence status long-term prospects.

Positions on social benefits for refugees

The Left Party rejects benefits in kind and payment cards as discriminatory. Instead, it demands regular cash benefits in the amount of the solidarity minimum security for all people - regardless of residence status. In addition, it calls for comprehensive and free access to health care and language courses for all refugees.

General positions

The unique selling point of the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) is also to be its "peace policy" in the federal election campaign. "The BSW is the only peace party in the German Bundestag that consistently rejects the current arms buildup as well as arms deliveries to war zones," it says in the election manifesto.

The BSW wants "cheap energy again at last," as namesake Sahra Wagenknecht says - including from Russia. She also doesn't think much of sanctions against Russia and China. The election manifesto speaks of a climate and environmental policy "that takes climate change seriously, but does not get bogged down in haphazard activism and burns billions of euros of taxpayers' money in the process." To this end, the BSW also plans to repeal the ban on combustion engines and the heating law.

The BSW also advocates a government of experts. The party wants to form a "cabinet of experts" who "actually care about the well-being of our country and not about their subsequent employment in the economy and who can restore the lost trust in the state and democracy."

Other demands include a higher minimum wage, a citizen's insurance instead of private and statutory health insurance, and less migration. The BSW's election program was adopted on January 12th at the federal party conference in Bonn.

Positions on rejections and asylum procedures in third countries

The Sarah Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) is calling for a stop to "uncontrolled migration." According to the BSW, anyone entering from a safe third country has no right to reside and therefore no entitlement to an asylum procedure or social benefits. Asylum procedures should take place outside the EU.

Positions on deportations

The BSW is calling for consistent deportations and a tightening of the legal framework - if necessary also through a change to the constitution. People without a right of residence should leave the country as quickly as possible. Criminals should lose their right to asylum.

Positions on social benefits for refugees

The BSW considers social benefits for refugees to be an "incentive to flee" to Germany and calls for a reduction in financial support.

General positions

According to its draft election manifesto, the AfD wants to leave the EU, abolish the euro and reintroduce the D-Mark. There is to be a referendum on this.

In its draft election manifesto, the AfD also denies man-made climate change. The party is therefore in favor of coal-fired power plants, wants to get back into nuclear power and also use Russian gas again.

The AfD also wants to lift the economic sanctions against Russia. Ukraine should become a neutral state outside NATO and the EU. The Bundeswehr should be well funded and reinforced with personnel.

In terms of asylum policy, the AfD is calling for border controls and rejections at the borders. Asylum seekers should also be able to be taken into custody at the borders.

In three federal states - Sachen, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia - the AfD has been classified by the intelligence service as definitely right-wing extremist. The AfD's youth organization, the “Junge Alternative”, is classified by the intelligence service in five federal states - Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Sachen, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia - as being right-wing extremist.

Positions on rejections and asylum procedures in third countries

The AfD goes even further and wants to remove the individual right to asylum from the Basic Law entirely. The party calls for border controls and rejections at the border. People entering from third countries should not be allowed to apply for asylum in Germany. Refugees should be able to be taken into custody at the border. Asylum procedures should be carried out outside Germany.

Positions on deportations

The AfD calls for a "repatriation offensive". At its party conference in Riesa in January, the party officially made "remigration" its guiding principle. All people who are required to leave the country should be deported, especially criminals, dangerous people and people without protection status. They should also be deported to crisis regions.

Positions on social benefits for refugees

The AfD calls for a drastic reduction in social benefits for refugees. It advocates a complete switch to benefits in kind and the introduction of a payment card.