Germany's center-right bloc of Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the  Christian Social Union (CSU), has unanimously voted in favor of an election program that promises to lower taxes and stop illegal migration.

The CDU/CSU wants to reduce income tax and gradually lower taxes for companies to 25%. It promises not to cut old age pensions and plans to encourage those who want to continue working beyond the retirement age of 67, allowing them to earn up to €2,000 ($2,100) per month tax-free on top of their pension.

The ideas of CDU chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz will cost billions of euros and will be extremely hard to implement if the CDU/CSU refuses to ease the "debt brake." Enshrined in  Germany's Basic Law, the brake limits fresh debt to a maximum of 0.35% of economic output (GDP).

The CDU/CSU is in favor of expanding video surveillance in public places and introducing automated facial recognition at train stations and airports.

It wants Germany to take on more responsibility within NATO and to spend more than 2% of GDP on defense. The two parties welcome the stationing of extensive weapons systems in Germany and vow to support Ukraine "with all necessary diplomatic, financial and humanitarian means and arms deliveries."

The CDU/CSU vows to continue to support Israel militarily and advocates a two-state solution in the Middle East. 

With regard to China, the CDU/CSU speaks of "systemic competition." It wants to maintain close economic relations and, at the same time, reduce critical economic dependencies and step up protection for critical infrastructure and security-relevant technology.

The CDU/CSU wants to continue engagement in the global South and the Asia-Pacific region to offset the rising influence of China and Russia. 

Social Democrats: Boost investment, increase public debt

The Social Democrats (SPD) want to take out more debt in order to make billions of euros available for urgently needed investments, for example, in the ailing infrastructure. The party is also focusing on tax incentives for companies hoping to increase investment.

In line with its message to low-income voters, the SPD wants the super-rich with assets of more than €100 million to pay a wealth tax.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that he would again raise the statutory minimum wage, this time from €12 to €15.

When it comes to pensions, the SPD wants to secure a pension level of at least 48% in the long term. The party rejects both cutting pensions and increasing the retirement age from the current 67.

The SPD wants to work toward speeding up asylum procedures. It also promises to work toward comprehensive migration agreements “that open up immigration for training and work" and to enact firm agreements that countries will take back their nationals who have to leave the country. 

SPD foreign and security policy plans focus on support for Ukraine against Russia's war of aggression and the stationing of US medium-range weapons in western Germany.  The SPD wants to continue to support Ukraine, including with weapons and equipment. 

The SPD is clearly committed to NATO and wants to spend at least 2% of GDP on defense. Its long-term goal is a “European Defense Union” and to build a competitive European defense industry. The SPD wants to invest heavily in the German military, the Bundeswehr, to modernize it "sustainably."

The SPD wants to pursue a coordinated European policy towards China, which it categorizes as a "partner, competitor and systemic rival." It wants to make Germany more economically independent from China but cooperate on global challenges such as climate change or arms control.

Greens: More than climate protection

In the past three years of government, the Greens have faced criticism over their climate protection plans. Now the party has scaled back its demands to reduce greenhouse gases compared to the 2021 election campaign.

The Greens also want to reform the debt brake, introduce subsidies for electric cars, and propose a new "citizens' fund" to secure pensions. This fund should also be fed with state money. And they want a billionaire's tax, as deputy chancellor and leading candidate Robert Habeck said in an interview with the mass-market daily Bild newspaper.

As to immigration policy, the Greens want to uphold the basic right to asylum as well as international obligations under the Geneva Refugee Convention, subsidiary protection and the European Convention on Human Rights. They oppose deportations to war and crisis regions.

The Greens oppose plans to outsource asylum procedures to third countries, pointing to the difficulties in implementing such agreements between the UK and Rwanda and between Italy and Albania. 

AfD: Soft on Russia, tough on immigrants

According to its election manifesto, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) wants Germany to leave the European Union and abolish the euro. It denies the existence of man-made climate change and advocates setting up new coal-fired power plants and nuclear power stations and wants to resume the import of Russian natural gas.

The AfD also wants even tougher border controls that push back refugees who have traveled through other EU countries to get to Germany. They want to detain asylum-seekers at the border while their applications are processed.

For the AfD, the issue of internal security is closely linked to migration policy. In this context, it is calling, for example, for individuals to be taken into preventive detention and to lower the age for criminal prosecution from 14 to 12.

The AfD wants to roll back the knife bans imposed recently and is opposed to comprehensive video surveillance in public places and rejects data retention and online searches.

The AfD aims to increase the birth rate with financial incentives and thus bring about a demographic turnaround in Germany through an "activating family policy." 

As to social security payments: The AfD wants foreign nationals to only become eligible for them once they have worked in Germany for at least 10 years and have paid social security contributions. 

FDP: A new economic policy

Like the Greens, the Free Democratic Party (FDP) is also calling for a reform of Germany's pension system. Party leader Christian Lindner is campaigning for the introduction of a stock-based pension. The FDP's demands for a fundamentally different economic policy were the main reason for the break-up of the coalition government with SPD and the Greens in November.

Many of those demands have now appeared in the party's election program: Easing the tax burden on companies with high energy prices, and less bureaucracy.

They want to fundamentally reform social benefits focusing on incentives to take up paid employment. They want to force unemployed individuals to take initiative and prove to have done so. Those who fail to deliver should receive fewer social benefits, the FDP platform states. 

The FDP rejects blanket surveillance in public spaces, it opposes chat controls, upload filters and data retention.

Left Party focus on the disadvantaged

The socialist Left Party wants to introduce higher taxes on the wealthy, including an inheritance tax of 60% for those with an inheritance of €3 million or more.

The Left Party also wants to raise the minimum wage to €15 and pensions to 53% (from currently 48%) of the recipient's net income.

The Left Party wants to restructure the pension system.

In the future, everyone should pay into a state system, including civil servants, the self-employed and members of parliament. The party wants to reduce the retirement age to 65, or to 60 for people who have worked and paid contributions for at least 40 years.  

The Left wants to boost public transport to make sure there is at least an hourly bus and train service for rural areas and to ban flights that are shorter than 500 kilometers or five hours by train.

This article was originally written in German.

While you're here: Every Tuesday, DW editors round up what is happening in German politics and society. You can sign up here for the weekly email newsletter Berlin Briefing.