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Party logos (without CSU)
Photo: Christian Ohde / imago images
The SPD was brief. After only seven pages, an appeal was made to voters to make the “right” decision, namely “for peace, freedom, socialism”. This is what the Social Democrats called for the first Bundestag election in August 1949. Meanwhile, the CDU's »Düsseldorf Guiding Principles« for the 1949 election amounted to 21 pages, which were extravagant at the time, reflecting the party's reorientation towards the social market economy. It was to be an election campaign hit for decades.
And today?
All parties represented in the Bundestag come together on more than 750 pages of electoral program prose.
When it came to the alternatives of socialism or the market economy, empty phrases dominate today.
"Out of respect for your future," the SPD chose as the title.
"Germany.
Everything is included, ”says the Greens.
And the FDP states: "There was never more to do." Yes, who would have thought that?
The comparison of 1949 and 2021 also shows a shift in the party system.
The power-seeking approach has long dominated, no longer the so-called policy-oriented one.
So no longer the goal of shaping the content of the public agenda as much as possible.
Political scientist Klaus von Beyme once called the current model a “professionalized voter party”.
In the 2005 election year, Angela Merkel tried a more substantive approach, with a liberal market reform agenda - and came close to failing.
In 1998, Gerhard Schröder showed how one is on the move in the spirit of maximizing the number of voters, serving everyone: »Innovation and Justice«.
How exactly does that look in the election year 2021?
SPIEGEL editors scoured the 750 or so pages of the current election programs, looking for aspects that were noteworthy from their point of view. Here you write what you noticed.
Green election manifesto: The great transformation
What is really remarkable about the Greens program is the central plan: every year they want to invest an additional 50 billion euros in schools, railroad tracks, cycle paths, universities, internet cables, wind turbines, charging stations.
How is all of this supposed to be paid for?
About new debt.
The Greens are very open.
Their argument: In the long run, debts are less of a burden than crumbling infrastructure, which at some point has to be repaired for even more money.
To do this, however, the debt brake would have to be relaxed, which would not work without the Union.
The Greens make themselves dependent on their greatest political opponent.
Without investment, your planned major transformation will fail.
You want a decision: balanced budget - or large investments?
It is worth reading the program first to see what you think of this plan.
However, those who expect extremely specific suggestions will sometimes be disappointed.
How exactly and how fast should affordable buses and trains travel all over the country?
Sometimes it is said that the Greens are no longer a left party.
Anyone who believes this (whether you regret it or welcome it) could take a look at social policy - and convince yourself otherwise.
However, you have to jump a bit, or rather search directly for key words: "Guarantee insurance instead of Hartz IV", "Basic child protection", minimum wage, collective bargaining coverage, company pension scheme.
Jonas Schaible
Green Party Congress: Analysis of Chancellor candidate and election program
Election program of the CDU and CSU: Rush hour of life
One wants to »make the good better«, it says in the introduction of the 139 pages.
That means: Germany is in a great position after a good 16 years under Angela Merkel, but there could be even more under Chancellor Armin Laschet.
Doesn't sound particularly ambitious, but it shouldn't be either: the CDU and CSU don't want to overwhelm anyone and use this approach to calculate the best possible election opportunities.
We'll see if that works.
What I like about the program is the commitment to a deficiency that citizens with small children in particular are likely to feel in their daily lives: time.
My wife and I are constantly driven between the demands of everyday work and the needs of our children (and our own every now and then) - and our parents are not getting any younger either.
"We want a family-friendly world of work and not families that meet the needs of the labor market," says the CDU and CSU.
And then there is talk of "parents in certain phases of life" reducing their work phases and being able to pursue their profession with all their might in other times.
This applies »especially in the› rush hour of life ‹«.
That’s a word.
The Union wants to solve this through »family time accounts«, parents should also »be able to use saved time to work less in the family phase without financial disadvantages«, and there should also be state subsidies.
We will also see whether that will work.
But the plan sounds good at first.
Florian Gathmann
Laschet and the Union's program: Sounds like Merkel's fifth term in office
SPD election program: Hippiness in black and white
The SPD wants to appear more casual.
And so the comrades put forward a rather lean program.
The »future program« comprises just 66 pages, which is a minor revolution for the SPD.
The so-called digital matrix is also new.
This has little to do with the Keanu Reeves cinema series, but is an online attempt by the party.
With keywords, one-word tiles and a quiz, the SPD advertises voters in the »Matrix«: program junkies can delve deeper into the party's decisions with one click.
For example in the welfare state concept with which the SPD says goodbye to Hartz IV.
Some things seem a little awkward, for example that every fourth photo feels like a black and white picture by Olaf Scholz.
The chancellor candidate doesn't really fit into the hip look.
But at least: The SPD is trying to present its messages in a more user-friendly way.
And not just to make your own functionaries happy with a program like in the past.
In terms of content, it is a rather left-wing program.
The comrades want a minimum wage of 12 euros, citizens' insurance and wealth tax.
The topic of affordable housing is interesting.
The Social Democrats have identified it as a central social issue.
In order to combat the housing shortage and rapidly rising rents, they want to promote the construction of 100,000 social housing per year and introduce a rent freeze.
That means: In tense situations, the cost of an apartment should not rise faster than inflation.
Christian Teevs
Social and financial policy in the SPD program: Promote and challenge - now with a new recipe
FDP election program: Small ideas, big impact
Many classics are presented, with which the Liberals tried to lure the audience even earlier.
This applies above all to the promise »to provide lasting and significant relief to the citizens of Germany in terms of taxes and duties«.
The Liberals want to abolish the solidarity surcharge and the sparkling wine tax, reject a wealth tax and a tightening of inheritance tax and want to "reduce the tax burden for employees and employers back to below 40 percent."
Doubts are allowed as to whether this makes sense after the record spending of the pandemic on health protection and economic aid.
But party leader Christian Lindner makes tax cuts a condition for government participation - at least he says.
Elsewhere the party is no longer the same.
It also devotes itself extensively to those at the bottom of society.
This is more convincing than the chapter on climate policy, where some things are made dependent on technologies that have not yet been invented.
The word "social rise" occurs 17 times, and in the FDP itself, many social climbers have also made their way up politically.
The welfare state must "encourage, unleash potential and really reward effort."
The FDP wants to introduce better rules on additional income for Hartz IV, so the income of young people from families who receive Hartz IV should not be taken into account "up to the amount of a mini-job".
But sometimes it is also small ideas that can have a big impact.
For years, educators and politicians have been discussing how to make the memory of the Holocaust less elitist.
The young FDP member Phil Hackemann had a nice idea that made it into the electoral program: »The Day of Remembrance of the Victims of National Socialism on January 27th is to be upgraded by observing a nationwide minute of silence on the model of the Israeli Yom HaScho ' a. ”In Israel, social life rests for a minute on Yom HaScho'a, and sirens sound.
Regardless of whether the FDP is involved in the next government or not - this idea should be implemented.
Christoph Schult
Government ambitions and election program of the FDP: Lindner's limited scope
Left election manifesto: A lot of empathy and very concrete
The left has dusted off a little with its new election manifesto.
The bad-tempered jargon, which is often peculiar to the comrades, can hardly be found in the paper ("the rulers", "the corporations", "capitalism").
To this end, the party relies on empathy, writes a lot about "dreams" that one wants to fulfill, even about "love".
It is amazing how specific the left is in its election manifesto.
In terms of income tax, she promises relief for all people who earn less than 6500 euros gross per month - and shows very clearly how she wants to do that.
Above all, millionaires want to grab their pockets.
Property ownership is not included in taxable assets.
Sometimes, however, this accuracy also seems strange, for example with the proposals for structural change.
For example, the left wants to get out of coal earlier - large-scale hemp plantations are to be created in the former coal mines.
Lufthansa and Bahn want to transfer the left into a state company.
Regional airports are to be closed.
Domestic flights that can be covered by train within five hours are to be banned.
Employees in the aviation industry who lose their jobs as a result should then be deployed straight away to expand the rail network.
The party has to be credited with this: it actually thinks about every job lost as a result of its measures, how things could go on with those affected.
In the end, the party formulates a few goals by which it wants to be measured in the event of government participation.
The dissolution of NATO called for by the left or the withdrawal of the Bundeswehr from all missions abroad does not appear there.
That is wise, because the left is demonstrating its will to govern: It is aware of what could in no way be implemented with its potential government partners, the SPD and the Greens.
Timo Lehmann
Left party conference with program debate: Thanks for cooling off, see you next Zoff
AfD election program: stuffy and tight
Anyone who talks about the AfD's election manifesto has to talk about Björn Höcke.
Because the Thuringian AfD country chief ensured that central passages were tightened.
Höcke, who has been a right-wing extremist for the Protection of the Constitution since 2020, aimed primarily at the party's classic topic - the limitation of migration.
Now the "rejection of any family reunification for refugees" is required.
What's surprising about that?
After all, the draft of the program commission still said that "recognized refugees" should be allowed to join them "only under strict conditions."
Sometimes it comes down to a few words in order to take things in a more extreme way in Höcke's sense.
But it would be excessive to hold Höcke solely responsible for some demands.
There are also enough other forces that have been able to enforce their radical signature, such as the so-called liberal wing around a group of financial politicians.
They ensured that the goal of a »Dexit« - Germany's exit from the EU - was included in the election manifesto.
The AfD is now wooing its supporters with the promise that they consider “Germany's exit” from the EU and the establishment of “a new European economic and interest group to be necessary”.
How is that supposed to happen, what are the consequences?
Answers to this: none.
Anyone reading the 205 pages will not only come across the traces of Höcke, the EU and euro opponents, the gender and climate critics, but also the self-proclaimed interpreter of history.
One turns "against the abuse of the German Empire", which is "inappropriately defamed as a backward injustice state", it says in the culture section.
Such sentences may seem bizarre, but give an idea of how the AfD wants their Federal Republic: stuffy and tight.
Severin Weiland
AfD election manifesto: Openly radical
