The election touchstones are intended to provide an indication of the parties’ positions on issues such as these:
How interested are the parties in the interests of people who do not feel they belong to any denomination or religious community and who represent a large social group with an average of more than a third of the population (source: remid.de/statistik)?
Which parties oppose the discrimination of non-denominational employees due to the privileges enjoyed by churches in employment law?
Which parties want to stand up for the right to self-determination, including at the end of life, and which want to protect women’s sexual and reproductive rights?
From whom can voters expect a commitment to the equal treatment of religious and non-religious people by the state and in society, and where not?
The parties’ positions on these issues are of interest to all voters who wish to contribute to contemporary relations between the state and religions or world views and to an end to discrimination against non-denominational and non-religious citizens through laws or church-based political action.
“We call for the development of a contemporary worldview and religious constitutional law within the framework of the cooperative secularism that characterizes the Basic Law. Equal rights, equal opportunities – so that non-denominational people do not have to see themselves as ‘second-class citizens’ in any area of public, political and social life,” says the introduction to the list of questions on the occasion of the Bundestag elections on September 24, 2017.
Read more – Topics of the election touchstones
Topic 1: Dialogue between political parties and non-denominational groups
Topic 2: Discrimination against employees
Topic 3: Handover of church tax collection to the religious communities
Topic 4: Replacing historical state achievements and democratic renewal
Topic 5: State culture of celebration and commemoration
Topic 7: Humanistic counseling/pastoral care
Topic 8: Sexual self-determination and self-determined family planning
Topic 9: Self-determination at the end of life
