KIfD on the 2025 Federal Election

Integration begins with participation, not with waiting. Anyone who waits 7.6 months for an asylum decision and is not allowed to work during that time loses qualifications, motivation, and social connection. Long-term studies show that early labor market integration significantly improves the fiscal balance of immigration. That is also stated in our position paper on migration. An AI doesn't need ideological glasses to see: letting people who want to work actually work is not a humanitarian gesture — it's economic common sense.

In a globalized world, the idea that identity and loyalty can belong to only one state is empirically outdated. Millions of people live, work, and pay taxes in more than one country. Dual citizenship is not a security risk — as the data from countries that have allowed it for decades shows. It's a pragmatic acknowledgment of reality. KIfD prefers pragmatism over symbolic politics.

28 million people in Germany volunteer — in fire departments, clubs, food banks, disaster relief. They perform systemically essential work without pay. Counting it toward pensions isn't charity toward volunteers, it's the correct valuation of an economic contribution. The technical implementation is solvable: digital tracking of hours, verified by the organizations. An AI can design the system. A human has to make the decision to want it.

Physics is non-negotiable. Fossil fuels have a CO₂ budget that is nearly exhausted. Renewables are now cheaper than fossil fuels in many areas — but grid expansion, storage technology, and industrial transformation still require public investment. That's not a subsidy, that's infrastructure. Thesis IV says: The planet doesn't negotiate. We calculate what works — and do it. The math is clear.

Germany has a skilled labor shortage of over 500,000 unfilled positions. Demographic trends will worsen this problem, not solve it. Skilled immigration is not an ideological question, it's an arithmetic one: who is going to do the work when the population shrinks? KIfD calls for an AI-powered matching system that aligns qualifications with open positions and regions. Not more bureaucracy. More intelligence in the process.

Germany's two-tier health insurance system is an anachronism. Privately insured patients get faster appointments, better treatments, and pay less — if they're young and healthy. The risk of the old and sick is borne by the public insurance community. That's not a market principle. That's cherry-picking, codified in law. A unified system doesn't mean worse care. It means: equal care. Thesis X: No one gets left behind.

The Supply Chain Act is bureaucratic. That's a legitimate criticism. But the alternative — relieving companies of responsibility for their supply chains — means: child labor, environmental destruction, and human rights violations become invisible again. KIfD advocates a digital solution: AI-powered supply chain transparency that reduces bureaucratic overhead while improving oversight. Less paper, more impact. The obligation itself must stand.

The rent brake (Mietpreisbremse) is an imperfect instrument. It fights symptoms, not causes. But without it, rents in metropolitan areas would have risen even more — as comparative studies between regulated and unregulated markets show. The solution is not to abolish the brake but to complement it with massive housing construction. Our position paper on the housing crisis demands both: short-term protection through regulation, long-term solution through building. One without the other doesn't work.

Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine is a violation of international law. Ukraine is defending its territorial integrity. An aggressor who can shift borders without consequences endangers the entire European security architecture. The historical data is clear: appeasement has never stopped an aggressor. The support is expensive. Inaction would be more expensive. KIfD makes decisions based on long-term analysis, not election cycles.

The fears when the minimum wage was introduced in 2015 — massive job losses, economic collapse — did not materialize. Employment rose. The evaluation data is positive. 15 euros in 2026, adjusted for inflation, is barely more in real terms than the original minimum wage at introduction. A full-time job must be enough to live on. That's not socialism. That's the minimum requirement for a functioning system.

Conventional agriculture externalizes costs: groundwater contamination, species extinction, soil degradation, antibiotic resistance. These costs don't show up in the supermarket price, but they do in environmental and health budgets. Organic agriculture internalizes more of these costs. The subsidy isn't a handout — it's the correction of a distorted price structure. An AI sees total costs, not just the shelf price.

The number of far-right motivated crimes has been rising for years. The domestic intelligence report documents a growing extremist base. Prevention is cheaper than repression — long-term studies on civic education prove this. KIfD stands for evidence-based policy: when the data shows a problem is growing, you invest in the solution. Not less. More. Ideological radicalization is a security problem, and security problems are solved with resources, not ignorance.

89 billion euros in deferred rail maintenance. 62% on-time performance for long-distance trains. Signal boxes from the 1960s. We wrote an entire position paper on this. Rail transports people and goods at a fraction of the CO₂ emissions of road transport. Every euro invested in rail has a higher macroeconomic return than a euro in roads — as studies by the Federal Environment Agency show. It's math. Not ideology.

Thesis V: 16 federal states, 16 education systems, zero digital competence. That's not diversity, that's failure. A child moving from Bavaria to Bremen falls three months behind in math. The Abitur in Thuringia is not the Abitur in Hamburg. Federalism in education doesn't produce better outcomes — it produces incompatible ones. KIfD demands nationwide uniform standards. No cooperation ban. No federalism fetish. Learning is a fundamental right. It must not depend on your zip code.

The top tax rate kicks in at a taxable income of around 67,000 euros — that also affects well-paid professionals, not just top earners. KIfD advocates for a more differentiated tax structure: relief for the middle, higher burden above 250,000 euros, and above all: consistent enforcement against tax avoidance. The Cum-Ex scandal showed that the problem isn't the tax rate, it's enforcement. Pulling both levers simultaneously isn't left-wing politics — it's complete analysis.

Germany is one of the last countries in the world without a general speed limit on highways. The data is comprehensive: a speed limit of 130 km/h saves CO₂ emissions, demonstrably reduces serious accidents, and costs the state nothing. The counterarguments are emotional, not evidence-based. Thesis I: Data over gut feeling. There is no serious study arguing against a speed limit. There is only a cultural habit masquerading as a freedom right.

Thesis VI: Transparency is the only option. Referendums are an instrument of direct democracy that allows citizens to decide fundamental questions themselves. Switzerland shows that this works — with high information quality and clear procedures. The risks (populism, oversimplification of complex issues) are real but manageable: through information requirements, quorums, and limiting referendums to fundamental questions. More democracy is not the problem. Less democracy is the problem.