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What could the Hesse elections mean for international residents?

With state elections fast approaching in the central German state and a skills shortage a key issue, we looked at the policies of all the different parties to see what they could mean for international residents.

Published: 27 September 2023 09:38 CEST
Updated: 7 October 2023 08:47 CEST

An AfD supporter holds a "campaign finale" leaflet that shows the portraits of the top Hessian AfD candidates for the state election in her head. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Andreas Arnold

On October 8th, the state election will be held in the German state of Hesse – home of the banking hub of Frankfurt am Main – which could have an impact on a federal level, as well as for the state’s international residents.

With 6.4 million inhabitants, the forested central state has been ruled by the Christian Democrats (CDU) uninterrupted for the last 24 years, and is currently governed by a so-called “Black-Green” coalition led by incumbent state premier Boris Rhein alongside the Greens as junior partner.

The state’s current legislative period has been particularly turbulent, with the COVID-19 pandemic, the assassination of Walter Lübke by the far-right as well as the racist attack in Hanau when 11 people were murdered. There was also the suicide of CDU finance minister Thomas Schäfer.

Challenging Rhein in the elections along the Rhine River is a familiar face from national politics, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser of Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD). Standing as the head of the Hesse branch of the SPD, Faeser hopes to come in first place and become prime minister of the wealthy state. But the polls aren’t in her favour, with the SPD currently tied neck-and-neck with the Greens at 18 percent, with the CDU significantly ahead at 30 percent.

Here’s what each party is proposing:

Social Democrats (SPD)

The SPD has decided to focus on the shortage of skills, known as the Fachkraftmangel. They claim that Hesse alone will be lacking 180,000 qualified workers in the coming years, whether those are physical labourers, factory workers, daycare workers or teachers.

Nancy Faeser (SPD), Federal Minister of the Interior/leading candidate for the Hesse elections. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Andreas Arnold

The Social Democrats have set a number of policies aimed at making immigration easier. These include:

Setting diversity quotas in public offices so that “the diversity of society is reflected in state administration”
Free integration and German language courses, for EU and non-EU citizens
Simplifying the state’s official bureaucratic language and introducing multilingual aids to help people fill in the sometimes complex forms needed to register for life in Germany
Allowing non-EU citizens to vote in local elections after 6 years if they have permanent residency

It’s worth noting that the proposal to allow non-EU citizens to vote was initially for after just six months, though this was described as “an editorial error” and changed to six years after backlash.

Christian Democrats (CDU)

Having governed stably with the Greens through challenging times, Boris Rhein is considered a moderate conservative and has criticised any hints from within his own party that it should cooperate with the far-right AfD. After two and a half decades of state government, the CDU was never going to offer a political revolution in this election. Nevertheless, there are still some new policies which could affect international residents, including:

“Hessengeld”: a grant of €10,000 for first-time house buyers, with an additional €5000 for each child
Converting former commercial property into housing
Enabling access to high-speed fibre optic internet by 2030
Creating an independent state secretary for migration issues
Making compulsory “rule of law” classes available in every district, as well as introducing measures demanding sufficient German language skills

Greens

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Greens are primarily focused on building Hesse’s capacity for renewable energy and want to make the state climate-neutral by 2035 at the latest, instead of the current target of 2045. With record polling, the current deputy state premiere Tarek Al-Wazir is presenting himself as a candidate for the state’s top job as Ministerpräsident for the first time, but it is more likely that they will govern again with the CDU as they may not have the votes for a coalition with the SPD and FDP or a left wing red-red-green coalition alongside the SPD and Left Party.

On international issues, the Greens seem to have more in common with the left-leaning SPD than their current coalition partners when it comes to international and migration-related issues. Their policies include:

Setting up a welcome centre for skilled international workers which helps with the recognition of foreign qualifications and with residency law
Reduction of bureaucracy, with forms written in simple language and provided in languages other than German
Expanding public transport, including hourly buses statewide during the day time and a new night bus network.
Letting districts decide on their own speed limits in cities
Write a state anti-discrimination law and introduce a special prosecutor’s office for hate crimes
Allowing asylum seekers to change their status to immigrants, which would allow well-integrated and qualified people to remain in Germany

Free Democrat Party (FDP)

The FDP are quite a small party in Hesse and have declared that their goal is to get over 10 percent of the vote and re-enter government alongside the CDU after nine years in opposition, though this currently seems unlikely as they don’t have enough votes for a coalition with just the CDU. Their priorities will be on business, education, and digitalisation, with policies including:

Recognising foreign qualifications quickly
Fibre optic and 5G internet for everyone in Hesse by the end of the legislative period by measures such as installing mobile internet masts inside new and renovated publicly funded buildings
Introducing fully digitalised e-voting by 2028
A digital strategy in schools implementing fast wifi statewide, alongside tablets instead of textbooks and compulsory computer science lessons.
Allowing all immigrants to start work immediately

This last rule is set federally, so it is unlikely to change.

Left Party

Hesse was considered the Left Party’s stronghold in western Germany for a long time having entered state parliament in 2008. The current national co-leader of the party Janine Wissler was head of Hesse’s state Left Party before taking the top job.

But a local sexual harassment scandal, as well as infighting on a national scale, have left the far-left party wondering if it will be able to pass the 5 percent hurdle and re-enter the state parliament this time. They could potentially govern alongside the SPD and Greens like in neighbouring Thuringia. Their policies include:

Abolish the scandal-ridden state Office of Constitutional Protection
Abolish homework in schools and allow school classes to take place in widely spoken languages other than German
Allow workers to choose between working from home or the office
Simplify and digitalise public offices and introduce e-government services and citizen’s apps
Replace the monthly €49 Deutschland ticket with an annual so-called €365 ticket, following the model of Vienna where residents pay just €1 a day for public transport
Limit air traffic at Frankfurt airport to 1995 levels and stop short-term flights
Found a publicly owned non-profit housing company and buy or expropriate houses from corporations like Vonovia

Alternative for Germany (AfD)

Despite polling at 14 percent, the far-right AfD are very unlikely to enter state government in Hesse due to the well-established convention in German politics of democratic parties not cooperating with the far-right.

According to local news website Hessenschau, the party’s manifesto (Wahlprogramm) focuses on national and international issues, without many local policies. Nonetheless, there are some policies that could affect international residents and people wanting to move to Hesse from overseas:

Recruit skilled workers from non-EU countries only in extreme cases
Digitise the housing approvals processes
Expanding the A3, A5, A7 and A45 motorways

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Output is expected to expand 0.3 percent this year, the economy ministry said, up from a prediction of 0.2 percent in February.

The slightly rosier picture comes after improvements in key indicators — from factory output to business activity — boosted hopes a recovery may be getting under way.

The German economy shrank slightly last year, hit by soaring inflation, a manufacturing slowdown and weakness in trading partners, and has acted as a major drag on the 20-nation eurozone.

But releasing its latest projections, the economy ministry said in a statement there were growing indications of a “turning point”.

“Signs of an economic upturn have increased significantly, especially in recent weeks,” Economy Minister Robert Habeck said at a press conference.

The ministry also cut its forecast for inflation this year to 2.4 percent, from a previous prediction of 2.8 percent, and sees the figure falling below two percent next year.

“The fall in inflation will lead to consumer demand — people have more money in their wallets again, and will spend this money,” said Habeck.

“So purchasing power is increasing, real wages are rising and this will contribute to a domestic economic recovery.”

Energy prices — which surged after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine — had also fallen and supply chain woes had eased, he added.

Several months ago there had been expectations of a strong rebound in 2024, with forecasts of growth above one percent, but these were dialled back at the start of the year as the economy continued to languish.

‘Germany has fallen behind’

But improving signs have fuelled hopes the lumbering economy — while not about to break into a sprint — may at least be getting back on its feet.

On Wednesday a closely-watched survey from the Ifo institute showed business sentiment rising for a third consecutive month in April, and more strongly than expected.

A key purchasing managers’ index survey this week showed that business activity in Germany had picked up.

And last week the central bank, the Bundesbank, forecast the economy would expand slightly in the first quarter, dodging a recession, after earlier predicting a contraction.

German Economics Minister Robert Habeck

Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) presents the latest economic forecasts at a press conference in Berlin on Wednesday, April 24th. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Michael Kappeler

Despite the economy’s improving prospects, growth of 0.3 percent is still slower than other developed economies and below past rates, and officials fret it is unlikely to pick up fast in the years ahead.

Habeck has repeatedly stressed solutions are needed for deep-rooted problems facing Germany, from an ageing population to labour shortages and a transition towards greener industries that is moving too slowly.

“Germany has fallen behind other countries in terms of competitiveness,” he said. “We still have a lot to do — we have to roll up our sleeves.”

Already facing turbulence from pandemic-related supply chain woes, the German economy’s problems deepened dramatically when Russia invaded Ukraine and slashed supplies of gas, hitting the country’s crucial manufacturers hard.

While the energy shock has faded, continued weakness in trading partners such as China, widespread strikes in recent months and higher eurozone interest rates have all prolonged the pain.

The European Central Bank has signalled it could start cutting borrowing costs in June, which would boost the eurozone.

But Habeck stressed that care was still needed as, despite the expectations of imminent easing, “tight monetary policy has not yet been lifted.”

In addition, disagreements in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party ruling coalition are hindering efforts to reignite growth, critics say.

This week the pro-business FDP party, a coalition partner, faced an angry backlash from Scholz’s SPD when it presented a 12-point plan for an “economic turnaround”, including deep cuts to state benefits.

Christian Lindner, the fiscally hawkish FDP finance minister, welcomed signs of “stabilisation” in the economic forecasts but stressed that projected medium-term growth was “too low to sustainably finance our state”.

“There are no arguments for postponing the economic turnaround,” he added.