Transparency and participation

The party believes that the introduction of a lobbying register is required in order to hinder covert influence on elected officials.^[9] The party's Code of Ethics requires its own members to disclose their ancillary income and take other measures to combat lobbying. The party does not accept donations from companies.

The party calls for more citizen participation possibilities, for example, administrative decisions should be able to be made on a federal level via referendum. Similarly, the 5 percent hurdle should be lowered to 3 percent to facilitate smaller parties being represented in the Bundestag and thus more accurately reflect the opinion of the electorate.

Social justice

Social inequality is discussed in the basic program with various measures proposed to improve conditions, including reform of Hartz IV to introduce unconditional basic income,^[10] increase of the minimum wage to €12,^[11] improved working conditions for temporary workers, and creation of a fairer, standardized, pension system.

Foreign policy

The party calls for giving greater power to the European Parliament, including through the introduction of right of initiative. In the long term, it advocates the establishment of a European, federal, parliamentary republic.^[12] In negotiating free trade agreements such as TTIP and CETA, the party calls for greater democratic control and transparency, including through the establishment of an ethics committee. The party calls for the creation of safe escape routes for refugees, an international fight against the causes of the flight of refugees from their countries of origin, increased funding for international development, and increased regulation, with severe limitation, of the arms industry and for it to be completely dropped in areas of conflict. Germany should end their nuclear sharing deals, and a global ban on nuclear weapons is sought.

Sustainability

With respect to sustainability the party advocates a rapid switch to renewable energies, a decentralization of energy policy, and an introduction of an emissions tax on carbon dioxide and methane to discourage air pollution thus counteract climate change. The party calls for Organic farming to be promoted; factory farming, the patenting of living organisms, the use of genetic engineering, and glyphosate in agriculture to be ended.

Party board

The party leaders of the party Federal Association are Alexander Plitsch and Julia Beerhold. The other members of the board are Dorothee Vogt (treasurer), Benedikt Sequeira Gerardo, Narges Lankarani, Franka Kretschmer and Lea Brunn.^[13]

National associations

There are regional associations in all 16 federal states. These were founded within five weeks of the founding of the Federal Association accordingly. Shortly after the foundation of the last state association in Rhineland-Palatinate on 4 June, state lists for the 2017 federal elections were drawn up in all 16 federal states.^[14]

District associations

The first two district associations were founded in Halle (Saale) on 18 October 2017 and one day later in Karlsruhe.^[15]

Members

The party has 379 confirmed party members (as of December 31, 2017), the proportion of women is 35%. Added to this are 785 (as of 31 December 2017) confirmed "movers" in the marketplace of ideas and the plenary of mover who actively work on the preparation of initiatives,^[16] which are, after majority vote at a federal party congress, then incorporated into the party platform.^[6]

2017 federal election

The party appeared in eight states (Bavaria, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Berlin, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt) for the 2017 federal election.^[17] They won 60,826 second votes nationwide, equivalent to 0.1%.^[18] Their best results were achieved in the states of Hamburg, and Berlin; each with 0.4%. The party received her best constituency result in the constituency Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg - Prenzlauer Berg Ost in Berlin, with 0.7%.^[19]