Overview
- Delegates in Heidelberg returned Manuel Hagel as state chair with 96.5 percent, cementing his lead role for the March 8 election.
- The CDU adopted a more‑than‑90‑page “Regierungsprogramm” featuring a new state university for artificial intelligence, a publicly backed Zukunftsfonds for struggling firms, and a roughly 10 percent reduction in administrative posts over five years via attrition.
- Education and security planks include a free mandatory final year of childcare, tighter limits on smartphones in class, required cooperation with Bundeswehr youth officers, new tools against child abuse material, and a state Security Council.
- The program drops earlier talk of abolishing two administrative levels, shifting instead to data use initiatives such as a Landesdatencloud and support for sensor, robotics, and aerospace clusters.
- Hagel named the AfD as the main rival, ruled out any cooperation, criticized SPD Labour Minister Bärbel Bas as anti‑employer, and cited polls showing the CDU at about 29–31 percent ahead of the AfD at roughly 20–21 percent with coalition options still open.