Current Chancellor Friedrich Merz has made the repeal of several liberalized citizenship laws introduced by his predecessor a key part of his election campaign.
However, after his CDU reached a coalition agreement with the SPD, only the law on accelerated citizenship remained under attack — with both CDU and SPD agreeing on this change.
“The German passport should be the end of the integration process, not the beginning,” the CDU wrote in its election program, despite the law requiring immigrants to prove they are “exceptionally well integrated” before obtaining fast-track citizenship.
What did the citizenship law entail?
For decades, Germany lagged behind several other European countries because it allowed dual citizenship only to people who were already citizens of an EU member state, or in very specific cases to non-EU migrants without automatic residency rights.
In July 2024, the SPD-led coalition — which included the Greens and the neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP) — introduced two new pathways to citizenship, including the possibility for immigrants to retain their first passport.
The first law shortened the waiting period for applying for citizenship from eight to five years of residence in Germany, requiring a certificate of intermediate German language proficiency and proof of sufficient income to support oneself and one’s family.
The fast-track option allowed applicants to wait only three years if they could demonstrate advanced German language skills and other evidence of good integration into German society. This is the very law that the Bundestag repealed on Wednesday.
Although there is still no exact number of people who obtained German citizenship through the fast-track route, public broadcaster ARD reported that immigration offices recorded an extremely small number of applicants.
What did critics say?
Opposition politicians and migration researchers claim that this change will send a message to highly qualified immigrants that they are not welcome in Germany at a time when the country is suffering from demographic decline.
Green Party chairman Felix Banazsak told the portal Web.de that this change is “the wrong signal at a time when we need all our strength — whether someone has lived here for three years or three generations.”
MORE TOPICS:
GREEK PAID THE PRICE FOR A BAD START: Crvena Zvezda sacked Giannis Sfairopoulos! (FOTO)
Source: Euronews; Foto: AP / Markus Schreiber