Germany’s opposition leader Friedrich Merz has caused a stir with a new proposal to reform the law on citizenship.
“Friedrich Merz is deliberately playing with right-wing populist fire and is not suitable as chancellor for all Germans,” said Saskia Esken, the co-leader of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), on Monday.
Merz – the centre-right CDU/CSU bloc’s candidate for chancellor – told the Sunday edition of the Welt newspaper that dual citizenship should be limited and reversible in case of criminal offences.
“We are bringing additional problems into the country,” said Merz. “It should at least be possible to revoke German citizenship at the same level if we recognize that we have made a mistake with people who have committed criminal offences.”
Esken told the Stern magazine that the demands would turn naturalized Germans into “second-class citizens.”
Marcel Fratzscher from the German Institute for Economic Research wrote on the LinkedIn social media platform that the measure would “lead to a two-tier society” among German citizens.
Dual citizenship has been easier to acquire in Germany since last year after Scholz’s government passed a reform to the Nationality Act. The measure also allowed well-integrated residents to acquire German citizenship in just five years, down from eight.
