The leader of the German opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Friedrich Merz, has sparked controversy with his recent proposal to reform the Citizenship Act, DPA reported.
“Friedrich Merz is deliberately playing with the right-wing populist fire and is unfit to be chancellor of all Germans“, said today the co-chair of the ruling German Social Democratic Party (SPD) Saskia Esken.
Merz, the candidate for chancellor of the center-right CDU/CSU bloc, told the newspaper “Welt“ that dual citizenship should be limited and abolished in cases of crimes.
“We are bringing additional problems into the country. "At the very least, it should be possible to revoke German citizenship if we admit that we made a mistake with people who have committed crimes," Merz said.
Esken told Stern magazine that the request would turn naturalized Germans into "second-class citizens."
Dual citizenship has become easier to acquire in Germany since last year, after the government of Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz passed a reform of the citizenship law. The measure allowed well-integrated residents to acquire German citizenship in just five years, instead of the previous eight.