A German coalition proposal to revoke the citizenship of dual-nationals if they were terrorism supporters, antisemites, or extremists has raised the ire of NGOs such as the Human Rights Watch (HRW), which warned on Thursday that the idea instrumentalized citizenship to pursue political agendas and would threaten free speech.
During the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Christian Social Union (CSU), and Social Democratic Party (SPD) federal government coalition talks, according to Deutsche Welle, the CSU and CDU conservative bloc proposed for the coalition agreement to include the amendment to the German Basic Law.
HRW warned that the proposal did not define who would be considered an antisemite or terrorist supporter, and without a clear definition in criminal law, there were no safeguards to prevent the arbitrary application of the proposal.
“The SPD and other parties in parliament should reject the CDU/CSU proposal, which would foment division and discrimination,” wrote HRW researcher Almaz Teffera in a Thursday dispatch. “Instead, parties should ensure that all German citizens have equal rights under the law.”
The Basic Law stipulates that “no German may be deprived of his citizenship” unless they did “not become stateless as a result,” with HRW noting that such clauses were included in response to the Nazi regime’s stripping Jews of citizenship during the Holocaust.
Germany’s nationality law already allows the revocation of citizenship due to participation in fighting on behalf of a foreign terrorist organization or foreign volunteer military service without Defense Ministry approval.
Immigration has become a key issue in German elections, with concerns over integration and escalating levels of domestic terrorism and antisemitic incidents.
CSU leader Markus Söder wrote on Facebook in February that citizenship should not be the beginning of the integration process but the end of it.
“Whoever demands a caliphate and wants to change our country must lose dual citizenship and return to his homeland,” said Söder. “We don’t want a caliphate in Germany!”
Revoking citizenship of dual nationals
An October survey found that the states of Bavaria, Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Schleswig-Holstein, Hesse, and Rhineland-Palatinate were open to changing the law to revoke the citizenship of dual-nationals who committed antisemitic crimes.
Bavaria’s Interior Minister, Joachim Herrmann, reportedly said in response to the survey that the declaration of commitment to Jewish life in the country was not enough and that “Germans with dual nationality who have been convicted of a serious crime endangering the state must lose their German citizenship.”
A June 27 citizenship change restricted eligibility for individuals who denied the Holocaust, shared certain anti-Israel slogans or otherwise contravened the country’s commitment to the protection of Jews.
Questions pertaining to the Holocaust, Judaism, and Israel were included in the citizenship test of thirty-three questions.
Debates about the leaked proposal came as Germany was set to deport four foreign residents of Berlin over their actions during pro-Palestinian protests.
According to the JTA, the three EU citizens and one US citizen were accused of indirectly supporting Hamas and pro-Hamas organizations. Two had allegedly called an officer a “fascist,” and three chanted, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” – an outlawed slogan.