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Update: ‘We were wrong’ about German spy chief’s promotion: SPD boss Nahles

The leaders in Germany's grand coalition will renegotiate the planned promotion of the former head of the German domestic intelligence agency.

Published: 21 September 2018 16:29 CEST

Update: 'We were wrong' about German spy chief's promotion: SPD boss Nahles

Andrea Nahles, SPD leader. Photo: DPA

Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) agreed to renegotiate the future of Hans-Georg Maaßen, former President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, after a call from SPD leader Andrea Nahles.

Nahles, along with Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and CSU leader Horst Seehofer, had agreed on Tuesday to sack Maaßen as head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. But as part of the deal he was promised a position as secretary of state in the Interior Ministry.

“The Chancellor considers it right and appropriate to reassess the issues at stake and to find a viable joint solution,” government spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Friday.

Meanwhile, Seehofer also said later on Friday that he would not rule out a new consultation with Merkel and Nahles about the Maaßen case.

“I think a renewed consultation makes sense if a mutual solution is possible. This is now being considered,” Seehofer told the DPA on Friday.

The decision was sparked after Maaßen gave comments in a newspaper interview on xenophobic incidents in Chemnitz. He had questioned the authenticity of amateur video footage, seemingly contradicting Merkel, and was also accused of having questionable links to the far-right.

There was a huge resistance to the deal within the Social Democrats (SPD), with former party leader Sigmar Gabriel calling the move to transfer Maaßen as “crazy”.

Deputy SPD chairman Ralf Stegner also challenged the grand coalition, saying patience among SPD member was “extremely thin”.

“I am of the opinion that the leaders of the coalition should meet again to discuss the important but very different concerns of the coalition partners,” Nahles wrote in a letter to Merkel and Seehofer, which was initially reported by Spiegel Online.

The SPD leader successfully pushed for Maaßen’s dismissal, whose suitability in the fight against far-right extremism was doubted by the party.

Federal Interior Minister Seehofer, who, unlike Merkel and Nahles, supported Maaßen, planned to take him in return for the position of SPD State Secretary in his ministry.

Seehofer emphasized that he wanted Maaßen’s expertise in the fight against terrorism. On Thursday he praised Maaßen as a “competent, honest employee”.

With his headstrong decision, however, the CSU leader brought the SPD into severe turbulence – there were demands at the grassroots level to end the grand coalition.

“The consistently negative reactions from the population show that we were wrong,” Nahles wrote.

“We have lost confidence instead of restoring it,” she said. “That should be a reason for us to pause together and rethink the appointment.”

The call from Nahles came during a turbulent time in German politics.

On Friday, a poll found that the Alternative for Germany had overtaken the SPD for the first time as the second strongest party in Germany.

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What are the next steps for Germany's long-awaited dual nationality law?

After months and months of waiting, “I’ll believe it when I see it” has become many people’s response to hearing about the upcoming dual nationality law.

But on Thursday, November 30th, the bill finally made its way to the Bundestag for its first reading and entered the last furlong in its journey to becoming law.

If you’re one of the people waiting on tenterhooks to see Germany’s citizenship rules eased up, the good news is: it’s coming. In fact, it even looks like dual nationality and shorter residence requirements could become a reality in spring next year.

But before the law comes into force, there are a few more hurdles it needs to clear.

What happens after the Bundestag debate?

Thursday’s debate marked the first of three readings that the citizenship law will need to pass in the Bundestag.

The first is always the main opportunity politicians have to debate the law and argue for changes – or, in the case of the opposition conservatives, to say the bill is terrible and needs to be thrown out completely. (Don’t worry, that’s not going to happen!)

After this first reading, the bill then gets passed on to various committees. Unlike the parliamentary debate, which is mainly about political grandstanding, it’s here behind closed doors that the real work starts to happen. Politicians will chew over what the bill looks like and discuss what kind of amendments need to be made – if any at all.

This means that when the bill returns to the debating chamber for its second reading, it may look different from when it arrived there the first time around.

Having just cleared its first reading on Thursday, the citizenship reform bill is currently in that all-important committee stage. If we’re going to see any tweaks to the law, those will happen in these committee meetings over the coming weeks.

So when will the citizenship bill get its next outing in public? Well, at the moment it looks like that could be next year.

Turkish and German passport

A German and Turkish passport are held up in parliament in Kiel. Photo: picture alliance / Carsten Rehder/dpa | Carsten Rehder

With politicians jetting off to their favourite ski resorts for Christmas after December 15th, there’s only a very narrow window for any changes to made and for the bill to return to the debating chamber. That means that the next reading will probably happen once MPs return from their break on January 15th.

If that feels like a long time, the good news is that the second and third reading can often happen in very quick succession. In fact, if there are no extra amendments proposed during the second reading, the third happens directly after that. This is when the bill goes to a vote.

Then all it takes is for the bill to be rubber-stamped in the Bundesrat and by the Chancellor and President before it finally becomes law. There’s usually a three-month delay while public officials try and get organised and implement the changes, which means we’re hopefully going to see the new citizenship law enter into force in April.

Did we learn anything new in the first reading?

Yes! The debate may be a bit of a formality, but some interesting things did slip out during the speeches made by MPs.

We knew that the government has become intensely focussed on the issue of anti-Semitism with regards to the citizenship law, but we learned that it is now making some big strides in trying to tighten up this part of the legislation.

In her speech on Thursday, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser covered many of the usual talking points, saying that the changes to citizenship the government is planning are overdue and are a crucial step in making Germany a modern country of immigration like Canada, Australia or the United States.

What was new this time around, however, is that the bulk of her speech was dedicated to highlighting Germany’s liberal democratic principles and underscoring that people with racist or anti-Semitic views have no chance of becoming German.

She even gave a nod to proposals to include some kind of declaration acknowledging Israel’s right to exist as part of the citizenship process – an idea put forward by both the CDU and FDP in the wake of the October 7th Hamas attacks.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser Bundestag

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) presents the dual citizenship law in the Bundestag. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Melissa Erichsen

“Denying Israel’s right to exist is anti-Semitic and if there is a need to change the law in this regard, I am open to it,” Faeser said.

Justice Minister Marco Buschmann of the FDP also gave an interesting insight into the way the government is thinking.

He said that in many ways, the citizenship law was actually making naturalisation more challenging for immigrants rather than less.

As an example, he said people who had claimed any kind of social welfare payment would not be able to naturalise as Germans – with the exception of people from the guest worker generation who had worked and paid taxes all their lives.

He also said that in the past, minor offences listed in the federal police register had pretty much no impact on applications for citizenship.

In future, though, case workers at citizenship offices will be compelled to ask prosecutors if there was an anti-Semitic or racist motive behind even the most trivial offences. If there is, the offender is barred from becoming German.

Another key thing we witnessed was that the CDU remains vehemently opposed to the bill and wants to add clauses that would allow dual nationals to be stripped of their German citizenship if they are found to be anti-Semites.

In a heated speech during the debate on Thursday, the CDU’s Philipp Amthor said the party would oppose the bill “with all our might”. Though they have very little chance of stopping the process, expect to see the opposition kicking up a fuss at every possible opportunity.

What’s this law all about anyway?

For many foreigners, the most significant change to Germany’s citizenship laws will be allowing people to hold multiple nationalities at once.

Currently, most non-EU citizens have to give up their existing passport when they become German – a painful decision that many would rather avoid.

When the new law comes in, all this will be a thing of the past, and people will no longer have to choose between different parts of their identity.

INTERVIEW: What is the biggest problem foreigners face when applying for German citizenship?

As well as dual nationality, the bill also slashes the residence time required for naturalisation to just five years as opposed to eight. For people who can prove they’re very well integrated, with C1 German and a career in public service, for instance, this can be dropped to three.

A woman shows the booklet with her naturalisation certificate at Neukölln town hall in Berlin in April 2016. Photo: picture alliance / dpa | Klaus-Dietmar Gabbert

Other key changes include automatic citizenship for the children of non-EU foreigners after the parents have lived in Germany for five years or more.

People will also have to prove they are financially stable and not dependent on state welfare such as Bürgergeld (long-term unemployment) to survive. This doesn’t include Arbeitslosengeld I, which is generally treated as insurance rather than welfare.

Many of the other criteria will stay the same, but people over 67 can dispense with formal language tests and there will also be a hardship clause for people who don’t have time to learn German due to caring responsibilities, for example.

For a full breakdown of the law and what it means, check out our explainer below:

The key points of Germany’s draft law on dual citizenship

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