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German sports minister to attend World Cup amid human rights row

German Interior Minister and Sport Minister Nancy Faeser intends to be in attendance when Germany kick off their football World Cup campaign against Japan, a spokesman said Monday.

Published: 21 November 2022 15:51 CET
German sports minister to attend World Cup amid human rights row
Faeser during an interview on November 17th. picture alliance/dpa/dpa-POOL | Hannes P Albert

Faeser “plans to travel on to Qatar” following a working visit to Turkey, the spokesman said.

The presence of officials at the tournament has been surrounded by controversy amid criticism of the organisers’ record on human rights and the treatment of migrant workers.

Faeser wanted to “support” the German men’s team in their opening game at the Khalifa International Stadium on Wednesday, the spokesman said.

“At the same time she has stressed that she wants to continue her dialogue with the Qatari government on domestic reforms, in particular the improvement of the human rights situation,” he said.

Faeser had previously described the award of the World Cup to Qatar as “very tricky”, and said “it would be better that tournaments are not awarded to such states”.

She already signalled her intention to be at the game against Japan following a trip to the Gulf state at the end of October, where she received assurances over the safety for LGBTQ fans.

Ahead of the tournament, the Danish government announced that no ministers nor Copenhagen’s ambassador would attend the opening ceremony or any matches.

Officially, the Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was busy building a new cabinet following her election victory earlier in November.

Olaf Scholz’s spokesman Steffen Hebestreit last week could not confirm that the chancellor would be in attendance were the German team to progress to the final.

In protest of the games, several sports bars around Germany have announced that they will not be showing the games, or using them to raise awareness of the human rights situation in Qatar.

READ ALSO: German football bars boycott ‘unacceptable’ Qatar World Cup

Former comments

The World Cup has been viewed with increasing scrutiny in Germany. Qatar will accept gay visitors but “they have to accept our rules”, former international footballer Khalid Salman said in a controversial interview with the Germany’s ZDF broadcaster earlier this month.

Salman also said homosexuality was “haram” — forbidden in Islam — during the interview, which was abruptly broken off after his comments.

Faeser called Salman’s comments “awful”. “That is also the reason why we are working to hopefully improve things in Qatar in the future,” she added.

READ ALSO: How a World Cup controversy started a human rights debate in Germany

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GERMAN CITIZENSHIP

German conservatives vow to overturn dual citizenship if re-elected

Foreigners in Germany are waiting on tenterhooks for the introduction of the new dual nationality law on Thursday - but the centre-right CDU and CSU say they would overturn the reform if re-elected next year.

Published: 25 June 2024 12:06 CEST
German conservatives vow to overturn dual citizenship if re-elected

“The CDU and CSU will reverse this unsuccessful reform,” Alexander Throm (CDU), spokesperson on domestic policy for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, told DPA on Tuesday.

“Dual citizenship must remain the exception and be limited to countries that share our values.”

Throm also criticised the new citizenship law for reducing the amount of time foreigners need to live in the country before naturalising as Germans, describing the new residence requirements as “far too short”.

“After five or even three years, it is not yet possible to determine with certainty whether integration has been successful in the long term,” he stated.

“The recent caliphate demonstrations and the rampant Islamist extremism, often by people with German passports, must be a wake-up call for us all.”

READ ALSO: Which foreign residents are likely to become German after citizenship law change?

Despite vociferous opposition, the alliance between the Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party (CSU) was powerless to stop the traffic-light coalition’s citizenship reform passing in both the Bundestag and Bundesrat earlier this year. 

The reform, which permits the holding of multiple passports, lowers residence requirements and removes language hurdles for certain groups, is set to come into force on June 27th. 

But with the CDU and CSU emerging as clear winners in the recent EU parliamentary elections and regularly landing on 30 percent or above in the polls, it’s possible that the party could be on course to re-enter government next year. 

In this situation, the centre-right parties have pledged to try and undo what senior CDU politicians have described as a “dangerous” reform.

“It is not unusual for successive governments to reverse decisions made by the previous government,” Andrea Lindholz, the head of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group said in a recent response to a question. 

“We will maintain our position on this and will continue to strive for a corresponding change.”

READ ALSO: What are citizenship offices around Germany doing to prepare for the new law?

Whether the CDU and CSU can secure enough votes at both state and federal elections to change the law in the future remains to be seen.

The parties may also have to compromise on their plans with any future coalition partner, such as the Greens, Social Democrats (SPD) or Free Democrats (FDP), all of whom support liberal immigration laws and the holding of multiple nationalities. 

‘Citizenship devaluation law’

The CDU and CSU parties, which form a centre-right alliance nicknamed the Union, have long been opposed to dual nationality in Germany.

During their years of governing in a so-called grand coalition with the centre-right Social Democrats (SPD), the parties had regularly made reforms of citizenship one of their red lines, citing the danger of hostile nations influencing Germany from within. 

In a recent parliamentary speech back in January, Throm had slammed the bill as a “citizenship devaluation law” and accused the government of trying to generate a new electorate to win votes.

CDU politician Alexander Throm speaks in a debate in the German Bundestag

CDU politician Alexander Throm speaks in a debate in the German Bundestag. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Christoph Soeder

In comments aimed primarily at Germany’s large Turkish diaspora, the CDU politician claimed that people who had lived in Germany for decades but not taken German citizenship had already chosen their old country over Germany.

The majority of Turks in Germany are also supporters of the authoritarian president Recep Erdogan, he argued.

Responding to the claims, FDP migration expert Ann-Veruschka Jurisch said the opposition was fuelling resentments against migrants by claiming the government was “squandering German citizenship”.

In fact, she argued, the reform has tightened up requirements by ensuring that people who claim benefits and cannot support themselves are unable to become German citizens.

READ ALSO: What you need to know about Germany’s citizenship law reform

In addition, the B1 language requirements have only been softened in a few exceptional cases, for example to honour the lifetime achievements of the guest worker generation who had few opportunities when they arrived, Jurisch said. 

If foreigners have committed crimes, the authorities will be able to investigate whether these involved racist or anti-Semitic motives before citizenship is granted, she added. 

With reporting by DPA

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