Germany’s Cabinet Approves a Diluted Law on Citizenship

Pressured by political opponents on both the left and the right, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s Cabinet approved a new citizenship law Tuesday so stripped of its original objectives that it marks little change from the restrictive status quo.

Schroeder’s Social Democrats and their partners in government, the environmentalist Greens, agreed in October to push a dramatic liberalization of the 1913 law that has largely limited citizenship to those of German blood.

But their initial version, offering German passports to foreigners who have lived legally here for eight years or more and allowing dual citizenship for the children of immigrants, has been watered down. Under the revised draft, dual nationals must choose between Germany and their parents’ country by age 23.

The plan advanced to the federal Parliament, where approval in both houses is expected. It is the first casualty of a leadership crisis afflicting Germany, where the reforming spirit in the alliance of Social Democrats and Greens has been bent, if not broken, by political misfortunes.

Easing citizenship requirements for some of the 7.3 million foreigners residing in Germany was a priority issue with the Greens when they forged a coalition agreement with the Social Democrats in the weeks after Schroeder’s Sept. 27 victory over former Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

But Kohl’s conservative Christian Democratic Union stoked up such passionate opposition to the dual citizenship proposal that the Social Democrats and Greens were defeated in a state election in Hesse last month, depriving the governing parties of their majority in the upper house of Parliament.

To have a chance of winning upper house endorsement of the new law, Schroeder had to revoke the dual citizenship option.

Many of those who have fulfilled the current 15-year residency requirement to apply for German citizenship have refused to do so because they must first renounce citizenship in their native countries, often sacrificing inheritance rights and unfettered travel to visit relatives.

After the defeat in Hesse, the Social Democrats and Greens agreed to put forward the more modest reform in hopes of winning swift parliamentary approval. Schroeder wants the new law enacted before the next contentious election--a June 6 ballot in the city-state of Bremen.

Squabbling within the coalition and between the leftist and centrist factions of the Social Democratic Party has inflicted serious damage to Schroeder’s image as a fresh force guiding Germany toward more flexible economic and social practices.

Schroeder’s Cabinet also recently executed a flip-flop in its energy policy, retreating from a plan to shut down Germany’s 19 nuclear power plants after complaints from industrial leaders and waste-processing clients in Britain and France.

Schroeder suffered another political setback with the surprise resignation last week of Oskar Lafontaine, the Social Democrats’ leftist party chief and federal finance minister. Lafontaine told journalists Sunday that he left because the new government was hamstrung by “bad teamwork.”

Tuesday’s mass resignation of European Union commissioners also confronts Schroeder with new problems. Germany currently presides over the 15-nation common market.

Should next week’s EU summit in Berlin fail to approve vital financing reforms because of the personnel distractions, the German government could suffer an even more profound loss of authority among voters who were promised some reprieve from the lopsided burden of being the EU’s chief paymaster.