Will dual citizenship be abolished in Germany?

2025-10-30 08:00:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Some politicians from the CDU/CSU Union parties have also questioned dual citizenship for people who obtain German citizenship.

"We as a country have to ask ourselves whether we still want universal dual citizenship and whether we can still afford it," CSU Bundestag member Stefan Mayer told the Bild newspaper on Wednesday.

"Citizenship reforms..."

According to him, a "fundamental reform of citizenship law" is necessary. The CSU politician also called for "bandits, serious criminals, enemies of the constitution, anti-Semites and haters of Germans" to be stripped of their citizenship if they have two passports.

"We cannot give people the privilege of citizenship and then have them trample on our values ??and on us ," Mayer stressed.

"Dual citizenship should be the exception, not the rule ," CDU politician Cornell Babendererde told the Bild newspaper.

Dedication or benefit?

"If 80 percent of those who received citizenship in 2023 want to keep their previous passport, along with German citizenship, then we have to ask ourselves: Isn't love, identification with our country ultimately enough, or is this more about preserving the benefits guaranteed by a German passport?"

In 2024, around 292,000 people received German citizenship - 46 percent more than the previous year, which is a new record. One in four (28 percent) of them are originally from Syria.

Of the approximately 201,000 people who applied for and received German citizenship in 2023, according to data from the Federal Statistical Office, 80.9 percent kept their previous passport, meaning they now have dual citizenship.

Attitudes against

A majority vote of the ruling parties is required to change this law. But the Social Democratic Party (SPD) has so far opposed demands to abolish dual citizenship or multi-citizenship as stated in the law. If the parties of the CDU/CSU Union want to change this law, they must also convince the SPD deputies. But so far there is no agreement in this regard.

Recently, this law was changed in Germany and the possibility of obtaining German citizenship through an accelerated procedure within three years for "well-integrated persons", as previously stated, was removed./DW