The Federal Republic of Germany is organized as a federal state and parliamentarian democracy and the German Constitution or “Basic Law” is clear: “The people vote” (“The people choose”). But who are “the people”?
About 59.2 million Germans in Germany are set to be eligible to vote in the upcoming federal election on February 23, 2025, according to the Federal Statistical Office.
However, the approximately 10 million people living in Germany who want to have their say at the ballot box are not German citizens.
Overall, about 14% of the adult population in Germany – just under 60% of the adult population on the international background – will be excluded from voting in February because of their nationality.
British-born activist Phil Butland used to be one of them. He moved back to Germany in the 1990s and first became involved in politics as such, joining as part of the anti-globalization movement Attack and most recently a member of the Left Party.
“For a long time my permanent residence has been Germany, my life has been in Germany, everything I do is in Germany and it was an anomaly to not be able to participate in the elections,” he said.
After living outside the United Kingdom for more than 15 years, Butland had lost the right to vote, was reluctant to apply for German citizenship, given that Butland was unemployed at the time and that German citizenship was only a certain Was earning money.
“They’ve relaxed the rules now. If you don’t have a job or you have a low-paying job, the rules are still a lauter than if you’ve got a well-paying job. Most of the poor people The thesis is about rules,” Hey says.
Germany’s ‘democratic deficit’
Germany eased its rules around granting citizenship in January 2024, which the government hopes will help Germany attract skilled workers to internationalize and ease labor shortages.
Under the new law, international residents are able to apply for German naturalization after five years and, in exceptional cases, three years, instead of eight years’ residence in the country and may have dual status, a privilege previously enjoyed by other EU countries. Reserved for citizens of U.S. countries or Switzerland.
“Citizenship reforms mean that, even in the best case, if we include administrative time, we are talking about at least a four to six, seven-year period over what people Sex can’t and it’s certainly not good for the quality of democracy,” says Özgur Özvatan, CEO of the political consultancy Transformer, and author of a forthcoming book on the political influence of Germans with an international background.
German citizenship is not easy to obtain, not least because of the associated costs of applying, including fees for searching documents such as a birth certificate translated by an official authorized translator, and German language proficiency and income. Proof of requirements.
The “democratic deficit” in Germany, as itzvatan describes it, is particularly problematic for a country with a particularly high need for immigration to offset labor shortages due to an aging and shrinking population. Has – and highlights on the apparent disconnect in German.
“At the policy level, there were reforms that the government introduced that meant there was a liberalization [of citizenship rights]But there was a very hard regression at the rhetorical level,” he says, referring to the intensification of anti-immigration rhetoric used by German politicians and parties across the political spectrum.
“This naturally raises the question: Do I want to live in this country at all? And if I don’t want to live in this country, do I even want to apply for citizenship or am I not required to?”
Who can vote in Germany?
The debate over whether international citizens should reside in Germany has dragged on for decades, dating back to the 1970s, amid growing disputes over the rights of what were referred to as “guest workers” (“Gastrants”) in German society. The middle has started – migrant workers have been recruited. Countries seek – as Italy, Greece and Turkey have since the late 1950s – to acquire rights of residence and citizenship.
Reforms to the Citizenship Act, which came into effect on January 1, 2000, made the right to German citizenship first based exclusively on the principle of descent ((jus sanguinis or “by right of blood” where nationality is inherited through parents to include the principle of place of birth)jus soli or “right to the soil”).
The reforms meant that children born in Germany to foreign parents could acquire German citizenship, but only under certain conditions.
Under the Federal Election Act, all German citizens who have reached the age of 18 on election day and have lived in Germany for at least three months or are regularly resident in the country are eligible to vote in federal elections and state elections. Are eligible for. This included German citizens living abroad, provided they registered in a timely manner.
EU citizens who are resident in Germany are able to vote at municipal level and in EU elections.
The right to vote at the municipal level for non-German citizens was introduced in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein and the neighboring city-state of Hamburg.
However, it was ultimately ruled in 1990 after the Federal Constitutional Court ruled that all state authority emanates from the people, that this specifically refers to the people of the state, meaning German citizens.
No plans to improve voting or citizenship rights
“In most cases it is easier to change access to citizenship rather than voting rights, because voting rights are part of the constitution. But nothing is going to change after the next election,” says Tobias Spyri, a senior researcher at the D. , a think tank focusing on the issue of political participation.
He says the political climate in Germany has shifted so drastically in recent years that none of the mainstream political parties running for election in February are talking about a more inclusive electoral system – and actually are. The factors are moving in the direction.
,[Christian Democrat leader] Friedrich Merz has already said that even if people have reacquired German citizenship years ago, you can take it away,” Spyri told DW.
The issue of voting rights has an impact on who sits in Parliament and who is represented there, explains Spyri.
In Germany, about 11% of the members of the Bundestag federal parliament have international backgrounds. The proportion in the parliaments of each of the 16 federal states is only around 7%, and in parts of East Germany less than 1%.
“It is important that people are given the possibility to have voting rights independent of their citizenship, what you can see in our research is that the possibility of people having access to voting rights because then there is actually political ion independent of elections. “Hey,” he says.
While who has the right to vote in Germany is never likely to change who has a son, international citizens living in the country can still exert political pressure in other ways, for example by joining a political party or campaign group. Phil Butland’s powers are extreme – and by participating in demonstrations and strikes.
“I’m an old-fashioned believer in demonstrations, in striking, even in putting pressure on politicians, so that even if you don’t vote for them at least there’s a place where there’s no exclusion on the basis of nationality,” he says. .
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