Proposed extension of citizenship rights opposed

Germany's opposition Christian Democrats yesterday launched a campaign to prevent Mr Gerhard Schroder's centre-left government from extending citizenship rights to millions of foreigners.

The CDU leader, Mr Wolfgang Schauble, announced that his party would take the campaign onto the streets, collecting signatures from concerned citizens for a national petition against the proposed changes.

Under Germany's citizenship law, which dates from 1913, children born to foreigners in Germany are not entitled to German citizenship, which is granted according to the ius sanguinis (blood law). Although foreigners who have lived in Germany for more than 12 years can apply for a German passport, they must be prepared to give up citizenship of their own country.

The Schroder coalition of Social Democrats and Greens has promised to overhaul these citizenship laws, granting automatic citizenship rights to all children born in Germany, as long as one parent was also German-born. The government also plans to allow dual citizenship for the first time, a move which could create up to 2 million new German citizens.

"We reject this vehemently," Mr Schauble said yesterday in Bonn. He said the CDU acknowledged the need for changes in Germany's citizenship law but insisted that any new law must be based on integrating foreigners into German society.

He claimed that allowing dual citizenship would hinder efforts at integration and could endanger Germany's internal security.

The conservative prime minister of Bavaria, Mr Edmund Stoiber, went further, warning that the extension of citizenship rights to foreigners represented a greater security threat than the left-wing terrorist campaign of the Red Army Faction in the 1970s.

Mr Schauble and Mr Stoiber are locked in a battle for the soul of conservative Germany following the defeat of Dr Helmut Kohl after 16 years in power. Mr Schauble shares Dr Kohl's enthusiasm for European integration and favours moderate policies on economic and social issues.

Mr Stoiber, on the other hand, is Germany's most prominent Eurosceptic and owes much of his popularity in his home state to crude attacks on foreigners and a staunch defence of Catholic family values.

Mr Schauble was at pains yesterday to avoid giving the impression that his party was hostile to Germany's 7 million foreign residents, who make a significant contribution to the country's economic success.

However, by backing Mr Stoiber's proposal for a popular petition against the new citizenship laws, he has embarked on a populist path that was not of his choosing.

The government's proposed changes have won the backing of the opposition Liberal Free Democrats and many of Mr Schauble's CDU colleagues are uncomfortable that their party has chosen this issue for their first showdown with Mr Schroder. The government yesterday accused Mr Schauble and Mr Stoiber of stirring up xenophobic feelings and vowed to implement the new citizenship law before the summer.