Bonn - The German government struck a deal yesterday with a small opposition party that will help it get controversial citizenship law reforms through parliament, the Interior Minister, Mr Otto Schily, said.
Mr Schily said he had brokered a deal with the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) over the reform, which, if passed, will allow millions of Germany's 7.4 million foreign residents, many of them Turks, to apply for German passports. Children of immigrants will be offered dual citizenship, with the proviso that they give up one of them by the time they turn 23.