These are the demands of the AfD in Bavaria
Parliamentary group leader Katrin Ebner-Steiner explained: "We want people who are well integrated and useful to our economy to be able to become Bavarians. It is not acceptable for our citizenship to be given away and squandered." In order to implement the plans, the AfD wants to introduce an initiative in the Bundesrat.
The party is also calling for a full review of all naturalizations since 2015 and for people who have been naturalized since 2022 to have to take their language test again. The background to this are reports of fraudulent language certificates being investigated by the police. However, it is not yet clear how many cases of naturalization were actually based on forged certificates.
Upper limit for Naturalization: How realistic are the AfD plans?
The upper limit of 500 naturalizations per year in Bavaria demanded by the AfD cannot be implemented with the current legal situation. The reason: citizenship lawis not regulated by the federal states, but at federal level.
The conditions for Naturalization are set out in the Citizenship Act (StAG) and are uniform throughout Germany. The following regulations are particularly important:
- § Section 10 StAG (eligibility for naturalization): regulates the requirements for eligibility for Naturalization: approximately five years of legal residence, language skills, livelihood, no criminal record, naturalization test and commitment to the free democratic basic order.
- § Section 8 StAG (discretionary naturalization): allows Naturalization even without fulfilling all criteria if there is a public interest.
A single federal state such as Bavaria cannot independently tighten these federal regulations or replace them with a blanket upper limit. In order to introduce such a limit, the Bundestag would need to amend the Citizenship Act, with the subsequent approval of the Bundesrat.
Review and revocation of naturalizations
The retrospective review of all naturalizations since 2015 demanded by the AfD parliamentary group also comes up against narrow constitutional limits.
- According to § 35 StAG, Naturalization can be revoked if it was obtained through deception, threats or bribery or if incorrect or incomplete information was provided intentionally.
- However, Naturalization can only be revoked within ten years of the naturalization certificate being issued. Naturalizations that were granted longer ago can generally no longer be revoked.
- It is also not possible to revoke a German passport if the person would become stateless as a result.
Subsequent revocation of citizenship is therefore only possible in very few exceptional cases - and only within a certain period of time. A general "revocation" or a blanket review of all naturalizations carried out since 2015 without concrete suspicion of fraud would hardly be compatible with the Basic Law(Art. 16 para. 1 GG: prohibition of the revocation of German citizenship).
Language tests and naturalization procedures
The AfD in Bavaria is also calling for people who have been naturalized since 2022 to have to take their language tests again. This is also difficult under current law:
- Naturalization requires sufficient knowledge of the German language in accordance with § 10 Para. 1 No. 6 StAG. Proof is usually provided by certificates in accordance with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (B1 level).
- If Naturalization has already been granted, the state cannot reopen the naturalization decision at will. Only if it can be proven that a forged certificate was submitted could the Naturalization be revoked within the deadline in accordance with Section 35 StAG.
- A general obligation to repeat language tests for those who have already been naturalized would be a serious interference with the principle of legal certainty and could therefore be classified as unconstitutional.
Even a temporary suspension of naturalizations, as demanded by the AfD until the language certificate allegations have been clarified, would be legally difficult to implement. Authorities are obliged to decide on naturalization applications within a reasonable period of time (three months) in accordance with the applicable laws.
Conclusion
The Bavarian AfD state parliamentary group wants to send a clear signal against naturalization with its demands. However, these plans could only realistically be implemented through far-reaching changes to federal law, which are currently unlikely to find a political majority.
Citizenship remains a core competence of the federal government - individual federal states such as Bavaria cannot introduce their own upper limits.
