(European Conservative) New German citizenship laws that expand voting rights to up to 2.5 million recent migrants are unnerving even the usually complacent CDU, with one conservative lawmaker airing fears that the new arrangement could enable a potential Islamist bloc to attain parliamentary representation in the Bundestag.
The migrant voters are expected to be added to the electoral registry under plans by Berlin’s ruling traffic light coalition to fast-track naturalisation among Germany’s foreign-born population, which would reduce the residency time needed to attain citizenship to as little as three years.
This rapid and politically calculated expansion of suffrage has lent itself to fears of a Turkish-led Islamist takeover, with CDU MP Alexander Throm stating that the proposed legislation could fuel the “demographic potential” for an AKP-controlled spinoff party in Germany.
