Wednesday, February 10, 1999
GERMANY
Poll fuels fear of racism revival
By GEOFF KITNEY, Herald Correspondent in Berlin
Germany is facing questions about racism following a shock election result in which anti-foreigner sentiment is being blamed for the loss of the Schroeder Government's control of the national Parliament.
Just four months after taking office, the new "red-green" coalition Government of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has lost its majority in the Upper House of Parliament.
The Opposition conservative parties now have the power to block Government legislation.
The setback has been caused by the loss of government by a "red-green"
coalition in the State of Hesse. The result followed a campaign dominated by an emotional national debate about moves by the Schroeder Government to allow millions of foreigners living in Germany to gain German citizenship.
The Upper House in the national Parliament is made up of delegates from the States, and the Hesse result will give the conservative parties a majority.
There were warnings yesterday in the wake of the Hesse result that the
campaign to stop the citizenship changes has unleashed xenophobic and racist sentiments which Germany has spent the past 50 years fighting.
Community leaders appealed for an end to the campaign and a bipartisan
policy by the major parties to bring these forces back under control. As the Opposition Christian Democrat Party (CDU) celebrated the Hesse victory, there were even warnings from within conservative ranks that they had won the State election with a strategy which could seriously damage national cohesion and Germany's standing with the rest of the world.
Key figures in Mr Schroeder's Government conceded there would have to be a rethink of the citizenship policy to find ways of defusing what they said had become a dangerous national debate.
Under the proposed changes an 86-year-old law which limits German
citizenship to people with German blood was to be replaced with new
provisions which allow non-Germans who have been long-term residents of Germany to become German citizens.
The change would allow up to half the 7 million people of foreign background --most of them Turks who came to Germany after the war as guest workers-- to become citizens. They would also be allowed to retain their Turkish passports.
Many of these people are the children of Turkish workers who have spent all their lives in Germany, speak German rather than Turkish, and have virtually no connection with Turkey.
The CDU has launched a national petition against the proposed changes which has been signed by more than a million people in a few weeks.
In Hesse the loss of support for the Greens has also been blamed on a
Government push to shut down the German nuclear power industry. Some of the first reactors to be closed would be in the Frankfurt area, costing jobs and affecting industry. Mr Schroeder recently stepped in to delay the phase-out plans because of growing opposition and warnings about compensation.
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