Connect with us

Politics

Germany scraps fast-track citizenship programme

Published

on

Germany scraps fast-track citizenship programme


A view shows the Reichstag building, the seat of the German parliament, the Bundestag, in Berlin, Germany, March 19, 2025. — Reuters
A view shows the Reichstag building, the seat of the German parliament, the Bundestag, in Berlin, Germany, March 19, 2025. — Reuters

BERLIN: Germany’s parliament on Wednesday rescinded a fast-track citizenship programme, reflecting the rapidly shifting mood on migration in Europe’s labour-hungry economic powerhouse.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservatives pledged in this year’s election campaign to rescind the legislation, which allowed the “exceptionally well integrated” to gain citizenship in three years instead of five.

“A German passport must come as recognition of a successful integration process and not act as an incentive for illegal immigration,” Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt told parliament.

The rest of the new citizenship law, a signature achievement of former Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrat-liberal-Green government, will remain intact despite conservative pledges at the time to undo innovations such as dual citizenship and the reduction in the waiting period from eight years to five.

The SPD, now junior partners in Merz’s coalition, defended their support for the change, saying the fast track was rarely used and the liberalisation’s essence remained.

Of 2024’s record 300,000 naturalisations, only a few hundred came through the fast track, originally planned as an incentive for the footloose and highly skilled to settle in a Germany suffering from acute labour shortages.

Candidates must demonstrate achievements such as very good German, voluntary service or professional or scholarly success.

“Germany is in competition to get the best brains in the world, and if those people choose Germany we should do everything possible to keep them,” the Greens’ Filiz Polat told legislators.

Attitudes towards immigration have soured dramatically, partly because of the strain high migration levels have placed on local services. That shift helped propel the far-right Alternative for Germany party to first place in some polls.





Source link

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Politics

Trump purchases $100 million worth of Netflix, Warner Bros bonds

Published

on

Trump purchases 0 million worth of Netflix, Warner Bros bonds



US President Donald Trump purchased about $100 million in municipal and corporate bonds from mid-November to late December, his latest disclosures showed, including up to $2 million in Netflix and Warner Bros Discovery bonds just weeks after the companies announced their merger.

Financial disclosures posted on Thursday and Friday showed the majority of Trump’s purchases were municipal bonds from cities, local school districts, utilities and hospitals.

But he also bought bonds from companies including Boeing, Occidental Petroleum and General Motors.

The investments were the latest reported assets added to Trump’s expanding portfolio while he is in office.

It includes holdings in sectors that benefit from his policies, raising questions about conflicts of interest.

For example, Trump said in December that he would have a say in whether Netflix can proceed with its proposed $83 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, which faces a rival bid from Paramount Skydance.

Any deal to acquire Warner Bros will need regulatory approval.

A White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said on Friday that Trump’s stock and bond portfolio is independently managed by third-party financial institutions and neither Trump nor any member of his family has any ability to direct, influence or provide input regarding how the portfolio is invested.

Like many wealthy individuals, Trump regularly buys bonds as part of his investment portfolio.

He previously disclosed at least $82 million in bond purchases from late August to early October.



Source link

Continue Reading

Politics

Trump says Pakistani PM’s ‘saving 10 million lives’ remark is an honour

Published

on

Trump says Pakistani PM’s ‘saving 10 million lives’ remark is an honour



US President Donald Trump has reiterated his claim of having stopped a war between Pakistan and India, while also saying that Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif thanked him for saving at least 10 million lives.

He made the remarks at the renaming of Southern Boulevard to Donald J Trump Boulevard in Washington on Friday.

“In a year, we made eight peace deals and ended the conflict in Gaza. We have peace in the Middle East…We stopped India and Pakistan from fighting, two nuclear nations…The Pakistani Prime Minister said Donald Trump saved at least 10 million people, and it was amazing,” he said.

The US president further recalled that the Pakistani prime minister’s remarks were an honour for him.

Trump cited his administration’s foreign policy record and repeated assertions of brokering peace between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.

Trump has made similar claims multiple times since May 10 last year, arguing that US pressure helped defuse tensions between India and Pakistan.



Source link

Continue Reading

Politics

Saudi King Salman leaves hospital after medical tests

Published

on

Saudi King Salman leaves hospital after medical tests


Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz chaired a virtual cabinet meeting from his office in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, May 28, 2024. — Reuters
Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz chaired a virtual cabinet meeting from his office in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, May 28, 2024. — Reuters

Saudi Arabia’s 90-year-old King Salman was discharged from hospital after undergoing medical tests in the capital Riyadh, the kingdom’s Royal Court said on Friday, adding that the results were “reassuring”.

The monarch “left the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh today (Friday) after undergoing medical tests that proved reassuring”, the royal court said in a statement shared on state media, having announced his admission earlier in the day.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest crude oil exporter, has for years sought to quell speculation over King Salman’s health.

He has been on the throne since 2015, though his son Mohammed bin Salman was named crown prince in 2017 and acts as de facto ruler.

The monarch’s well-being is rarely discussed, but he has been admitted for surgery and tests on multiple occasions in recent years.

In 2024, the Royal Court said he suffered from lung infections, which he recovered from.

He was hospitalised in May 2022, when he went in for a colonoscopy and stayed for just over a week for other tests and “some time to rest”, the official Saudi Press Agency reported at the time.

He was also admitted to hospital in March 2022 to undergo what state media described as “successful medical tests” and to change the battery of his pacemaker.

In 2020, he underwent surgery to remove his gall bladder.





Source link

Continue Reading

Trending