German lawmakers on Wednesday voted to abolish a fast-track citizenship process that allowed well-integrated foreign residents to apply for naturalization after just three years in the country.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz's coalition voted to cancel the measure, just a year after it was introduced by the previous government in an effort to boost recruitment of high-skilled workers from abroad.
Merz's conservative bloc was strongly opposed to the "turbo naturalization" process. The minimum residency requirement is to be raised to five years.
Opposition parties were outraged by the decision.
Felix Banaszak, chairman of the Greens, said the move sends the "wrong signal" with Germany in desperate need of high-skilled foreign workers to fill jobs.
