More than 500,000 newly naturalized German citizens will cast ballots for the first time in the upcoming federal election on Feb. 23, a record figure driven by the traffic light coalition government’s progressive citizenship reforms.
Many of these new voters, primarily Syrian nationals, have been granted citizenship in the last year, facilitated by government legislative reforms to fast-track citizenship by allowing naturalization after just five years of residency (and in some cases three years), down from the previous eight-year requirement.
This unprecedented influx of new voters has resulted in significant increases in naturalizations across federal states, according to data compiled from all 16 regions.
North Rhine-Westphalia alone has naturalized over 121,000 people since the last federal election in 2021, including 22,720 Syrians in 2023. Berlin saw the sharpest year-over-year growth, with 16,470 foreigners naturalized in 2024 — nearly double the annual average prior to the reforms.
Remix News reported earlier this year that 200,000 migrants had become German citizens in 2023 alone, according to the Federal Statistical Office — and that was before the citizenship reforms entered into force.
Baden-Württemberg also recorded a considerable rise in naturalizations since the last federal election in 2021, with 22,745 foreigners receiving German passports last year compared to the 17,304 recorded in the previous election year. In total, 61,020 new citizens from abroad will vote for the first time in a federal election of which Syrians comprise 13,619.
Many German states won’t record the number of naturalizations for this year since the liberalization of citizenship laws until 2025.
Of those 200,000, by far the largest group was made up of Syrians with 75,485 naturalizations. In second place were migrants from Turkey, who received 10,735 German passports, while Iraq came in third place with 10,710 new citizens.
The inclusion of these new citizens is expected to influence the political landscape, particularly as many of them hail from immigrant communities traditionally supportive of progressive policies.
This change could bolster left-leaning parties like the SPD and the Greens, both of which have formed two-thirds of the federal coalition government since 2021 that has been supportive of Germany’s open-door immigration policy.
“Every new German citizen is entitled to full electoral rights, which significantly amplifies their role in shaping national policy,” said migration law expert Martin Manzel, as cited by Focus.
Concerns over the naturalization process were reported by the WDR broadcaster in March this year, which revealed a “cash for test results” scam in which migrants could pay for the answers to a German-language test required to obtain citizenship in the country.
The undercover operation by an employee of the broadcaster exposed the scheme in which those seeking to pass the B1 German-language exam could join a group on the end-to-end encrypted messaging app Telegram and obtain the test results just days before they sit the exam.
With over two months until Germans head to the polls, it is expected the number of new voters could still rise dramatically, potentially assisting left-wing parties that are currently desperate for votes.
The latest polls show a significant swing to the right among Germans; the center-right CDU/CSU is expected to become the largest party in the Bundestag with around 32 percent of the vote, followed by the right-wing anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) with around 19 percent.
All three of the current coalition partners — the SPD, the FDP, and the Greens — are expected to pay an electoral price at the ballot box for their governance over the last three years, which has contributed to Germany’s economic decline and dwindling global influence, with the FDP teetering on the edge of the 5 percent threshold required to sit in the federal legislature.
