(26 Jun 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Berlin – 26 June 2024
1. German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser arrives
2. SOUNDBITE (German) Nancy Faeser, German Interior Minister
"Islamist agitators who are mentally living in the Stone Age have no place in our country. Anyone who does not have a German passport and glorifies terrorist acts here must be expelled and deported wherever possible. We are now creating a new legal basis for this. I am very confident that the government will discuss and pass this amendment to the law quickly."
3. Reporter
4. SOUNDBITE (German) Nancy Faeser, German Interior Minister
"We are talking about real glorification of violence here. In this respect, I don’t think there are any difficulties in drawing the line. It’s not about the small click and the short like, but about the fact that repugnant terrorist content is being glorified and posted. I therefore believe that this is easy for the immigration authorities (to decide whether it is sufficient for deportation). Otherwise they have to judge other things as well."
5. Camera operator
6. SOUNDBITE (German) Nancy Faeser, German Interior Minister
"No, if you (as a dual citizen) have a German passport, you can’t be deported."
7. Press conference
8. SOUNDBITE (German) Nancy Faeser, German Interior Minister
"And we have also made the question of when I can obtain German citizenship more difficult by clearly regulating that anyone who expresses anti-Semitism, racism and other forms of contempt for humanity is excluded (from naturalization). That rules out naturalization. There is no tolerance whatsoever. We have even extended (the law) in the German Bundestag to include knowledge of German history and we have also explicitly written in Israel’s right to exist. That is all an improvement and a tightening up."
9. Faeser leaving
STORYLINE:
Germany’s government on Wednesday launched new legislation to ease the deportation of foreigners who publicly approve of terrorist acts.
Under the law, a single comment on social media could provide grounds for kicking people out.
The measure approved by the Cabinet was pledged by Chancellor Olaf Scholz following a knife attack last month on members of a group that describes itself as opposing “political Islam,” an assault that left a police officer dead.
It comes as Scholz’s government faces broader pressure to curb migration.
The Interior Ministry said that the law on residence will be changed so that approving or promoting a terrorist crime is grounds for a “particularly serious interest in deportation.”
That means that in future a single comment that glorifies a terrorist crime on social media could constitute a reason for expulsion.
Anyone who publicly approves of an offense “in a manner which is suited to causing a disturbance of the public peace" could also be expelled, and a conviction would not be required.
Liking a social media post would not be sufficient grounds for deportation, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said.
Faeser said that Hamas’ acts during its Oct. 7 attack on Israel have been “celebrated in a repugnant way” on social media in Germany, and criticised glorification of violent acts online.
“"Islamist agitators who mentally live in the Stone Age have no place in our country. Anyone who has no German passport and glorifies terrorist acts here must be expelled and deported wherever possible."
She said she was confident that lawmakers would approve the change soon, and that she didn’t see it falling foul of freedom of speech laws.
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