Berlin calls ,,expatriate germans"to the ballot boxes
BERLIN (Own report) At the forthcoming elections to the Bundestag, Berlin has granted voting rights to citizens of foreign states and calls Croats, Czechs, Poles or Russians to the polling booths, if they can produce a German ,,blood certificate". In the Czech Republic alone, Berlin has granted German passports to more than 60,000 Czech citizens.
The guidelines, published by the Federal Election Leader, recognise foreign citizens as valid Germans if they are of German descent and can produce evidence of blood relationship to members of a German family in earlier generations. Relevant evidence is to be submitted to German embassies and consulates in foreign countries. The Certificate of Descent will also be evidential, even if German descent reaches back more than a hundred years. The German authorities will accept documents relating to the raising of SS units in occupied countries. The selection of ,,species pure"blood will be valid for this purpose.
The subjection of citizens of foreign states to German law is conclusively established by the issue of a German passport. In this way Berlin has incorporated several hundred thousand east Europeans and can call them to their duties as Geman citizens - amongst other things, to service in the German army. Those expatriate Germans now mobilised will be simultaneously an important source of intelligence and also be given preference in the international undertakings of German firms in eastern Europe. Additionally, whoever can make a plausible case that he lived in Germany for at least three months since the establishment of the Federal Republic, is also entitled to vote (being of German descent).
,,Personal Disadvantage"
It is known to the Berlin authorities that this call to the polls is political arrogance which attacks the internal political affairs of foreign countries. The German Election Leader (Wahlleiter*) felt it was necessary to warn foreign citizens who made use of the offered German voting rights. In an official announcement, which stands the international law of citzenship on its head, Berlin advised the so-called expatriate Germans as follows ,,If the government of the state in which you live makes simultaneous demands on you as its own citizen, you should immediately inform the authorities of the state whose nationality you hold together with German citizenship, and ask them to state whether you may expect any personal disadvantages arising from your participation in the election".