German politicians have been discussing making applying for citizenship easier for a couple years now. Today the Bundestag (Parliament) approved the draft legislation, with two surprising new additions.

In applying for citizenship a person will now not only have to say they agree to and respect the German constitution (standard practice for gaining citizenship anywhere), an applicant will also have to agree to a statement “on Germany’s special historical responsibility for the unjust Nazi rule and its consequences, especially for the protection of Jewish life.” It’s reasonable enough if taken literally, but we all know what this means in practice: Zionism is the law of the land. There could be an additional statement regarding the “illegalty of wars of aggression” required as well. If a person is found to have lied during the application or even behaves against such statements in the future, their newly gained German citizenship could be revoked.

To be fair, all of this is based on press reports and I haven’t seen the law directly yet, so it may only be half as bad. But things are going in a really worrying direction.