Smallest German governing party stalls on citizenship reform

BERLIN (AP) — Senior members of the smallest party in Germany’s coalition government are seeking to hit the brakes on plans to ease the rules for obtaining German citizenship. They are arguing that the government must first do more to ensure that people who are in the country illegally are deported. Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, a member of his center-left party, have signaled in recent days that they’re keen to move ahead quickly with liberalizing the rules. But senior lawmakers with the pro-business Free Democrats have pushed back. They point to a pledge in the coalition agreement to “effectively reduce irregular migration” and argue that too little has happened on that front.