21/02/2025
Despite the momentous nature of the German elections, over 10 Million people who reside and work in the country but do not hold citizenship will not be able to vote on Sunday
As Germans head to the polls in a snap federal election, the stakes could not be higher for the country’s future and that of the European continent. Yet, over 10 million German residents (15% of the adult population) will not be allowed to have a say next Sunday. From taxi drivers in Berlin and factory workers in Munich to medical doctors and nurses in Frankfurt, millions of individuals – from Turkey, Spain, Bulgaria or Poland – will have no say in shaping the policies that govern their lives. Regardless of the fact that these individuals and families live, work, and pay taxes in the country, sometimes for over a decade, they contribute to the German economy.
This result appears particularly troubling for half of these non-German German residents, that is, the 5 million mobile EU citizens living there. As EU citizens, they can vote in both the municipal and EU Parliament elections (only 5% of them, in average, exercise those rights across the EU) from their new country of residence, that is Germany. Yet they are excluded from any national vote, and that despite being directly impacted by its outcome.
Far from being an exception, the exclusion of EU mobile citizens from national elections is the norm in the EU, despite the number of Europeans living in multiple states throughout their lives doubling in recent years.
Currently, over 14 million EU citizens reside in another EU country, while at least 2 million commute daily across borders, and hundreds of thousands move temporarily to work seasonal jobs or to study. However, while Europeans have the right to move and work freely across the Union, this mobility has not yet been paired with political rights, such as the right to vote in the country where one lives and pays taxes.
If Europeans retain the right to vote in national elections in their home countries, they can only vote in the national elections of the country they reside in if they acquire citizenship. Yet, it belongs to each individual EU member state to determine the conditions to acquire citizenship, and the current trend has been to restrict – not to expand – citizenship.
Political rights to match the cross-border European reality
This situation does not reflect the lived European experience of millions and creates a system in which those who choose to move are effectively deprived of their political rights. This has not only disincentivised free movement across the European Union, thus limiting one of the major benefits for Europeans, but it has also had other major negative consequences.
First, political rights are a fundamental aspect of any citizenship, serving as the means to represent and protect other rights. Moreover, their exercise is key to developing a sense of identity and belonging. As such they are an instrument of socio-economic and cultural integration that any EU member state can hardly afford to omit. Leaving an increasing number of people with only partial political rights is inconsistent not only with the popularity of this transnational citizenship but also with the substance developed as a result of the case law of the Court of Justice of the EU and the fact that European Citizenship is being strengthened by the recognition of professional qualifications and access to social security entitlements in one’s country of residence.
Second, EU citizens – and other nationals – are contributing with their taxes to supporting state services as much as nationals of the country. Therefore, giving them full political rights would be consistent with the prohibition under EU Law of any discrimination on the grounds of nationality and the principles of “No Taxation Without Representation”, and “One Person, One Vote”.
This led us to launch Voters without Borders, a bottom-up initiative asking the EU to require its Member States to recognize every EU citizen’s right to vote wherever they are in the EU. The initiative demands that the EU reform legislation on existing political rights and extend them to national elections and referenda while removing the many obstacles to their exercise by mobile EU citizens in local and EU parliament elections.
It is now too late to include changes that can grant political rights to all residents in Germany before the upcoming election, but an important question needs to be asked. What would the outcome of the election be if these 10 million non-Germans could vote? Or at least the 5 million EU residents in the country were allowed to do it? Would these votes alone be enough to counter the rise of the AfD? These are vital yet uncomfortable questions, the answers to which may provide an explanation as to the resistance for change.
Proposals need to be discussed now to ensure that we create a more inclusive political system that reflects the reality of European mobility and integration and does not penalise those Europeans that choose to exercise their right to move and live in different countries.
Alberto Alemanno, Jean Monnet Professor of EU Law, HEC Paris and founder of The Good Lobby
Neus Vidal, Executive Director of the Seek Initiative