Erdogan’s party to run in EU-election, expand Turkey’s influence

The Turkish AKP party of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will run in the European Elections in Germany, according to media reports, with high-ranking German politicians noting it will expand Turkish influence in the EU.

The AKP affiliate in Germany, the Democratic Alliance for Diversity and Awakening (Dava), consists of four candidates who have all previously campaigned for Erdoğan’s AKP or its support organisations, Bild reported on Sunday.

High-ranking German politicians were quick to denounce the move as further contributing to the deterioration of the political climate within the country.

“An Erdoğan offshoot running for elections here is the last thing we need,” Green agriculture minister Cem Özdemir, who has a Turkish migration background, wrote on X.

The CDU, the largest opposition party, also criticised the move. “An Erdogan-AKP offshoot in Germany would be another extreme party in the country, Deputy Leader Jens Spahn of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group said on X.

There are currently 1.3 million German citizens who have a Turkish migration background, according to the German Federal Statistical Office, around 1.6% of the German population.

Since the 5% electoral threshold, which usually keeps smaller parties out of parliament in the German federal election, will not apply to the EU election, political newcomers have more chance of winning a place in the European Parliament.

During the last European Election in 2019, six small parties that did not have any representatives at the national or regional level made it into the European Parliament, with some of them not getting more than 0.7% of the votes.

There is, thus, a plethora of new parties running for the election, increasing the fragmentation of the German political landscape.

“We are currently seeing parties springing up everywhere, and their sole purpose and exercise is to ultimately tear Europe apart from within,” German liberal lead candidate Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann said when asked about Dava.

“And we have to realise that Europe has never been under so much pressure, in terms of foreign policy and domestic policy, as it is now,” the FDP politician told die Welt.

[Edited by Alice Taylor]