Erdogan plans to set up political party in Germany for ‘people with foreign roots’

THE party of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Turkish president, has set up an offshoot in Germany to contest European elections due later this year.

The Democratic Alliance for Diversity and Awakening (DAVA), which is allied to Mr Erdoğan’s AK Party, said it would run “highly decorated candidates” in the June vote.

It will fight for the rights of “people with foreign roots” and take a stand against “anti-muslim racism”, said Fatih Zingal, a leading DAVA figure with links to the Turkish president.

The party was officially founded on Jan 7, and its emergence has prompted concern among Berlin political circles.

“An Erdoğan offshoot running for election here is the last thing we need,” said Cem Özdemir, the German agriculture minister, a member of the Green Party and one of the most high-profile members of Germany’s three million-strong Turkish community.

Jens Spahn, a senior figure in the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), meanwhile claimed DAVA would be “another extremist party in our country”. He accused chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government of “making it easy” for them via a recent relaxation of the laws concerning dual-citizenship.

A law passed earlier this month will make it possible for non-eu citizens to hold dual citizenship in Germany, which could lead to an extra 1.5 million Turks in the country getting the vote.

Christoph de Vries, a CDU MP, claimed to the Bild newspaper that DAVA would seek to “present Muslims as victims of a racist majority society and act as their representatives”.

He added that Germany’s intelligence agencies should “monitor them closely and intervene if the Turkish government exerts direct influence”.