The president of Turkey, Tayyip Erdogan, is establishing a party – a branch of the AKP in Germany, with the aim of participating in the European elections in June, according to a publication of the BILD newspaper. The country’s political world is already reacting.

As BILD reports, the party will be called DAVA (“Democratic Alliance for Diversity and Awakening”) and its four leading candidates are already known: Doctor from Hamburg Mustafa Yoldas, who is registered by the federal interior ministry as supporter of Hamas and its affiliated organizations, also doctor Ali Ihsan Unlu from Lower Saxony, member of the local organization DITIB, which is under the direct control of the Turkish Religious Affairs Agency, lawyer Fatih Zingal from North Rhine-Westphalia , a former member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), which he left to deal with the promotion of the AKP in Europe, and the self-proclaimed human rights activist Taifik Ezcan, who will likely also be the leader of DAVA.

According to the party’s founding declaration cited by the German newspaper, DAVA demands that people of foreign origin obtain full rights, pointing out that very often, “when looking for apartments or work, but also in many everyday situations, such as communicating with the authorities, they feel that they are not accepted as full members of European society”. The party also aims to combat child poverty and the problems of old age by calling for additional social benefits and calls for “a pragmatic and non-ideological refugee policy”.

The first to react was the Turkish origin and staunch critic of Tayyip Erdoğan, Federal Minister of Agricultural Economy Cem Eçdemir (Greens), commenting on the “X” platform: “An offshoot of Erdoğan, who will be a candidate in the elections here is the last thing we need.” On the SPD side, co-president Saskia Esken told WELT TV that “it is important to make it clear to our fellow citizens of Turkish origin that Germany is united, that we are one people and that we will not allow forces like these to come to power far-right networks that want to deport immigrants, but the divisive tendencies of a Tayyip Erdoğan don’t play a role here.” The vice-president of the Parliamentary Group of the Christian Union (CDU/CSU) Jens Spahn warned in his post on “X” that “something like this would be another extreme party in our country”, while the CDU’s head of internal policy Christoph de Vries he told Sunday’s BILD that the federal government “must under no circumstances take the case of establishing such a party lightly.” It is urgent that the security services closely monitor all the activities of this party and its connections with the Turkish government in order to intervene if Ankara exerts direct influence.

The lists of candidates for the European elections must be submitted by March 18. In the European elections there is no 5% limit, as it is in Germany, but anyway, as BILD points out such a party could appeal to a pool of around 5 million voters. There are currently 2.5 million voting Muslims in Germany, and when the citizenship law is changed next April, about that many more will be added.