The Green Party’s top candidates Katrin Goring-Eckhardt and Cem Ozdemir unveiled their party posters and slogans for the upcoming federal election in Berlin, Friday.
Ozdemir spoke to gathered press and cautioned against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s infiltration of German-Turkish communities with the help of the The Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB) and Union of European Turkish Democrats (UETD).
SOT, Katrin Goring-Eckhardt, Green Party candidate (German): “This federal election is crucial and much is at stake. It is about the direction we are taking. Is it more climate protection or more dirty coal; Is it about more integration or more useless ‘lead culture?’ Are we for more justice, for a real, common Europe, or are we for a Europe where more people speak German? We are bringing forward these questions in the election. We are raising the issue of climate change so it can be in the centre and something can be done about it finally. We have to make sure that this question of life and death for humanity is indicatory in this election.”
SOT, Cem Ozdemir, Green Party candidate (German): “One issue has not been discussed at all. I think it is remarkable that Mr Maassen from the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution raised the issue, whereas I would like to hear something from the Interior Minister or someone else. What about Mr Erdogan’s attempt to set up parallel structures here in Germany? What about the fact that he uses the office for religious matters in Ankara to govern every small mosque and community through DITIB? What about the fact that chairmen are being replaced in Germany? What about the fact that Erdogan’s party-affiliated organisation UETD is trying to replace chairman after chairman with the help of massive funding and unfair means – as I was told by locals – in order to create Erdogan friendly associations. I don’t want to end up in a situation where in five years we would have exclusively Erdogan friendly people chairing the associations. Whoever will be in power in Germany then, will have to negotiate with Erdogan about what will happen to the German Turks here. Therefore the federal election is also an election on whether the constitution will stay the basis of what happens to this country, rather than the decisions of the Putins and Erdogans.”