Invitees to the dinner President Steinmeier is holding on Friday for Erdogan are announcing their boycott decisions one after the other. Berlin’s Mayor Michael Müller is the most recent invitee who announced he won’t be attending the dinner.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has strengthened his relationship with the German state, and is starting his first official visit to Germany for the first time in years tomorrow. Despite objections by German opposition and public, the Merkel government will receive Erdogan at the top level.
Erdogan was expected to spend 3 days in Germany, but his plans have changed. Erdogan had been announced to arrive in Berlin on Thursday evening, but now he will be landing in Berlin’s Tegel airport tomorrow at noon. Erdogan will then meet with his supporters in the Adlon hotel.
The Merkel government hasn’t greenlighted Erdogan speaking to his supporters in large halls in Berlin or Cologne, so Erdogan will be meeting with some hundred representatives from AKP institutions in Germany to hold a “mini rally”.
ERDOGAN BOYCOTT SPREADS
Meanwhile, more people are joining the boycott of the dinner Germany’s President Frank Walter Steinmeier is holding for Erdogan in the Bellevue Palace on Friday. The boycott launched by Free Democrats Union (FDP) MP Bijan Djir-Sarai and Die Linke MP Sevim Dagdelen continues to grow and spread every day with new participants.
Most recently, Berlin’s Mayor Michael Müller announced that he will be boycotting the dinner. The Social Democrat politician Müller is the head of the SPD-Greens-Die Linke coalition government of the State of Berlin.
The Erdogan boycott has united the estranged German opposition. FDP leader Christian indner, Greens Co-chairs Annena Baerbock and Robert Habeck and AfD parliamentary group chairs Alexander Gauland and Alice Weidel have previously announced that they won’t be in the same room as Erdogan.
German press wrote that Chancellor Merkel also won’t attend the dinner. The only leader who has announced they will be attending the dinner to date has been former Greens leader Cem Ozdemir.
The Erdogan Not Welcome platform will be leading a mass protest against Erdogan in the Potsdamer Platz in central Berlin at the same time as the dinner in the Presidential Palace on Friday. Immigrants from Kurdistan and Turkey, as well as organizations of various peoples, political parties and NGOs are supporting the march which will begin at 16:00.
