A Muslim political party is on the cusp of forming and running in Germany’s next federal election to support “people with foreign roots.”
Established on January 7, the Democratic Alliance for Diversity and Awakening (DAVA) aims to combat alleged anti-muslim racism.
The party is set to participate in the upcoming European elections in June, with ambitions to extend its reach to Germany’s federal elections next year, where over 5 million Muslims reside.
“We want to establish ourselves nationwide,” said one of DAVA’s founding members, Teyfik Özcan. “At the moment, we assume that we will run in the [German federal] elections next year.”
The affiliation between DAVA and Erdogan’s AKP in Turkey has alarmed political entities in Berlin.
Cem Özdemir, Germany’s agriculture minister with Turkish heritage, called the party “An offshoot of Erdoğan, who will be a candidate in the elections here is the last thing we need.”
Germany’s political scene has a proportional representation system, which means DAVA could secure significant parliamentary representation without winning the most votes.
DAVA linked to Erdogan
DAVA has faced accusations of acting as an extended arm of Erdogan in Germany, a claim Özcan vehemently denies. However, all four of the top candidates to lead the party, including Özcan, have ties to Erdoğan’s AKP.
One member, Fatih Zingal, boasted that the party’s goal is “entry into the European Parliament!”
The formation of the party follows a recent change in German law allowing non-EU residents to hold dual citizenship, potentially enabling 1.5 million Turks in Germany to vote.
Özcan has stated that the party’s finances will be raised domestically, in compliance with German laws prohibiting foreign funding.
There are about 2,500 mosques in Germany, about 70% of which are financed by the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB).
In 2021, Hungarian PM Viktor Orban blasted the EU for imposing a “mass human migration experiment” on Europeans.
