Conservative Party in Germany Gives Up on Anti-Turkey Stance - by Judy Dempsey
As citizens across Europe prepare to vote this week for a new European Parliament, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc has abandoned its attempt to create a wedge issue out of Turkey’s potential entry into the European Union. The change in approach is an acknowledgement by conservatives that they have more to gain by appealing to Germany’s 690,000 Turkish voters than by alienating them with blunt talk about the political and cultural differences separating Turkey and the rest of the E.U.
The conservatives view the parliamentary balloting, which starts on Thursday, as a barometer for the federal elections in September and realize that they need every vote they can get if Mrs. Merkel is to be re-elected. Though Mrs. Merkel spoke out against Turkey’s E.U. ambitions as recently as last month, the bloc has since refrained from making Turkey’s entry, or E.U. enlargement in general, a major issue in the campaign.
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