North Rhine-Westphalia State Integration Minister Joachim Stamp has likened Turkish voters living in Germany to supporters of the right-wing populist Alternative For Germany (AfD) party, adding that they were “similarly falling for authoritarian populism.”
Stamp also told the Kölner-Stadt Anzeiger daily that he found it odd to see Turks in Germany celebrating the recent election victory of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Deutsche Welle Turkish service reported on Tuesday.
He said the government of North Rhine-Westphalia would respond to the situation with a new integration policy focusing on instilling values arising from the rule of law, which has been less attractive to the Turkish population than Erdoğan’s politics.
In the latest presidential election, 64.7 percent of Turkish voters in Germany overall cast their ballots for Erdoğan, rising to 76.3 percent in Essen and 70.5 in Düsseldorf.
Austria’s Nationalist Freedom Party member Johann Gudenus said on Monday that “this election result just confirmed once again that the integration of thousands of Turks in our country has failed miserably.”
According to the state-run Anadolu news agency, 72.3 percent of Turkish voters in Austria cast their ballots for President Erdoğan.