Christian Democrats Union (CDU) which is lead by Angela Merkel and the Free Democrats (FDP) are both fearsly against Turkey which is an overwhelmingly Muslim country of 71 million entering the European Union.
The FDP leader Guido Westerwelle who is also favourite to be new Foreign Minister has expressed that Turkey’s economy is not up to European standards which will make integration with current members difficult. Angela Merkel’s CDU is against Turkey joining the EU for cultural reasons. Three million Turks live in Germany which is another factor of Germany’s opposition. There are fears that there would be a huge amount of Turkish immigrants in Germany if Turkey is elected to the EU.
Turkey Prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been warned by newly re-ellected Chancellor Angela Merkell over the phone that Germany’s foreign policy will be going under review. An EU meeting to review the Turkish role in the unification of Cyprus in December will represent the first test of the policy.
The Turkish reaction to the German election result has been open dismay. The country’s liberal newspaper Milliyet summed up the mood in Ankara’s political circles. It said: “Turkey is the loser”. Other News is that “No European Turkey”, “Turkey and EU go appart”, “Turkey in EU – NO”.
Before 2005 the Social Democrats blocked any move to join the other big continental powers in rejecting Turkey. When Merkel was elected in 2005 she altered the German stance on this issue and is reported to have said she would prefer if Turkey was offered a “privileged position” not membership.
Nicholas Sarkozy, the French president, has already moved to torpedo Turkish accession to the bloc by stopping ratification efforts in five key areas.