(Deutsche Welle) Germany’s newly founded “Democratic Alliance for Diversity and Awakening” (DAVA) is currently a voters’ association, but it intends to run as a party in the European elections on June 9. This announcement in January triggered a heated debate in Germany, with some political observers accusing the new party of being no more than a mouthpiece of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Four candidates have been presented, and they all have had ties to Turkey’s governing party: 45-year-old lawyer Fatih Zingal is the top candidate. He was born in Germany to Turkish immigrants and was a member of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) for 10 years, until 2011. He was a spokesman for the Union of [International] Democrats (UID), which German authorities describe as a lobby organization for Turkey’s ruling AKP party. Ahead of elections in Turkey, the UID organized campaign appearances by Erdogan and other Turkish officials in Germany and other European countries.
