In an earlier post I wrote about the US Republican Party’s Southern Strategy , where the wedge issue of racial equality has been used so effectively as to marginalize the Democrats in the southern states for the past generation. Now the CDU has decided that Turkey and the growing intolerance in Germany towards Muslim immigrants will be the horse it will ride to victory. To be sure, there are polling numbers that would seem to support this strategy.
Underscoring
the CDU’s ‘Christian’ prefix, Merkel insists that Germany is based on
Judeo-Christian values and that these values must apply to everybody
living in the country.She
calls for an end to tolerance for Islamists "preaching hate tirades"
and says laws should be loosened to allow their expulsion.Such
views appear to be gaining strength in Germany, especially since the
brutal killing of Dutch film director Theo van Gogh by an Islamist
extremist.An
ongoing survey of German views toward Muslims and ‘foreigners’ – who in
Germany are generally taken to be Turks comprising the country’s
biggest, most visible minority – shows a growing intolerance.Almost
60 percent say there are too many foreigners in Germany, according to a
poll of 3,000 people by the University of Bielefeld’s Institute for
Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence.In 2002 the number of Germans saying there were too many foreigners was 55 percent, according to the poll.
Some
70 percent of those surveyed say Islamic culture "does not fit into the
west" – up from 66 percent in 2003 – and one out of every three agrees
with the statement: "Due to the many Muslims living here I sometimes
feel like a foreigner in my own country."
Not everyone in the CDU leadership agrees with Merkel’s hard line on Turkey. Volker Rühe says this anit-Turkey course will isolated the CDU in Europe, and he dismisses the argument that Turkey would represent a security threat to the EU.
"Wenn
wir die Türkei sozusagen aus Europa rausschmeißen, werden wir viel
größere Probleme mit Fundamentalismus und Gewalt bekommen." Der
Beitritt der Türkei sei im Übrigen kein "Automatismus, aber eine große
Chance". Anderen Konzepten erteilte Rühe eine Absage: "Die EU kann
nicht gleichzeitig über eine Mitgliedschaft und über eine privilegierte
Partnerschaft verhandeln, was immer Frau Merkel darunter verstehen
mag", sagte Rühe.
It seems that Turkey is even a wedge issue in the SPD. Ex-Chancellor Helmut Schmidt has an opinion piece in Die Zeit where he warns that admitting Turkey will weaken the EU, thereby strengthening America’s hand.
Die Bindung der Türkei an die Vorläufer der EU war »ein Produkt des
Kalten Krieges« (so zu Recht Verheugen). Amerika hat aus militärischen
Gründen gegenüber der Sowjetunion auf den Beitritt der Türkei zur EWG
gedrängt. Heute spielt die Frontstellung gegenüber Russland kaum eine
Rolle. Vielmehr erwartet man in Washington, mit Hilfe der Nato die
amerikanische Hegemonie über eine nochmals erweiterte und deshalb
weitgehend handlungsunfähige Europäische Union zu stabilisieren und die
amerikanische Position im Mittleren Osten auszubauen (und damit dem
verbündeten Israel zu helfen). Jede Erweiterung der EU zu einem immer
heterogener werdenden Gebilde hat schon seit dem Ende des Kalten
Krieges zugleich dem Interesse der amerikanischen Hegemonie gedient.
Actually Schmidt has been on an anti-Turkey rampage as of late: last month he attacked the idea of multiculturalism and said that it had been a mistake to allow Turkish guest workers into Germany. Meanwhile the ‘Multi-Kulti’ debate in Germany has caught the attention of the US press. Richard Berstein has a lengthy article in today’s New York Times about a young German-born Turkish woman in Berlin who has run away from her family in order to escape an arranged marriage.
