Once again, a new political group is causing terror in Germany: the Dava party, which attracts Erdoğan's followers. But does she deserve so much publicity?

Surprise: not all German Turks are Islamists Photo: Photo: Wolfram Steinberg/Picture Alliance

The novels of the French writer Michel Houellebecq address the specific suffering of (post)modernity. It is about the painful emptiness that the individual faces in a chaotic, completely secularized, overused and meaningless world. In his dystopian stories, the author also plays with fear-lust, that ambivalent emotional state in which a person feels pleasure from fear.

This motif is especially expressed in the controversial novel “Submission” (2015), set in the year 2022: a charismatic Islamist seems to be the only possibility to prevent right-wing extremists from coming to power, which is why left-wing liberals and conservatives allied with him. In the end, the Islamist becomes president and transforms the secular order into an Islamist one: Sharia, theocracy, polygamy.

Nine years after the publication of this work, this dystopia in Germany seems to be within reach. At least if it's after that Image– Newspapers and politicians from the Union, but also from the Greens, who are currently alarmed by the formation of a party. The new party is called Dava, it means “Democratic Alliance for Diversity and Awakening” and it wants to run in the European elections in June. The word Dava can be translated as “mission.” Not only this religious connotation of the name, but also the people behind the party suggest that it has links with the Turkish AKP.

“She is interested in having more power in Germany: now comes the Erdoğan party,” he wrote. Image And he quoted the deputy of the Union parliamentary group, Jens Spahn: “Erdoğan is laughing up his sleeve in view of the traffic light policy.” As the top politician of a party that has been sabotaging the integration of German Turks for decades, Spahn accused the Turkish president of sabotaging the integration of German Turks. With dual citizenship, the traffic light makes this plan easier for you, Spahn says.

The restrictive nationality law was one of the reasons why many people do not feel like they belong in Germany, even after decades. In mid-January, the Bundestag decided on a modernization that also allows dual citizenship, which until now was denied to people of Turkish origin.

Great comparison with AfD

While the SPD called for calm with a view to the founding of the party, Greens such as Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir and Bundestag member Max Lucks expressed the same concern: “What is emerging here is no more than a Turkish version of the AfD,” Lucks told Funke newspapers.

The Turkish AfD! That's great!

Many Springers media World Public broadcasters and even the Taz have included this comparison in their headlines. In general, the founding of the party has occupied enormous media space in recent days. Dava's first appearance before the German public was a complete success, despite many critical contributions. Because even bad publicity is publicity.

It is not an exaggeration to classify the party as an offshoot of the AKP, the party of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and therefore as Islamist, nationalist and anti-Semitic. The party, which presents itself as a defender of discriminated against and socially disadvantaged immigrants, denies any links with the Turkish government.

Little or no chance

However, his candidates' credentials are clear: a former head of an aid organization that was banned by the Federal Ministry of the Interior because it allegedly supported an organization close to Hamas; a former senior official of the Ditib mosque association, which reports to the Turkish religious authority and therefore to the Turkish government; and a prominent candidate who served on the board of an AKP lobby organization in Germany and Europe for years.

But the truth is that Dava has little or no chance of becoming a relevant player in Germany or Europe. Even if the number of around 1.5 million German Turks with German passports were expanded through dual citizenship, the voting potential would remain marginal. Because the German-Turkish community is politically and culturally much more heterogeneous than what fits into the worldview of many media and politicians. Not all German Turks are Islamists.

Furthermore, similar party projects have already failed miserably in state, federal and European elections. The “Alliance for Innovation and Justice” (BIG), founded in 2010, won some municipal mandates in North Rhine-Westphalia and Hesse. However, in the 2021 state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia it did not exceed 0.1 percent and in the 2019 European elections it did not exceed 0.2 percent. The German Democratic Alliance (ADD), which even promoted itself with Erdoğan posters, only achieved 0.1 percent in the 2017 federal elections. There is no threshold clause in the European elections, but that is not enough to get a mandate.

Right-wing extremists and Islamists

On one point, the comparison with the AfD is, however, plausible: the political-media hysteria surrounding Dava is reminiscent of that surrounding the AfD long before it reached its current poll numbers. The AfD also gained political relevance because it became relevant in the media.

Instead of practicing verbal radicalism and shadow boxing, German officials should take action against extremist influence where it is possible and has an impact. German politicians have for too long tolerated or even supported the activities of the Ditib mosque association or the far-right Gray Wolves association because they considered them politically expedient. After all, a party is not necessarily needed to spread Islamist ideology and implement Islamist policies.

In Houellebecq's novel, some right-wing extremists turn to the new regime after the Islamist takeover. They like the new order. A right-wing professor points out how close the ideas of Islamists and right-wing extremists really are.

And unlike its political competitors, the AfD has so far been notoriously reserved when it comes to commenting on the new Dava party.