Speaking the Voters’ Language

The subject of immigrantion has always been an election theme political parties are eager to take up. And now, just before the national vote on Sept. 22, the immigration question has taken on new prominence.

But since the last general elections in 1998, a new development has put the the issue on every campaign strategist’s mind: the number of foreigners who have acquired German citizenship has almost doubled in the last four years. These new citizens could prove to be the force that tips the scales one way or the other in the tight race for chancellor.

The largest group among these new Germans are those of Turkish descent. According to the Essen-based Center for Turkish Studies, in 2001 there were about 470,000 Turks eligible to vote living in Germany, roughly equal to the population of the city of Dresden. It’s a number that is too big for political campaigners to ignore.

And they aren’t. They have decided to get this group’s attention by speaking to its members directly -- in their mother tongue, Turkish.

Direct Communication

The Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) have done the most in this area. They have distributed posters, brochures and pamphlets in Turkish and made them available on the Internet. One of the SPD’s pamphlets has the words “Almanya icin calisacagiz,” or “We’ll work for Germany” next to Gerhard Schröder’s picture. This bilingual campaign for naturalized citizens is supposed to motivate Germans of Turkish descent to cast their vote “the right way” on Sept. 22.

The PDS promises “Hersey baska olabilir,” or “everything can change” on the front of its pamphlet, before laying out its party platform inside the fold.

The conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) also has its printing machines spitting out stacks of pamphlets and posters these days, but the language here so far is strictly German. Still, representatives at the Berlin headquarters said that will all change when the campaign enters the final stretch.

It’s the same story down the road at the headquarters of the Free Democratict Party (FDP), where Turkish-language materials are nowhere to be found. A speaker for the liberals said the party didn’t know where to begin when it comes to all the different immigrant groups in Germany. Anyway, he insisted, all new citizens -- be they of Turkish or Italian or Greek descent -- are equally important to the FDP. The party has decided therefore to stick to German.

Somewhat surprisingly perhaps, even the Green Party had a lack of Turkish slogans at its headquarters. It was not due to lack of interest, according to spokespeople, but to some rusty Turkish. The party that many consider the “immigrant party” needs to carry out some “linguistic repairs” before releasing its own materials.

Who’ll Get the Vote?

According to a survey in the "Berliner Zeitung" newspaper, around three-fourths of the eligible voters of Turkish descent will vote for the SPD and the Greens. The SPD can count on some 60 percent of the Turkish vote, the Greens, about 17 percent, according to a survey of carried out in July.

The PDS, despite the Turkish-language vote drive, can only count on around five percent, the same number who say they will vote for the business-friendly liberals. The CDU is doing somewhat better. They can expect about 12 percent of the Turkish vote.

Despite the good poll numbers for the SPD, the party hasn’t stopped campaigning hard for the Turkish vote. In a recent interview with the popular Turkish-language newspaper "Hürriyet," Gerhard Schröder portrayed his SPD as a tolerant and open-minded party and said Germany owes a debt of gratitude to Turks for their contribution to German prosperity.

But the CDU hasn’t given up the fight. In another interview with "Hürriyet," Bavaria’s interior minister Günther Beckstein, who has been tipped as the possible interior minister in a CDU/CSU government, said he would work on abolishing the visa requirement for Turks coming to Germany for short visits if the conservatives won.