Turkey’s justice minister will address Turkish expatriates in Germany on Thursday in a campaign for constitutional reform in his country that would expand the powers of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag, a member of Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), will give a speech in the southern town of Gaggenau.
Local officials said the event had been registered as a meeting of the AKP-affiliated Union of European Turkish Democrats (UETD).
Germany is home to Turkey’s largest diaspora. Some 1.4 million people of Turkish descent are eligible to vote in the referendum set for April 16.
A “yes” vote would extend the powers of Erdogan, who has already used a state of emergency following a failed military coup in July to conduct a widespread purge of government opponents and journalists.
Bernd Riexinger, the head of Germany’s left-wing opposition party Die Linke, called on the government to ban the event, which he described as an effort to promote Erdogan’s “fantasies of omnipotence.”
“The government has to make it unmistakeably clear that agitating for the establishment of a dictatorship is not allowed in Germany,” Riexinger said.
The AKP is already planning its next campaign event in Germany, with the party confirming on Thursday that Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci will address Turkish voters in Cologne on Sunday.
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim did the same at an event in Oberhausen last week.
Gokay Sofuaglu - head of the Turkish Community in Germany (TGD), an apolitical lobby group - said it was unacceptable that the “Turkish government is using state funds to promote the AKP abroad.”