The visit of the North Rhine-Westphalia Prime Minister, Hendrik Wüst (CDU), to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has drawn sharp criticism from the Social Democratic Party (SPD). Achim Post, the SPD boss in North Rhine-Westphalia, accused Wüst of positioning himself on an external political stage in Ankara, describing this behavior as “highly unusual” for a prime minister when speaking to the T-Online news portal. Post further stated that within six months, this marks the third instance where Wüst appears to deliberately call into question the authority of the Chancellor. This criticism references Wüst’s trip to Poland in May, which already sparked speculation about his ambitions for the chancellorship, and the internal CDU debate after the state elections in Saxony-Anhalt, during which discussions about a potential Chancellor collapse occurred. Post emphasized that a German prime minister residing abroad should strengthen the federal government’s foreign policy agenda, not “create the impression of conducting his own foreign policy alongside the Federal Chancellor.” Furthermore, the SPD politician demanded that Wüst publicly clarify whether he addressed the human rights situation in Turkey during his meeting with Erdogan. Post noted that Friedrich Merz had publicly criticized the imprisonment of Ekrem Imamoglu and expressed doubts about the independence of the Turkish judiciary. He insisted that Wüst must now be transparent about whether he addressed the situation of the democratic opposition, the rule of law, and press freedom with Erdogan with equal clarity.
Politics
