18 lawmakers of Turkish descent win seat in Germany’s Bundestag

BERLIN

Eighteen candidates of Turkish descent have been elected as lawmakers in Germany’s federal parliament, Bundestag, in the country’s elections that took place on Sept. 26.

The Social Democratic Party (SPD) won the most parliamentary seats in the national elections, while Angela Merkel’s conservative CDU/CSU bloc came in second, preliminary official results showed on Sept. 27.

According to a report by the state-run Anadolu Agency, Aydan Özoğuz, Hakan Demir, Metin Hakverdi, Macit Karaahmetoğlu, Derya Türk-Nachbaur, Mahmut Özdemir, Cansel Kızıltepe, Gülistan Yüksel and Nezahat Baradari have been elected from the SPD.

Cem Özdemir, Ekin Deligöz, Canan Bayram, Filiz Polat and Melis Sekmen from the Green Party and Ateş Gürpınar, Sevim Dağdelen and Gökay Akbulut were elected as lawmakers from the German Left Party (Die Linke).

The other elected lawmaker is Serap Güler from the CDU.

Turkish-origin Greek citizen Takis Mehmet Ali was also elected as a lawmaker in the latest elections.

Previously, there were 14 lawmakers of Turkish descent in the Bundestag.

Over 100 Turkish-German individuals ran as candidates in the Sept. 26 election.

Olaf Scholz’s SPD won the election by a narrow margin, gaining 25.7 percent of the vote and securing 206 seats in the federal parliament. Armin Laschet’s CDU/CSU came in second with 24.1 percent with 196 seats. It was the worst election result for the Christian Democrats since 1949.

The Greens achieved a historic breakthrough, winning 14.8 percent and becoming the third biggest political group in parliament, with 118 lawmakers. The liberal FDP also managed to increase its vote compared to last elections in 2017, winning 11.5 percent of the vote and 92 seats in parliament.