After criticism of Erdogan posters: Nuremberg bans election advertising – Bavaria

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is still allowed to smile at people in Nuremberg from posters until next Friday. That’s how long the city of Turkey’s governing AKP has approved as part of a special use. Irrespective of the outcome of the presidential election on May 14 and who will stand in the subsequent one, it has been clear since Tuesday that Erdoğan will not smile at anyone next time. The city decided on Tuesday to change the special use statute, a spokesman confirmed. Foreign election advertising in public space – for example with posters – should therefore no longer be possible in Nuremberg in future.

The city was reacting to the criticism of the posters that various politicians had recently practiced. As a result of the discussion, the statute should be changed so “that in future such posters may no longer be hung up, i.e. foreign election campaigns should no longer take place on public land,” said the city spokesman. It was legally correct to allow the AKP campaign advertising. Nevertheless, the opinion to change the statutes was unanimous in the responsible panel of speakers. This change is no longer relevant for the current election campaign. However, one tries to implement this “as quickly as possible”. However, that will take until June or July.

Bülent Bayraktar, chairman of the Turkish community in Nuremberg, praised the decision: “I think the decision is very reasonable,” he said.

The spokesman for the city of Nuremberg emphasized again that the city had not taken down any of the 25 approved posters. Instead, it may have been opponents of the ruling AKP who removed the posters. Posters lying on the ground can be seen in a Facebook video by the Nuremberg branch of the AKP, and a text in Turkish reads: “You will never be able to intimidate us by using the banners, for which we have had great difficulty obtaining permits dismantled and torn apart. You will succumb again, you will fail again, to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, whose image you cannot even tolerate.”

A police spokeswoman said it was not known who removed the posters. This falls under the criminal offense of damaging property. However, the police had not received any reports as of Tuesday.

German Turks who are eligible to vote can cast their votes for the elections in Turkey until May 9th. According to polls, the Turkish opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has a good chance of beating Erdoğan after 20 years in power.