Klingbeil in Turkey: secondary foreign policy in the spirit of the chancellor?

Lars Klingbeil traveled to Turkey as SPD chairman. But sometimes he spoke like a member of the government. Is the SPD bypassing Foreign Minister Baerbock in foreign policy?

The mood is good at the HDP party headquarters in Ankara. When HDP co-leader Mithat Sancar and SPD leader Lars Klingbeil climbed onto the podium in the press room, the HDP chairman joked that it wasn’t nice to be standing next to Klingbeil. He means the size difference between the two. Sancar goes straight to Klingbeil’s shoulder. Klingbeil picks up the ball and replies: “Ask Olaf Scholz!” Both men laugh. You can converse in German because the HDP boss speaks the language fluently. Klingbeil and Sancar are on first-name terms.

HDP and SPD see themselves as sister parties. Both are members of the so-called Progressive Alliance, an international association of social democratic parties.

Meeting with Erdogan’s competitors

The SPD co-chairman came to Ankara at the right time: in the morning the HDP announced that it would not nominate its own presidential candidate. From Klingbeil’s point of view, this is good news – it increases the chances for another conversation partner that day: CHP boss Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

The CHP is also a sister party of the SPD. Kilicdaroglu is currently clearly leading the polls in Turkey. He has a good chance of ending President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s rule. So the German SPD leader is meeting the possible next president of Turkey here. It’s also something special for Klingbeil, you can tell.

issue of refugee policy

The meeting with Kilicdaroglu is not easy for the SPD leader on one issue: From the SPD’s point of view, the CHP and its presidential candidate have a difficult position on refugee policy. The CHP would like to send the millions of Syrian refugees in the country back home. Kilicdaroglu also questions the EU-Turkey refugee agreement. In all talks, Klingbeil emphasizes that Germany would like to extend the agreement.

The Lower Saxon is on a difficult mission because he is not a German government official. On the contrary: Klingbeil emphasizes that he is in Turkey as party chairman.

Talks on behalf of the Chancellor

Nevertheless, he is of course perceived differently: Klingbeil is the head of the Chancellor’s Party. The Turks know that too. And sometimes it also flashes that he is not a normal party leader. When he first met CHP leader Kilicdaroglu on Tuesday in the city of Nurdagi, which was badly hit by the earthquake, he spoke like a member of the German government. He says Germany cried with Turkey. He also wanted to express his deepest sympathy on behalf of Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

The SPD leader is also on the road here as a kind of secondary foreign minister. There is a gap in the SPD that Foreign Minister Baerbock leaves in the eyes of some Social Democrats. Not everyone believes the Foreign Minister is capable of conducting pragmatic, realpolitik talks in the spirit of the Chancellor.

Prevent impression of influence

A meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu is actually planned for the trip, but the meeting falls through. Klingbeil had previously commented on social media about an ongoing ban on the SPD sister party HDP. Reason enough for the Turkish foreign minister to cancel the meeting.

Instead, Klingbeil meets Turkish MPs with connections to Germany. Including the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Turkish Parliament, Akif Cagatay Kilic from Erdogan’s AKP party. Klingbeil definitely doesn’t want to be perceived as biased. Just don’t give the AKP a reason to be able to speak of German influence on the election campaign.

Meeting with German helpers in the earthquake area

The day before in the earthquake area near the Syrian border, Klingbeil wants to get an idea of ​​the situation on site. He wants to see how Germany can help even better, he tells CHP presidential candidate Kilicdaroglu. He is also willing to provide information. Turkey currently needs tents and residential containers above all. And lots of them.

Shortly before the return flight from the earthquake areas, the advantages of a trip as party leader also become apparent: Klingbeil has an appointment with four men from his home constituency at Gaziantep airport. The members of a Kurdish football club from the Heide district have collected donations of over 30,000 euros for the earthquake victims in Germany and brought the money to eastern Turkey themselves.

In the past ten days they have driven around 4000 kilometers in order to be able to help as many people as possible. They drove another five hours for Klingbeil to meet him. After coffee together at the airport, the four of them have to drive back the route. Klingbeil is visibly proud of the men from his constituency.

As a minister, such a meeting would not have been possible. Party work and government jobs must not be mixed. In his job as party chairman, however, he can combine constituency work with secondary foreign policy in the interests of the chancellor.