Millions of Turks and other foreign nationals living in Germany are worried about the increase in voter support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in some states in the recent elections.
Turks living in Cologne expressed their concern that the anti-immigrant AfD became the second party with 29.2% of the votes in the elections held on Sept. 22 in Brandenburg, one of the eastern states of Germany.
Doğan Cimikoğlu, who lives in the city, told Anadolu Agency (AA) that the AfD is the continuation of a previously established party called NPD.
"These are racist parties and they are dangerous parties, especially for foreigners," he said, adding: "We, as foreigners or social democrats, need to take precautions against this."
Cimikoğlu said that the influx of people fleeing the wars in Syria and the Middle East to Europe in recent years has stoked racism, which also led to an increase in the number of votes that the far-right parties receive in elections.
"These votes can be brought down democratically," he said.
"The wrong policies of parties like the Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens have also contributed to the rise in their votes," he said. "These parties did not keep their promises, so even people who are not right-wing are turning to these parties."
"All people must unite and prevent these right-wing extremists from coming to power," he said.
Cimikoğlu said, "29% of the vote is too much; they have overtaken most parties, and this is really dangerous."
Xenophobic motivation
Hasan Emektar, who sells vinyl records and nostalgic products on Keup Street, known as the "Turkish street" in Cologne, said: "Wherever in the world if there are too many immigrants in a country, the far-right grows in that country."
Stating that the far-right has started to rise more in Europe, Emektar said: "I attribute this entirely to xenophobia."
Reminding that the far-right is in power in the Netherlands, he said: "They make very harsh statements at election time."
But when they take office, they do not make significant changes in the system, so those statements are generally "election-based discourses," he highlighted.
Sedat Imrak, who owns a clothing store in the city, pointed out that the vote rates of far-right parties have increased recently: "We are against all kinds of fascism."
"Whether it is right or left. There needs to be humanity, compassion and conscience," he said.
Imrak said that everyone should unite against racism.
Ertekin Güçlü, who lives in Cologne, said that he does not believe that the far-right extremists will radically change the Constitution and laws if they come to power and said that everyone should be vigilant in the face of increasing voting rates of far-right across the country.
Sunday's exit polls showed that many voters were also concerned about their economic welfare, were critical of Western military support to Ukraine, and demanded stronger measures from authorities to stop irregular migration.
Nearly 48% of those who voted for the SPD said they have decided to do so due to their support for Dietmar Woidke, the Social Democrat premier, who has led Brandenburg for more than a decade.
Some 65% of the electorate said they have a positive view of Woidke's performance.
The center-left SPD narrowly won Sunday’s vote in Brandenburg, but AfD still came in second, just 6 percentage points behind.
The AfD's 29.2% is a big gain from 2019 when it got 23.5% of the vote. Crucially, the result gives it enough seats in the state parliament to block any decisions requiring a two-thirds majority. This applies to constitutional changes, among others.
It is Germany's first far-right party to win a state legislature election since World War II. The party has been classified by the domestic intelligence agency in Brandenburg as a suspected right-wing extremist group.
AfD wins are attributed to growing concerns among Germans on unregulated migration, which intensified after a deadly attack by a Syrian asylum-seeker in the western city of Solingen last month.
The Solingen attack prompted Germany's federal government to tighten asylum policies, accelerate deportations and launch temporary controls on its western and northern borders.
Germany is home to the world's biggest overseas community of people of Turkish origin, numbering around 2.8 million, many descendants of workers who came to the country to plug labor shortages in the 1960s and 70s.
About half of this number still hold Turkish passports, while others hold German citizenship.
The community often complains of anti-Muslim and anti-Turkish threats and attacks on Turkish diplomatic missions, homes and shops, as well as places of worship and social gathering. For instance, over 500 attacks involving Quran burnings took place in Western Europe last year, according to the Turkish Foreign Ministry.