Germany’s unique new veto on the sale of Eurofighter fighters to Turkey
The measure has been taken by the acting government to protect the Turkish opposition Ekrem Imamoglu, who rejects it and asks that the purchase go ahead
A few weeks before the new German government, led by Friedrich Merz, takes power in the country, the interim government of the still Chancellor Olaf Scholz has decided to veto the planned sale of Eurofighter fighter jets to Turkey again. With this measure, the acting chancellor, whose Social Democratic Party (SPD) is preparing to enter the coalition that will allow the conservative Merz (CDU/CSU) to take office from May 6, intends to pressure the Eurasian country to release the mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu. This competitor of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been detained for more than a month on charges of corruption, although it is suspected that this is an attempt to dynamite his chances of ending up as president of Turkey.
The decision particularly affects the British company BAE Systems, which is the partner firm of the multinational Eurofighter program that recently issued the formal offer for the sale of these aircraft to Ankara. Interestingly, Imamoglu himself has criticised the Scholz government’s decision, arguing that his country urgently needs the aircraft developed by Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain and Italy.
Berlin considers Imamoglu’s arrest an anti-democratic act that calls into question the guarantees of a sale of weapons of this caliber. But it does not seem that it will end up having much progress, taking into account that the veto comes from a government that has only a few days left in power and that adopts it to press for the release of a politician who does not agree with it.