The Islamic Community Millî Görüş (IGMG) is calling for Bremen residents without German passports to be allowed to vote ahead of Bremen’s parliamentary elections on Sunday ( May 14). “Nineteen per cent of all Bremen residents are excluded from voting. The fact that almost one in five cannot participate in the political decision-making process is a democratic deficit,” said General Secretary Ali Mete on Thursday.
Democracy, he said, thrives on people feeling represented, trusting and supporting politics. “Voting exclusions, on the other hand, have the opposite effect: people feel excluded and marginalised.” He said it was unacceptable that people who have lived in Germany for many years, working and paying taxes, “should not be allowed to participate in decision-making simply because they are not formally citizens”. Many other countries have shown that things can be done differently.
In a comparison of the federal states, Bremen has the highest proportion of immigrants in the total population, 37.2 per cent. The national average is 25.3 per cent, as the social affairs department announced on Wednesday.