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As the general elections in Germany draw nearer, different groups in the polity are mobilising their members to support their preferred parties and candidates. Africans are not left out of the trend as some of them will gather on Saturday 21 August to interact with SPD candidates in Berlin Spandau and present their wish list.
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A group is mobilising the African community in the Berlin district of Spandau to support the Social Democratic Party of Germany (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, SPD) at the general elections taking place on 26 September.
According to the spokesman of the Afro-Deutsche Group Spandau, Barrister Efosa Ogieriakhi, it’s important to participate actively in the political process as it’s the best way to put forward one’s issues before the decision makers.
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To ensure that the African community influences the political process for their benefit like other groups do was the motivation for the private legal practitioner to initiate the Afro-Deutsch Group Spandau, whose mission is to advance the cause of Africans living in Spandau.
Other conveners of the group are clergymen Pastor Phillip Imasuen and Pastor Freeman Johnson, legal scholar and journalist Charles Ofoji and educationist Lola Rebecca Akindutire-Bassey.
The Afro-Deutsch Group Spandau will host SPD candidates in Spandau to a Meet and Greet event on Saturday, 21 August. The function offers an opportunity to African residents of the district of Spandau to table their concerns before the candidates and interact with them as well on issues of general concern to the population.
“We have to tell them what we expect them to do for the African community in Spandau, if elected,” he said of the aim of the group’s interaction with the politicians.
“We live in this country with our families and we have issues that we care about, which affect us. We have to let the political leaders know where the shoe is pinching us,” he explained. “That’s the only way we can make them address our problems.”
To the question of why the group is specifically supporting the SPD, Ogieriakhi said the Social Democrats from their ideological principle and tradition are better suited to pursue policies favouring migrant communities. “The issue of equity, of addressing the disadvantage of the less-privileged are traditional to the SPD. And these are the issues that most concern Africans,” Ogieriakhi, who is a member of the party, added.
The SPD is one of the two major traditional political parties in Germany along with the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU). It is the second-largest party in the Bundestag with 152 out of 709 seats, having won 20.5% of votes cast at the 2017 federal election.
The SPD is a junior member of the current federal government along with the CDU/CSU. The grand coalition was first formed after the 2013 elections and renewed in 2017.
The SPD support event will take place on Saturday, 21 August at Josua Gemeinde, Bismarckstr. 20, 13585 Berlin from 11 am–1 pm.
Femi Awoniyi
CONTACT:
Barrister Efosa Ogieriakhi
Tel.: +49 174 3886777
Charles Ofoji
Tel.: +49 1521 3430995
