Listening preferences
Download this audio partReport by the Media Centre of the Kurdistan Independence Party
In September 2026, Germany entered an important phase of local and state elections. These elections carry political significance not only for Germany’s major political parties, but also for national communities and diaspora populations.
For Kurds living in Germany, these elections provide an opportunity to strengthen political participation, expand representation within democratic institutions, and bring Kurdish issues and demands into political decision-making bodies.
On 13 September 2026, local elections are being held in Lower Saxony. On 20 September, parliamentary elections will also take place in Berlin and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. These elections come at a sensitive time in German domestic politics, shaped by debates over migration, asylum, identity, the economy, and the rise of right-wing political forces.
In this context, Kurdish participation means more than simply casting a vote. It means being an active part of the political life, legislative processes, and decision-making structures of a country that remains one of Europe’s principal political centres.
Kurds in Germany: A Large Community with Growing Representation
Kurds are among the largest national diaspora communities in Germany. Estimates place their population at approximately two million people.
This community includes Kurds from all four parts of Kurdistan: northern, southern, western and eastern Kurdistan. Some Kurdish families have lived in Germany for several generations, while others arrived as a result of war, attacks, occupation, the destruction of their livelihoods, and displacement.
One of the main difficulties, however, is that Germany’s statistical system does not record Kurdish ethnicity as a separate category. As a result, many Kurds are officially recorded according to Turkish, Iraqi, Syrian, Iranian or German citizenship.
This has meant that the demographic and political weight of the Kurdish community has not always been clearly reflected in official statistics.
Nevertheless, in recent years Kurdish participation in political parties, municipal councils, state parliaments and the Bundestag has increased significantly.
Lower Saxony: Several Kurdish Candidates
In the local elections in Lower Saxony, Oldenburg is one of the cities where Kurdish political participation is particularly visible.
A total of 383 candidates are competing for 52 seats on the city council.
Among the better-known candidates are:
Dara Bako, a Yazidi Kurd, who is standing for the city council on the Green Party list.
Nawdar Saeed is also contesting the election on the Green Party list.
Güzel Tolan is standing for the Social Democratic Party.
Leylan Duman, from the Left Party, is at the top of her party’s list in her electoral district.
This participation is significant because it demonstrates that Kurds are active across several different political parties and currents in Germany. Kurdish political participation is therefore no longer confined to a single party or political tendency.
Dara Bako, whose family roots are in Khanke in Duhok, has focused his election programme on the environment, housing, education, municipal services and the protection of refugees’ rights, particularly those of Yazidis.
The presence of Kurdish candidates within Germany’s major political parties shows that part of the new Kurdish generation in Germany seeks to exert political influence directly through democratic institutions and the formal political system.
Berlin: From Individual Representation to Institutional Influence
The Berlin election on 20 September has particular importance from a Kurdish perspective.
Berlin is one of the principal centres of Kurdish political, social and cultural life in Germany. A large number of Kurdish organisations, institutions, cultural centres and political initiatives operate in the city.
Ahead of the election, several Kurdish organisations held discussions with representatives of German political parties and raised issues including the Kurdish language, Kurdish identity, refugee rights, opposition to discrimination, and social participation.
This method of engagement represents a more advanced stage of political participation.
The political weight of a community cannot be measured solely by the number of its candidates. What also matters is the extent to which that community can influence party programmes, government decisions and the broader direction of public policy.
For Kurds, this means that political engagement must go beyond voting and standing for office. It should extend to lobbying, political dialogue, institutional work, and sustained efforts to secure recognition of Kurdish rights and identity.
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and the Rise of the Right
The election in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern will also take place on 20 September.
Its outcome may have implications beyond the borders of the state itself, because the rise of right-wing parties in the region is part of broader political changes taking place across Germany.
For Kurds and other migrant communities, these developments are particularly important.
Policies concerning asylum, residence rights, deportation, citizenship or social integration can have a direct effect on significant sections of the Kurdish community.
For this reason, Kurdish political participation and voting are not simply democratic rights; they are also instruments for protecting political and social rights and interests.
Kurds in the Bundestag
The growth of Kurdish political participation in Germany has moved beyond the local level and reached the Bundestag.
In the 2025 election, a number of Kurdish representatives entered Germany’s federal parliament.
Among them are:
Ferat Koçak, Cem Ince, Cansu Özdemir, Mirze Edis, Gökay Akbulut, Kassem Taher Saleh and Serdar Yüksel.
Although this number of Kurdish representatives in the Bundestag remains limited compared with the overall Kurdish population in Germany, it marks an important change.
It shows that Kurds are gradually moving beyond the position of being seen primarily as refugees or migrants and are becoming part of the country’s political and institutional structures.
From Political Participation to Political Weight
Kurdish participation in democratic elections across Europe has particular significance.
As a nation that is still deprived of the fundamental right to self-determination and of its own national state, the Kurdish people need to build political influence in every country where a substantial Kurdish population lives.
Participation in parliaments, municipal councils, political parties and civil-society institutions can become an instrument for raising awareness of the Kurdish cause, defending national rights and bringing the voice of Kurdistan into European centres of decision-making.
However, the presence of a few individual Kurds within political parties is not sufficient.
What is required is the development of a conscious and sustainable political network linking Kurdish candidates, members of parliament, Kurdish organisations, academics, media institutions and civil society.
Without such cooperation, individual political success may remain disconnected from broader national outcomes.
If individual participation is combined with a long-term national strategy, however, Kurds can build genuine political weight within the diaspora.
Kurdish Political Diversity
At the same time, it must be recognised that the Kurdish community in Germany is not politically homogeneous.
Kurds come from all four parts of Kurdistan, hold different political views and ideological orientations, and are active within different German political parties.
For this reason, a “Kurdish voting bloc” in the political sense has not yet emerged.
This diversity is not in itself a problem. Political differences are natural in a democratic society.
The problem arises when party divisions lead to the neglect of shared national interests.
Support for the Kurdish language, national identity, human rights, the rights of Kurdish refugees, opposition to demographic engineering in Kurdistan, and recognition of the Kurdish nation’s right to self-determination are issues that can stand above party differences.
2027: An Even More Important Year for Kurds in Germany
Following the September 2026 elections, 2027 is expected to be another year with a substantial number of elections.
On 18 April 2027, elections are scheduled in Schleswig-Holstein and Saarland; on 25 April in North Rhine-Westphalia; on 30 March in Bremen; and on 26 September in Lower Saxony.
Among these, North Rhine-Westphalia is particularly important for the Kurdish community.
A significant Kurdish population lives in cities including Cologne, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Essen, Bochum, Duisburg and Bielefeld.
Because of this demographic concentration, organised and informed Kurdish participation could create real electoral influence in some constituencies and municipalities.
Political participation by Kurds in democratic European countries is a national necessity.
We support Kurdish candidates and activists who are committed to democracy, human rights, equality, the rights of nations, and the right of the Kurdish people to self-determination.
We believe that Kurds living in Germany should make full use of their democratic rights: they should vote, stand as candidates, join political parties, participate actively in civil-society institutions, and bring the voice of Kurdistan into decision-making bodies.
At the same time, political participation in the diaspora should maintain its connection with the fundamental issues of the Kurdish nation.
A Kurd may be a member of any democratic German political party, but Kurdish national identity and national rights should not be forgotten.
The September 2026 elections in Germany represent another stage in the development of Kurdish political participation in the diaspora.
The results in Lower Saxony, Berlin and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern will indicate the direction in which German politics is moving and the extent to which Kurds can build a political voice and political weight within that process.
The future of Kurdish political activity in Europe should be built on two principles: active participation in the democracy of the country of residence, and continued commitment to the national rights and objectives of Kurdistan.
Only by establishing this balance can the Kurdish diaspora move from a marginalised community to an organised and effective political force capable of representing the voice and aspirations of the Kurdish nation within Europe’s centres of decision-making.
Media Centre of the Kurdistan Independence Party
11 September 2026
