New role for world champion
Erdoğan brings Mesut Özil to the board of his party
23.02.2025 – 4:16 p.m.Reading time: 1 min.
The close relationship between Mesut Özil and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is known. Now the two also go politically common paths.
Mesut Özil apparently becomes a member of the central board of the AKP, the party of Turkish President Erdoğan. At the party congress of Erdoğan’s Islamic-conservative AKP in Ankara, he was one of 39 new members to the board, the state news agency Anadolu reported on the party list.
The German soccer world champion has long made no secret of his support for Erdoğan. The Turkish president was the best man at Özil’s wedding in Turkey. The game of the Netherlands against Turkey at the European Championships 2024 both followed together in the Olympic Stadium in Berlin in the stands.
The central board officially has the task of determining the general policy of the party, making strategic decisions and implementing these decisions. The central board, which consists of 75 members, also affects internal regulations or personnel decisions.
In practice, however, the party executive is of little importance. With a constitutional change in 2017, the parliamentary system in Turkey was replaced by a presidential system. Erdoğan has largely been able to rule fully since then. In addition, the judiciary is under control of the government, such as the EU Commission. According to Anadolu, Erdoğan has now been re -selected as party chairman at the congress with all 1,547 votes.