Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday called on Turkish-origin Germans to give a "slap" to both parties in Chancellor Angela Merkels ruling coalition in September polls, pressing on with what Berlin has condemned as unprecedented meddling.
Erdogan has caused consternation in Berlin by urging ethnic Turks in Germany to vote neither for Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), its coalition partner the Social Democratic Party (SPD) nor the Greens in the September 24 legislative polls.