Merkel's CDU will have to find new excuse to block Turkey's drive toward EU

Turning Turkey's potential EU membership into ingredients for opposition party campaign platforms has brought similar results now in both France and Germany. In this way, it would politicians in these countries will no longer be able to use warnings of a mass negative reaction to Turkish EU membership as an excuse for blocking Turkey's accession process. The referendum in late May in France on the European Constitution saw much talk of the French voting "no" because of not wanting Turkey in the EU. But exit polls following the referendum showed that, in fact, voters were much more worried about issues such as joblessness and social unrest. In the end, Turkey's potential EU membership came in fifth on a laundry list of worries among the French.  And the shocking results of Sunday's elections in Germany showed once and for all that Merkel's CDU Party was not able to bring in votes based on opposition to Turkey's EU membership. Merkel's campaign, which used warnings like "If you give your vote to SPD, there are Turks waiting with packed suitcases in Anatolia waiting to flow into Germany," discovered Sunday that they were not able to scare voters in Germany that easily. Â