Germans Want Referendum on Turkey

A majority of Germans supports holding a referendum to decide on Turkey's EU membership application: 62 percent of those polled favored such a move, according to the Emnid survey commissioned by Die Welt newspaper. While only 49 percent of supporters of Germany's ruling Social Democratic Party backed a referendum, 69 percent of those supporting Germany's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party said they would want to vote in a plebiscite. The conservative CDU has so far opposed an EU membership for Turkey and instead has called for a "spezial relationship" between the union and Turkey. Turkish leaders have rejected that proposal.