ALL they were hoping to do, said the organisers of an art festival in Wiesbaden, a small city on the banks of the Rhine, when they installed a four-metre statue of Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the town's central square in late August, was to spark a debate about the Turkish president and free speech. They got one, and then some. Some locals lit candles near a sign bearing the words "press freedom" that had been placed by Mr Erdogan's feet. A woman spat on the statue. Others covered it with graffiti. Scuffles broke out between the strongman's Turkish supporters and his Kurdish opponents. Fearing more trouble, the mayor ordered the fire brigade to have the statue pulled down, barely a day after it was erected.
German police may face much bigger protests when the real Mr Erdogan touches down in Berlin on September 28th for his first official visit to Germany, Turkey's NATO ally and its biggest trade partner, in over four years. He has not been missed. Germany is home to around 3m people of Turkish...
The Economist: Europe
