Turkish diplomats expressed their fury on Tuesday after the German Federal Parliament Vice President likened Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to a sewer rat at an election campaign rally.

The parliamentary leader, Free Democratic Party (FDP) lawmaker Wolfgang Kubicki, made the comparison as he warned the German government that Turkey could deliberately create a new refugee crisis.

Kubicki confirmed to Reuters that he had used this expression to draw attention to a rise in the number of migrants crossing into Europe illegally from Turkey.

“A sewer rat is a small, cute, but at the same time clever and crafty creature that also appears in children’s stories,” said the senior German politician, mentioning the popular animated movie Ratatouille as an example.

The Turkish government strongly condemned Kubicki’s remarks and summoned Germany’s ambassador to the Turkish Foreign Ministry in Ankara on Tuesday.

Turkish Foreign Ministry Spokesman Tanju Bilgiç called Kubicki’s statements unacceptable and said the German politician was unsuitable for his position as vice president of the federal parliament. “He is completely devoid of political morality and responsibility,” Bilgiç said.

Insulting the president is a crime punishable by a prison sentence of one to four years in Turkey. The investigations and lawsuits initiated for insulting the president increased rapidly after Erdoğan took over the presidency in August 2014.

According to the Ministry of Justice data, while the number of defamation cases against the president was 110 in 2014, there were over 9,000 cases in 2021.

Kubicki is not the only European politician to criticise Erdoğan in recent weeks.

Last week, German Greens MP and foreign policy spokesperson Jürgen Tritten called for strict sanctions on Turkey after Erdoğan stated his desire for Turkey to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) foreign policy spokesperson Nils Schmid also said Erdoğan ‘s plan to join the SCO was an attempt to divert attention from domestic political problems, calling it a serious mistake for Turkey’s future.

But the Turkish president has a much longer history of problems regarding invective from Germany.

In 2016, Erdoğan launched legal action against Jan Böhmermann, a German comedian who mocked the Turkish leader’s treatment of refugees, violations of Kurdish rights, and clampdown on press freedoms in a vulgar poem on his television programme.

The incident led to criminal prosecution of Böhmermann under a law banning “abusive criticism” of a foreign leader. The case against him was later dropped.

Insulting the president is a crime punishable by a prison sentence of one to four years in Turkey. The investigations and lawsuits initiated for insulting the president increased rapidly after Erdoğan took over the presidency in August 2014.

According to the Ministry of Justice data, the number of defamation cases against the president was just 110 in 2014, and has risen to over 9,000 cases in 2021.