Chancellor Olaf Scholz has said that Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s accusation of fascism against Israel was “absurd”, days before the German leader is due to host the Turkish president for talks in Berlin, AFP reports.

Israel “is a democracy” and “a country that is bound to human rights and international law and acts accordingly. Therefore, the accusations against Israel are absurd,” Scholz told a press conference.

He was responding to a question about Erdogan’s comment on Friday that Israel’s legitimacy was “being questioned due to its own fascism”.