Turkey’s local elections: “Erdogan is defeatable”

The defeat of the Islamic conservative ruling party AKP in the local elections has shaken up the political landscape in Turkey. While the opposition sees itself on the rise, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan must come to terms with the debacle, as he himself admitted after the election on Sunday. Erdogan’s AKP achieved a historically poor result in the vote. For the first time since its founding in 2002, it became only the second strongest party in the country in an election.

According to unofficial results, the largest opposition party, the CHP, won 35 of the 81 mayoral positions nationwide, achieving its greatest success in decades. She also defended her posts in the important metropolis of Istanbul and the capital Ankara – overall she won in the country’s five largest cities. It also expanded its influence in Anatolia – actually the heartland of the AKP.

This is how the press comments on the election results in Turkey

“Rhine Palatinate” (Ludwigshafen): “President Erdogan has resoundingly lost the local elections in Istanbul and other parts of the country. His recipes for success of the past decades are no longer effective, a new political landscape with new politicians is emerging. Erdogan is not yet at the end. But Turkish politics is already preparing for it Time after him.”

“OM Media” (Vechta/Cloppenburg): “Erdogan has to admit that he has lost extreme support, not only because of the ongoing economic crisis. Many people also no longer want to accept the bullying. Is Turkey at a new crossroads? How will Erdogan behave? These questions go far beyond that “It is important beyond Turkey.”

“Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger”: “The reasons for this election result lie not only in the economic crisis that Erdogan himself brought about with his years-long policy of cheap money. More and more young people in the cities are rebelling against the control and the creeping Islamization of the state and society. Almost Two thirds of all Turkish young people between the ages of 18 and 25 would like to emigrate, according to a study from last year. Never before have so many Turks applied for asylum in the EU as now. In Germany alone the number has increased in the past year more than doubled.”

“Handelsblatt” (Dusseldorf): “The most important lesson from election Sunday in Turkey is: Erdogan can be defeated. And that will have consequences – for Erdogan himself, but also for the opposition, the country and the entire region. In the past, Erdogan has often been able to convince people that only he brings an upswing, that only he can solve political crises – and that he had won all previous elections. That no longer applies. His peak has been passed. Erdogan was unable to reduce high inflation, despite sharply increased key interest rates. He was able to in the Middle East conflict , in which a large part of the population is on the side of Palestine, could not use his influence. And despite his power, he could not keep the opposition down.”

“Leipziger Volkszeitung”: “Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gambled big – and lost. It remains to be seen what consequences Erdogan will draw from the defeat. He is not one to give up easily. It is unlikely that he will now reflect on the values ​​of democracy and the rule of law “It is more likely that he is now pushing ahead with his plans for constitutional reform that could give him even more power and the possibility of another term as president.”

“Mitteldeutsche Zeitung” (Halle): “Erdogan is now announcing ‘self-criticism’. He has often been declared politically dead, but so far he has overcome all setbacks. It remains to be seen what consequences Erdogan will draw.”

“Free Press” (Chemnitz): “The Turkish president is now likely to try again to change his minds with an aggressive, nationalistic foreign policy. Even before election day, he announced new military interventions against the Kurdish terrorist organization PKK in Iraq and Syria for the summer. With his politics However, Erdogan is likely to remain close to the West because he needs investors and a good relationship with Europe and the USA, for example in order to modernize the customs union with the EU. The president has been propagating a ‘new Turkey’ for years, which he will rule under his sole rule Now a ‘new Turkey’ is actually emerging – but it looks different than Erdogan imagines.”

“Stuttgarter Zeitung”: “A mayoral election in Istanbul ushered in a new era in Turkey exactly 30 years ago: That was when Recep Tayyip Erdogan entered the political stage. Now an election on the Bosphorus has heralded the end of Erdogan’s long career. The president won the local elections in Istanbul and in other parts of the country on Sunday. Different rules apply in local elections than in presidential or parliamentary elections. AKP regular voters were able to give their president a lesson without thereby endorsing a change of power in Ankara. But the extent of the opposition victory suggests that “Something has started to slip that Erdogan may no longer be able to stop.”

“Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”: “It is his biggest defeat to date. For the first time since the rise of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan twenty years ago, his party is no longer the strongest force in elections. The candidates that the Turkish president put forward were so pale that he could not once tried to blame them for the poor performance in the local elections. After so many years under his leadership, the party is exhausted in terms of personnel. (…) There is not much change in the balance of power in the country for the time being. In centralized Turkey, the mayors have little Scope for creativity. What changes is the mood. And that’s a lot. For the first time in a long time, a different Turkey seems possible. A country that no longer appears to be sliding inexorably towards autocracy.”