Pro-government takes on Erdoğan’s victory
May 31st, 2023The first pro-government reactions to the election results in Turkey welcome the victory of incumbent president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as an element of stability in the region and beyond.
Magyar Nemzet carries a statement by the pro-government For Fundamental Rights think tank in which President Erdoğan and his AKP party are depicted as guarantors of stability in Turkey. The analysts believe that by re-electing Erdoğan, the Turkish electorate has ensured that the war in Ukraine will remain a local conflict, instead of expanding into an international conflagration ‘as urged by the far Left in the West’. Stability in Turkey is also vital, they continue, for that huge country to protect Europe form the consequences of conflicts in the Middle East.
On the M1 national public news channel, the main lesson international analyst Zoltán Lomnici Jr drew from the Turkish elections is that a ‘hotchpotch coalition’ cannot win against an adversary that is deeply rooted in a society. The Turkish opposition consisted, in fact, of many parties who had precious little in common apart from wanting to depose President Erdoğan, he explains. In an obvious hint at the defeat of the opposition coalition in last year’s elections in Hungary, Lomnici says that the mere longing for power is far too little to win elections.