The Guardian election editorial: A step towards autocracy?

The British newspaper The Guardian analyzed the elections and focused on possible scenarios in the editorial, which was published under the byline of the “editor”.

“Guardian’s take on Turkey’s election results: is it a step towards autocracy?” Before the elections, voters had good reason to believe that they would turn their backs on Erdogan. In the pre-election polls, it was seen that the vote would go head-to-head and the opposition candidate, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, was ahead by a small margin.

“KILIÇDAROĞLU’S CAREER IS NOT OVER”

In the analysis, “That optimism is gone. Surprisingly, the AKP-led coalition also won a majority in parliament. However, Kılıçdaroğlu’s career is not over.”

In the article published in The Guardian, “For Europe and the US, who hope that the victory of the opposition will bring Turkey closer to the West, being with Erdogan for 5 more years is an unwelcome development. If Mr. Erdogan overcomes the most concentrated and cohesive democratic challenge, he opens the way for transforming Turkey into a full autocracy,” the statement said.

“IF KILIÇDAROĞLU CANNOT CONSUME…”

While Nation Alliance candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu is claimed to have 2 weeks to convince voters, “This is very difficult when the aggressive media mostly supports Erdogan. If the opposition succeeds in this, it should win over nationalist voters who live outside the city.”

“Despite the economic pain of spiraling inflation, Erdogan convinced the conservative working class that he was the leader in protecting their rights,” the article says. If Kılıçdaroğlu cannot convince otherwise, the picture of Turkish democracy in the medium term looks bleak.