Briefing | Turkey’s election

A big moment for Erdogan—and Turkey

Foreign policy is a hubristic disaster and the economy is on the slide, but that won’t stop the ruling AK party founded by Recep Tayyip Erdogan from winning

|ANKARA, ISTANBUL, MUGLA AND VAN

CRITICS of Turkey say its democracy is under threat, but it doesn’t look that way at election time. Villagers are on the streets in their hundreds, city-dwellers in their hundreds of thousands, to listen to politicians’ pitches. The country is covered in bunting. In recent elections turnout has been over 80%—higher than in most other European countries—and, although allegations of ballot-rigging are frequent, voting is mostly fair.

This article appeared in the Briefing section of the print edition under the headline “A big moment for Erdogan—and Turkey”

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