The French are wary of Erdogan’s rise in Turkey – “Populist with authoritarian roots”

“THE Erdogan he now has time until 2028 to redesign her Turkey as he thinks, building a democracy that he imagines as more religious, more authoritarian, and more oriented towards Gulfthe Russia and China».

This is pointed out by the French newspaper referring to the second round of the presidential elections in Turkey Le Monde noting that “after twenty years in power, nothing seems to be able to dent his charisma. Neither his unbridled authoritarianism (200,000 judicial investigations have been launched for insulting the president) nor the inflation (44% on average per year) which is hitting the population hard.”

His re-election for a third term confirms his status as an “unsinkable president” who has mastered the art of recovery, notes the French newspaper, underlining that “in twenty years, we have seen him overcome everything: political crises, mass protests, corruption scandals, military coup attempts and the desertion of his former companions”.

According to the French newspaper, Erdogan is “a populist leader with strong authoritarian rootswho in the twenty years of his reign has significantly strengthened his control over the country.”

“This power is political and psychological as well as material, if we consider the fact that 15 million people – out of a total population 85 million – they live exclusively on the social assistance distributed by the Party of Justice and Development (AKP), the “state party”, a superstructure that plays with subservience and clientelism”, comments the French newspaper.

For its part, the newspaper Journal de Sunday points out that despite the numerous criticisms for the state of the economy, but also for the management of the earthquake that hit Turkey in February, the Erdogan continues to embody a factor of “stability” in the Turkey.

Jean Markou, professor at the University of Grenoble and researcher at the French Institute of Oriental Studies in Istanbul, points out in the newspaper the insistence of the Turkish president, during his election campaign, on the “greatness of Turkey“, citing as an argument the country’s diplomatic role “in the context of the war in Ukraine, where its mediation efforts between Kiev and Moscow they allowed him to once again be at the center of the diplomatic game. The same newspaper also refers to Erdogan’s son-in-law, SElzuk Bayraktardescribing him as “the face of the Turkish outfit and beyond”, who “ended up gaining the status of a national hero” and could be promoted to high office or run for mayor of Istanbul.

Analyst Jean-Dominique Mercet also refers to the possible effects on France’s relations with Turkey in an article in the newspaper Opinion underlining that French President Emmanuel Macron wants to warm up his relations with Erdogan, but also that Turkey, which is becoming more and more nationalist, is a difficult but inevitable partner for France.

As mentioned, Mr Macron and Erdogan could meet on Thursday, June 1, on the occasion of the meeting of the new European Political Community in Chisinau, Moldova, and they will also meet again at the NATO summit on July 11 and 12 in Vilnius, Lithuania. According to the French newspaper, instead of Islamistthe re-elected Erdogan will be more of a nationalist than ever, since, as he says, he does not have a supranational vision of a community of believers that would transcend Turkey’s interests, nor is he a pure ideologue, even if he has firm convictions.

The newspaper Liberation finally in her publication entitled “Erdogan forever”, underlines that the Turkish leader is a mixture of nationalism and religious fundamentalism, highlighting the inability of the opposition to compete with him and the disappointment of a large part of the Turkish population after the final results.