Emmanuel Macron congratulated Recep Tayyip Erdogan on his re-election as President of Turkey on Sunday, saying that “France and Turkey have immense challenges to overcome together”. Among these “challenges”, the French president quotes, on Twitter, the “return of peace in Europe, the future of our Euro-Atlantic Alliance, the Mediterranean Sea”. “With President Erdogan, whom I congratulate, we will continue to move forward,” added the head of state.
52.1% of the vote
The Russian president also wanted to congratulate the Turkish head of state, evoking a “logical result” which provides “obvious proof” of the population’s support for his policy. “Your victory in these elections is the logical result of your dedicated work at the head of the Turkish Republic, a clear proof of the support of the Turkish people for your efforts to strengthen state sovereignty and pursue an independent foreign policy”, indicated Vladimir Putin according to statements published on the Kremlin website.
According to the results covering more than 98% of the ballots, published by the official Turkish Anadolu agency, Recep Tayyip Erdogan obtained 52.1% of the vote against 47.9% for his social-democratic rival Kemal Kiliçdaroglu. At 74, the latter has lost the bet of alternation and the “peaceful democracy” he promised.
Two visions of the country, society and governance were offered to the 60 million voters of Turkey (the diaspora has already voted) called to the polls on Sunday. Stability, at the risk of autocracy with the outgoing hyper-president, a 69-year-old Islamo-conservative, or the return to a peaceful democracy, in his words, with his adversary, a former civil servant.
