The S&D Group welcomed the results of the local elections held on March 31 in Turkey. Despite the oppression against opposition forces, unbalanced media and the use of administrative resources in favour of the ruling AKP party, AKP together with their nationalist MHP ally seem to have been defeated in Ankara and Istanbul by the opposition CHP and have also lost ground in many other provinces.
“The results of yesterday’s local elections are a clear sign that even despite total grip on the country, president Erdoğan’s authoritarian and economical disastrous policies are losing support and people have voted for more democracy, better economy and plurality. I hope president Erdoğan has understood the message from the people and he will react positively to the voters’ demands asking for more openness and better living conditions,” said Knut Fleckenstein, S&D MEP and spokesperson on foreign affairs.
“I congratulate S&D sister parties, the Turkish Republican Party (CHP) for an excellent election result, especially in the three biggest cities, and the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) for good results in the South-Eastern, the predominantly Kurdish populated part of the country. HDP managed to win back provinces from so called trustees, whom the government had put in place instead of the democratically elected mayors of the last local elections. It is now important that these new elected mayors would remain in their positions until the next regular elections and the persecution of the HDP members stops,” he added.
