Thread by @WholePicture_

#Thread about #Turkey #Erdogan #Nationalist:

• The public prosecutor's office filed for a ban against the third largest party in the country, the pro-Kurdish HDP.

nzz.ch/pro-global/per…

• Erdogan announced his withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention against Violence against Women.

• The government withdrew control of the symbolic Gezi Park from the opposition city administration of Istanbul.

• Erdogan fired the head of the Turkish central bank, which caused the lira to fall.

Waning support for Erdogan and his party

Share of votes in parliamentary elections or polls, in%

AKP = Blue One (Erdogan's party) MHP = Yellow One (coalition partner)

img.nzz.ch/2021/3/24/9353…

by @NZZ

Since the change to a presidential system four years ago, all threads in the Turkish government have come together at Erdogan. At the same time, hardly any information leaks out of the presidential palace. The decision-making processes are very opaque.

However, due to the poor economic situation in particular, the government coalition's popularity ratings have slipped below 50 percent.

On its own, Erdogan's AKP has not achieved the absolute majority that it has needed to maintain power since the introduction of the presidential system. This increases his dependence on his coalition partner, the ultra-nationalist party MHP.

The events of the past week are Erdogan's attempts to increase his popularity there with gestures to different camps. The president has no claim to represent the whole population.

Rather, Erdogan is a master of polarization and only has a good 60 percent of Turks in mind who are eligible as potential voters: It's about the religious-conservative and nationalist milieus.

All other groups - seculars, progressives, leftists or the Kurds - primarily serve as enemy images. This also applies to a large extent to the West as an external enemy.

• With the central bank, he ultimately pursues symbolic politics. The expected rate cuts are expected to fuel debt-financed growth, from which some government-related sectors in particular will benefit. In the long run, however, inflation will destroy wealth.