If it succeeds, though, it will resonate more widely
writes Ozgur Ozal, the opposition leader
Democrats across Europe, including Turkey, were
heartened by voters’ rejection of Viktor Orban in
Hungary’s recent elections. His long tenure as prime minister had become a case study in “illiberal
democracy”. Elections were held, but the surrounding
ecosystem was steadily bent: media were consolidated,
courts constrained, civil society pressured and
economic power fused with political loyalty.
Much of this resonates far beyond the Danube. Turkey,
too, has seen increasingly illiberal leadership and a
gradual narrowing of competitive democratic space. Its
president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, came to power in
2003 with popular support and strong democratic
rhetoric. Yet over time he has turned ever more
authoritarian: controlling the media, building loyalist
business networks, muzzling civil society and
weaponising the judiciary against the opposition,
including my own Republican People’s Party (chp), the
second-largest in parliament after Mr Erdogan’s party,
Justice and Development (ak). In both Turkey and
Hungary, by the late 2010s, politics had shifted from
open contestation to managed competition, where
electoral outcomes are not predetermined, but
increasingly guided by the ruling party.
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Turkey’s Struggle for Democracy is Like Hungary’s, But Harder
