Election wins of Orban, Vucic boost confidence of Turkey's government

Photo: AA

Turkey's government circles have welcomed the recent election wins of PM Viktor Orban of Hungary and President Aleksandar Vucic of Serbia while supporting the ousted Imran Khan government in Pakistan.

Orban's win was particularly a morale booster for Turkey's government, as many commentators, both pro-government and otherwise, draw parallels between Orban and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's style of governance and their respective opponents. It was celebrated by Turkey's pro-government media as a victory against a Western-backed opposition bloc.

"Historic speech by Orban! The alliance of the six is destroyed in the ballot box," was the title of daily Sabah's article covering the election results.

The article described the opposition alliance in Hungary as one with "great similarities" to the opposition bloc in Turkey, which, coincidentally, also consists of six parties.

"Foreign powers"

Ömer Çelik, the spokesperson of Erdoğan's Justice and Development Party (AKP), told reporters on Wednesday (April 6) that Erdoğan has "close relations with [Orban] and attaches importance to these relations."

"What we have seen in the election results is that the efforts of some external centers to decide who will be in power always backfire. The nation always makes the decision," he asserted.

Addressing his party's MPs at the AKP headquarters late Wednesday, Erdoğan also made similar comments.

"[The 2023] election is so important that it brought together those who even wouldn't say hello to each other. The six... The same thing happened in Hungary," he said, claiming that those who "coordinated" the six-party opposition alliances in Turkey and Hungary were the same foreign powers.

"The text they have put forward as a program is nothing but a text that was prepared abroad and given to them," he said, apparently referring to a roadmap declared by the six opposition leaders about the country's switch to a parliamentary system if and when Erdoğan loses power in the next election, which will take place no later than June 2023.

The six opposition leaders were nothing but "half a dozen greedy people" who were fighting each other behind the scenes, despite acting like there were no problems between them, he said.

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Similar to Erdoğan and Çelik, several pro-government columnists argued that Orban's landslide win was a sign that the West's ability to determine who will govern other countries has diminished.

Hasan Öztürk, a columnist for daily Yeni Şafak, wrote, "The imperialists can lo longer achieve the results they wanted as easily as they used to in the areas they intervene. Especially in politics, their plans don't work," citing the election results in Hungary and Serbia, as well as the political turmoil in Pakistan.

At the time the article was published, Pakistan's PM Khan had not yet lost power, thanks to the president dissolving the parliament, which was later deemed unconstitutional by the country's top court. Turkey's pro-government media have mostly repeated Khan's narrative that there was a "US-backed coup attempt against him."

"These three important events, which are of particular concern to us, have resulted in Turkey's favor. In Pakistan, an American coup has been prevented. In Hungary, Soros and the globalists have lost. In Serbia, Vucic, who pursues a balanced policy, has won," he wrote.

"I hope these results will teach a lesson to the opposition of the six, who think they will overthrow the government with the backing of foreign powers." 

Can Erdoğan repeat Orban's success?

Mevlüt Tezel, a columnist for daily Sabah, recommended Turkey's government to take similar measures to Orban, who imposed limits on the prices of some basic food products such as flour, sugar and sunflower oil in early January in the face of soaring inflation.

Recalling a previous article of his, where he had said, "This is the method to win the elections. I bet Orban will win the election in the spring!" and added that the opposition in Hungary also relied on rising inflation rates like their counterparts in Turkey.

Some others, however, argued that Erdoğan may not be able to simply repeat Orban's success, as Turkey's economic problems are much deeper than those of Hungary.

In several metrics, such as the increase in the income per capita over the past decade, the inflation rate, and the Gini coefficient, Hungary compares remarkably well to Turkey, they pointed out. 

"The similarities between [Turkey and Hungary] are that a strong and close-to-authoritarian leader is in power and that there are six parties in the opposition bloc against him. Other than that, there is not much of a similarity," wrote Fatih Altaylı, a veteran journalist, in his column on Habertürk. 

President Erdoğan's government has a habit of staunchly supporting one side in power struggles in other countries, as seen in the political turmoils in Egypt, Syria, Sudan and Libya over the past decade or so. This trend continued with Hungary, Serbia and Pakistan, and especially the election in Hungary seems to have raised their hopes. (VK)