Turkey's Erdoğan Tightens His Grip

Turkey’s religious conservatives are rejoicing over the March 30 local election win for the ruling Justice and Development Party. For the country as a whole, there’s little to celebrate. As Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made clear in his victory speech, retribution against his enemies and a polarizing presidential election campaign will follow.

Erdoğan managed to boost his party’s share of the popular vote to 46 percent from 39 percent, despite last year’s massive Gezi Park anti-government protests in Istanbul, serial foreign policy failures, a slowing economy, and a slew of corruption allegations. The election was anything but flawless: Power blackouts interrupted the counting of votes, most of the traditional news media proved pliant, and the government blocked Twitter and YouTube. None of that will stop Erdoğan from claiming a popular mandate and pressing on with increasingly authoritarian policies.