French press: Erdogan is a real miracle and admit that he has the support of his people

The French press showed great interest in the Turkish elections, and most of them talked about the strength of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's position, which some saw as a "real miracle" and others saw it as proof that Erdogan has the support of his people, calling on the West to accept this, while one newspaper attributed the credit to religious youth fed Islamic nationalism, but everyone agreed on the president's superiority and the frustration of the opposition.

The newspaper "Le Figaro" (Le Figaro) – in its analysis – that the madness of the media in Europe depends on the high probability of a setback for Erdogan was forgetting the weight of religious youth who belong to an identity that does not believe in Western standards.

He showed that this media looks at Turkey through a distorted mirror that focuses on major urban centers such as Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir, ignoring Anatolian Turkey, which sees Erdogan as the only candidate capable of ensuring the stability of a country surrounded by hotbeds of tension and can raise Turkey's voice loudly at the international level.

A large percentage of Turks still see Erdogan as their preferred leader (Reuters)

Analyst Tigran Yagavian said Erdogan could count on the unconditional support of Turkey's powerful diaspora in Western Europe, which is heavily mobilized in his favor, and on the transmission of votes from the extreme right, which is sensitive to his rhetoric.

But he expressed skepticism about the leader of the opposition bloc, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who said that in the first round he got everything he could get, especially since no matter how much Ataturk's legacy claims or is said to be "Gandhi the Turk," he will remain in everyone's eyes as Alawi, and it is inconceivable that an ordinary Sunni Turkish voter would hand over the reins of almost absolute power since the last constitutional reform to a member of an unconventional sect.

For its part, Liberation argued that Erdogan's lead with 49.51% of the vote belied the polls, so that political scientist Bayram Balci said that he was very surprised, disappointed and ashamed that he misunderstood Turkish voters, and felt that he fell into the trap of anti-Erdogan readings among opposition intellectuals in Istanbul, and thus he sees the result of the presidential election as a miracle as well as the result of the legislative elections in which the Justice and Development Party retained half of the seats in parliament.

Fair elections

L'Obs magazine put a prominent headline calling for the need to acknowledge that the Turkish elections proved that Erdogan has the support of his people, noting that the result of 49.5% is disappointing for those who head a coalition of 6 opposition parties that only succeeded in preventing the president from passing in the first round.

In an interview with researcher Bayram Balce, who said before the elections that "Erdogan's model is breathing", the researcher apologized for his mistake resulting from an economic crisis and prominent opposition, and said that he was happy that there was no cheating or violence, and concluded that Erdogan's rival would accept his defeat because he has no interest in challenging the legitimacy of the ballot boxes that he knows Turks respect, and there is no need for Erdogan to change his policy if he wins because it works.

In a report, Mediapart focused on the harsh disappointment of the Turkish opposition, which was given victory in the first round of the presidential election by numerous opinion polls, and belied by Erdogan's 49 percent lead over its candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who did not reach 45 percent, yet he said in a public statement on Sunday evening, "We will win in the second round."

A victory for the opposition in the second round may be possible if the votes of the third candidate, who received 5 percent, turn to it, right-wing votes that actually oppose Erdogan but also do not see his rival with satisfaction because of the presence of the Kurds and the left on his side.

Despite the economic crisis hitting Turkey hard and despite the authoritarian stigma placed on Erdogan, the president has managed to position himself as the preferred candidate for the second round.

"He has restored our country to its former glory, we are a country of prestige respected by others around the world," said 37-year-old real estate agent Ghamze, a <>-year-old real estate agent, who said that "the opposition is made up of traitors who were won over for foreign interests aimed at destroying the country."

Complex relationship

In the opposition, hope has given way to despair: "Erdogan is likely to win the second round," says Hussein, an engineer who volunteered to work as an auditor for the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) after returning home. In any case, after these results, even if the opposition manages to win, it will be a miracle."

The Swiss newspaper "Le Temps" did not differ from its friends from the French newspapers, as it saw – in an editorial – that the Turkish opposition has faded its hopes of removing Erdogan despite the fact that there is a second round, and saw that Europe must also settle itself on the possible victory of the outgoing president.

A new victory for candidate Erdogan would make the relationship between him and the West more complicated, and the issue of respect for human rights is likely to become central again, but with a kind of hypocritical relief from Westerners. She concluded that Turkey is destined to remain forever in Europe's waiting room, even though it is seen as a very convenient bulwark against Europe's terrifying dangers such as instability and migrants.