Turkey’s March 31 local polls are likely to mark a junction in Ankara’s economic policy, but which way it goes will depend largely on the extent to which the election results satisfy President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The presidential and parliamentary elections of May 2023 secured Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party another term in office. But Turkey’s new economic management team appointed after those elections has been unable to shift into a full austerity mode due to the upcoming March 31 local elections. Above all, Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party are eager to recapture the local administration of Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city and economic hub, which they lost to the main opposition Republican People’s Party in 2019 along with the capital Ankara and other major urban centers.
https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2024/03/how-turkeys-economic-inflation-policy-hinges-upcoming-local-elections
