Turkish support for Erdoğan’s governing party edges up in July – poll

Public backing for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) rose in July.

Support for the AKP among Turkish voters increased to 33.8 percent last month from 32.8 percent in June, according to the results of an opinion poll held by Ankara-based research company Metropoll.

The stronger backing for Erdoğan’s AKP jarred with a decline in the president’s approval rating in July, Metropoll data showed. Some 41.5 percent of voters backed him last month compared with 44.2 percent in June.

Erdoğan has clashed with Turkey’s Western allies over the NATO membership applications of Sweden and Finland, accusing the two countries of harbouring terrorists and blocking their candidacies. His government secured pledges from them to extradite terror suspects at a NATO summit in late June in what many analysts said was a domestic political win ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections that must be held by June next year. But Erdoğan has been suffering from falling support due to economic troubles at home — inflation hit an annual 79.6 percent in July.

The popularity of the opposition nationalist Good Party (IP) fell to 14.5 percent last month from 16.6 percent in June. Support for the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) rose to 24.9 percent from 23.6 percent.

The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the AKP’s partner in parliament, saw its support increase to 6 percent from 5.3 percent. The MHP needs 7 percent of the vote to enter parliament in an election, according to legislation passed in March that lowered the threshold from 10 percent. Backing for the pro-Kurdish Democratic People’s Party (HDP) fell to 11.4 percent from 12.5 percent, Metropoll said.

Metropoll interviewed 2,091 people in 28 provinces of Turkey by telephone between July 11 and July 16. It said the survey carried a margin of error of 2.1 percentage points.