After his re-election, the Turkish president made no effort to unite the deeply divided country. Recep Tayyip Erdogan spent almost half of his victory speech in front of the presidential palace defaming his challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu: as a supporter of terrorists, as an LGBT friend, as an accomplice of loan sharks.

Friederike Böge

Political correspondent for Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan based in Ankara.

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Erdogan described his election victory as a triumph over dark forces that were out to overthrow him. "Turkey has been set many traps," he shouted to his supporters, who gathered in tens of thousands in front of the presidential palace on Monday night. "You've seen who played dirty games against us." German and French media had tried to pave the way for his downfall with their reports.

In his victory speech, the president outlined his ambitions for the next five years. Much of what he said sounded like a continuation of his previous course. The culture war against liberal values. The refusal to release Kurdish leader Selahattin Demirtas, according to a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights. The polemic against the International Monetary Fund. In terms of foreign policy, he formulated the goal of Turkey "getting the place it deserves in the global order."

The West did not appear in his remarks, beyond the gloomy allusions. Instead, he highlighted relations with the Gulf states, especially Qatar, and with Russia. Erdogan recalled his plan to turn Turkey into a hub for Russian natural gas. This was also confirmed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in his congratulatory letter. For the other NATO members, his words are likely to be seen as an indication that dealing with Turkey will remain difficult in the next five years.

"Your grandfather, uncle and elder"

The Supreme Electoral Council had previously declared Erdogan the winner. According to the preliminary official result, he received a good 52 percent of the vote. His challenger reached almost 48 percent. Despite Turkey's worst economic crisis in 24 years and harsh criticism of the government's disaster management after the earthquake in February, his core voters remained loyal to him. In doing so, they surprised many Turkey experts and pollsters. Erdogan's mixture of Islamist-nationalist identity politics and post-factual fear-mongering proved to be crisis-proof. For the first time, the opposition stood united against Erdogan. Compared to the first round of elections on May 14, Kilicdaroglu managed to mobilize almost 830,000 additional voters on Sunday. Nevertheless, it was not enough in the end.

The opposition leader blamed his defeat on unequal conditions. He accused Erdogan of misusing all state resources for his election campaign and of fomenting an atmosphere of fear. Nevertheless, the nation has "shown its will to get rid of the authoritarian regime," Kilicdaroglu said. He looks with sadness at the problems that the country now faces.