The AKP (Party of Justice and Development), the ruling party in Turkey since 2002, has just won, a few moments ago, the legislative elections with 50.4% of the vote and thus ensure a third consecutive term.
In Tunisia, we know that AKP is the model that the Ennahdha party wants to follow. Its president, Rached Ghannouchi, has repeatedly expressed his admiration for this Turkish model. He even confessed to his wish to take an example from him if Ennahdha won the majority in the next Tunisian elections.
Yes but here, according to an expert from the newspaper Le Monde specializing in Turkey, the AKP is not an Islamist party as many people think. Indeed, Erdogan’s party is not a view that he tolerates secularism and that he has always given up applying Sharia law. Coming in 2001 from the split of the Virtue Party, which was an Islamist party, the AKP qualified as a Democratic and Conservative Party. He is therefore not an Islamist party in the literal, classic. Moreover, AKP has adopted its ascent to power, economic liberalism, which other Turkish Islamist parties refuse. The correspondent of the newspaper Le Monde therefore presents the AKP as a “post-Islamist” party.
Since 2002, Prime Minister Erdogan has enabled Turkey to have an inflation rate of 3.5%. School books and care are free. In 2002, the minimum wage was 184 Turkish pounds, today it was 626. Turkey exceeded its financial crisis and is now politically stable.
These very flattering results for Erdogan make political parties in other Arab countries want, which dream of taking it as a model. To return to Ennahdha, it would be interesting to see if Ghannouchi’s party intends to present himself as a “post-Islamist” party like the AKP that he tries to follow …
