Despite his AKP party’s defeat in the weekend’s local elections, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan “remains in control at national level, his super-executive regime is unaffected, and his parliamentary coalition is intact”. So concludes senior fellow at Carnegie Europe think tank Marc Pierini in an April 1 assessment of what might follow the worst electoral setback suffered by Erdogan since he became Turkey’s leader more than two decades ago. Adds Pierini: “The personal vexation [caused by the election loss] may be significant [for Erdogan], but his leadership is not legally or functional…
