Your Tuesday briefing: A drain in Turkey
The elections in Turkey are leading to a second round
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan failed to win the first round of Turkey’s presidential election and will now face a second round on May 28. Still, he seems well positioned to win another five-year term.
Preliminary results showed Erdogan won 49.5 percent of the vote on Sunday, ahead of his main challenger, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who received 44.9 percent. The right-wing supporters of a third candidate, Sinan Ogan, who was knocked out of the race, are more likely to vote for Erdogan in the second round, increasing his chances of winning.
Erdogan’s party and its allies also maintained a dominant majority in parliament in elections for those seats, which were also held on Sunday. That likely increases Erdogan’s ability to get re-elected.
But the fact that Erdogan was unable to secure a majority – even after tilting the playing field in his favor by using state resources for his campaign and relying on sympathetic media – indicates that some voters are frustrated with his financial management and consolidation of power.
lost ground: Preliminary results showed that, compared to the 2018 presidential election, almost every part of the country opposed Erdogan. Some of the harshest rebukes came from the provinces around Turkey’s two largest cities, Istanbul and Ankara.
Analysis: Experts described the results as just the latest example of Erdogan’s formidable survival skills.
Thai opposition agrees to coalition formation
Thailand’s two opposition parties said yesterday they would work together to form a coalition government after winning a clear majority in general elections last weekend. But it remains unclear whether the junta will hand over power easily.
Pita Limjaroenrat, the head of the progressive Move Forward Party, led the effort to build a coalition and could become prime minister. He said he was not worried about opposition from the military-appointed senate, which could still block his nomination. “I don’t think the people of Thailand would allow that,” he said.
But if history is any indicator, the military is unlikely to relinquish power any time soon. Generals rewrote the constitution in 2017 to fill the Senate with allies and ensure that the military would determine the next prime minister. Analysts said any attempt to stop Pita from running the country would most likely spark protests.
Citable: “At the moment, many people have Pita in mind as their new prime minister,” said one expert. “If Pita cannot be prime minister and Move Forward cannot form a government, it will break people’s hearts. And it will be very, very bad.
Chinese workers are threatened abroad
In March, a group of gunmen stormed a remote mine in the Central African Republic and killed nine Chinese workers there. The attack, and others like it, raise questions about China’s ability to protect its citizens abroad.
The CAR government blamed a rebel group for the attack; the rebels blamed the Russian Wagner mercenary group, which in turn blamed the rebels. No party has provided evidence. Only four government soldiers protected the site, though there would have been more than a dozen, a diplomat said. All four survived.
The cloudiness underscores a growing security challenge facing Beijing as Chinese companies expand. They often do business in the middle of conflict areas with limited protection. Chinese security often relies on a patchwork of local military personnel, mercenaries and private firms to protect Chinese workers.
Citable: “China is on thin ice in that it is entering some of the world’s most poorly governed places and fueling conflict,” said an expert in Chinese development finance. “And every time an attack happens, it angers the Chinese public and forces China to reconsider this light-hearted, hands-off approach.”
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A taste of Cannes
For cinephiles, there is no holier pilgrimage than the Cannes Film Festival, which kicks off today.
It is a place where great authors have been canonized, such as Martin Scorsese, who returns this year with a new feature film, “Killers of the Flower Moon”, and Wes Anderson, who will present his ensemble comedy “Asteroid City”. These are the most anticipated premieres of the festival.
The festival opens with the period drama ‘Jeanne du Barry’, starring Johnny Depp as King Louis XV of France. But movies aren’t the only thing to watch at Cannes. The film festival will also make waves on the red carpet.