Oliver Hartwich: Democracy on the line in Turkey

Perhaps he never quite played in the same league as Trump, Putin and Xi, but Turkey’s long-serving President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is cut from the same strongman cloth. Yet after Sunday’s first-round of Turkish presidential elections, there is a chance his time in power may soon come to an end.

If current results hold, Erdoğan and his principal opponent, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, will miss the 50% mark required. This means there will be a run-off vote in a couple of weeks.

It is the first time in years that Erdoğan has faced a formidable challenger. This is because it is also the first time that Turkey’s main opposition parties put their differences aside to gather behind a single candidate.