Lira plunges as Erdoğan takes win as mandate for divisive rule

The Turkish lira hit a new low on Monday after the election win of the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in a renewed sign of the economic troubles his country is expected to face in the third decade of his rule

- Ruth Michaelson 

The lira fell against the dollar as Erdoğan pronounced victory. On Monday, investment bank Morgan Stanley predicted that the currency would drop further this year, reaching 26 or even 28 to the dollar more quickly than previously anticipated.

Addressing his supporters from the balcony of the presidential palace in Ankara last Sunday evening, Erdoğan struck a hawkish tone after his victory, taking swipes at his political enemies and committing to continue his unorthodox economic policies before reciting a nationalist poem.

The firebrand Turkish leader was triumphant after a win over his rival Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, fending off an unprecedented second-round election challenge to beat the head of the opposition with 52.16% of the vote to Kılıçdaroğlu's 47.84%.

"This result will tempt Erdoğan to say he can stay the course," Soner Cagaptay, who is a biographer of the Turkish leader and an analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said. Cagaptay pointed to Erdoğan's win with a comfortable margin, the result of a divisive election campaign where both sides deployed misinformation, but one where Erdoğan labelled his opponents as supporters of terrorism, securing a mandate to continue with his rogue foreign policy decisions and unconventional economic policies.

"There was a huge amount of disinformation deployed before the elections," said Can Semercioğlu of the fact-checking organisation Teyit.