Belgian Deputy PM: Erdogan's party enjoys clear popular support

The Belgian Foreign Ministry welcomed on Wednesday the results of local elections in Turkey and congratulated the Turkish government and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) for winning the most votes, calling to respect “the Turkish people’s choice”.

Belgium’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Didier Reynders told Turkey’s Anadolu news agency that: “We respect the Turkish people’s choice, which proved that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AKP party enjoys clear popular support.”

Speaking about the future of European relations with Turkey in light of the latest election results, Raynders said: “The road is now open to clarify Turkey’s relationship with its partners in the European Union.”

Preliminary poll results across Turkey for the local elections, which took place on Sunday, revealed that the ruling AKP won 45.55 per cent of the votes, while the Republican People’s Party, the largest opposition party, won 27.91 per cent and the nationalist Movement Party, the second largest opposition party, won 15.16 per cent of the votes, followed by the Peace and Democracy Party, the third largest opposition party, which won 4.02 per cent of the votes. The remaining parties shared a total of 7.36 per cent of the valid votes.