German media: Albayrak’s weather changed in the spring: he cheated on his daughter Erdogan, was beaten by bodyguards | WORLD

“The boyfriend as a scapegoat” is the headline of an analysis by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) on the decision of the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to accept the resignation of his son-in-law and finance minister, Berat Albayrak.

Among other things, the columnist notes: “Senior members of the AKP (ruling party), such as former Parliament Speaker Bulent Arinc, whom Erdogan trusts, have no longer reconciled with Albayrak’s reassuring assurances that ‘there are no financial problems. , alone. ‘While Albayrak was still a businessman, Erdogan allowed him to participate in business trips and bilateral negotiations. His mother-in-law, Emine Erdogan, also promoted his career. “The climate began to change in the spring, when rumors about Albayrak’s extramarital affair with an actress, as a result of which some bodyguards reportedly beat him. “

The columnist recalls that a day before Albayrak’s resignation, Erdogan had beheaded central bank governor Murat Usal by presidential decree, replacing him with former finance minister Naci Agbal. Only “Turkey’s problem is not so much the available personnel. The problem is the institutions in a presidential democracy, in which all the strings end in the person of Erdogan. One commentator said that it doesn’t matter how many commanders Erdogan replaces, as if were Ottoman viziers, nothing is going to change. Because even if the central bank is run by a competent governor, like Agbal, he should also be a co-signatory to the president’s decisions on interest rates. “Now that his son-in-law is gone as scapegoat, Erdogan will have to take full responsibility for the financial misery. “

Institutions without credibility

Along the same lines, the Süddeutsche Zeitung notes: “State institutions have lost their credibility. It has become clear, at the latest after the last beheading of the central bank governor, that this theoretically independent institution is not in a position to impose rates higher interest rates. This is a big problem, because it increases the distrust of foreign investors. In addition, more and more people are converting their savings into dollars or gold, accelerating the devaluation of the Turkish pound. “And that means that it is becoming more difficult for Turkish companies to pay their debts abroad. “

Spiegel Online observes: “Erdogan has turned the Turkish state into a family business. Relatives take lucrative jobs and high-ranking positions, key positions in state institutions are staffed with trusted people. Erdogan’s wish, as they say in his surroundings, was always to be fulfilled one day by one of his two sons.. But even the president realizes that neither Burak nor Bilal (Erdogan) are doing the job. Thus, the only possible successor remained Berat Albayrak, wife of Ezra’s daughter. In previous years, the head of state appointed his son-in-law as a political successor, appointing him Prime Minister of Energy and then Minister of Finance. Albayrak may have been controversial in the AKP (ruling party), but Erdogan always protected him. That fact must be taken into account. “

Shortly before bankruptcy, Turkey?

For the Tageszeitung (TAZ), Albayrak’s resignation is “an indisputable sign of the growing desperation of the Turkish government, which no longer knows how to avoid bankruptcy.” According to the US investment bank Goldmann-Sachs, in the last two years the Turkish central bank has squandered around a hundred billion dollars in a futile attempt to halt the fall of the pound. It seems that the foreign exchange reserves are now depleted. “According to conventional economics teaching, the central bank should raise interest rates, encouraging investors to invest in the pound, which has so far been prevented by President Erdogan, a staunch opponent of a high-rate policy. of interest”.

Source: Deutsche Welle