A senior member of the European Parliament (EP) and Turkey rapporteur for the ALDE Group, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, has said it is no longer possible to hold fair elections in Turkey following threats recently made by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to the Turkish press.

Releasing a press statement on Thursday, Lambsdorff stated: “President Erdoğan’s constant threats against journalists and publishers show that either he does not understand democratic principles, or that he consciously disregards them. Ahead of [June 7 parliamentary] elections on Sunday, the state of democracy in Turkey is deplorable.”

He further added: “Even if the ballot itself will most likely be free, it won’t be fair, considering the intimidation against any critical press. It’s not just newspapers such as Zaman and Cumhuriyet, whose editor-in-chief has been threatened with a life sentence, who have been targeted, but also the publishing group Doğan, to whom Hürriyet belongs.”

Recalling that the European Parliament criticized the impairment of the press and freedom of expression in Turkey in January this year, Lambsdorff warned that things have since deteriorated. Lambsdorff also called on Erdoğan to cease his polarizing and confrontational rhetoric, especially since he is supposed to exercise a non-partisan, neutral role as a president according to the Turkish Constitution.