Erdogan has learned from bitter experience to play hard ball with European capitals The Economist has surpassed itself in its clearly expressed hatred for an elected head of state, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In its latest edition, it casts the Turkish presidential election as the most important that will take place this year, and claims that not just the future of Turkey but the future of democracy itself will hinge upon the result. “Most important, in an era when strongman rule is on the rise, from Hungary to India, the peaceful ejection of Mr Erdogan would show democrats everywhere that strongmen can be beaten,” it opines. This is an enormously stupid thing to say.