EU sees 'division' in Turkey, despite plethora of similar election results in bloc
by Daily Sabah
ISTANBULApr 21, 2017 - 12:00 am GMT+3
by Daily Sabah
Apr 21, 2017 12:00 am
While some European countries assessed the outcome of the Turkish constitutional referendum as indicative of a "division" in society, statistics revealed head-to-head results in almost all of the latest elections in the continent.
The data pointed, as when considering seven referendum and presidential elections between 2014 and 2016 in European countries, the greatest vote superiority to have emerged was in Austria's presidential elections with only a 6.6 margin. In last year's elections, Alexander Van der Bellen received 53.3 percent of the votes and surpassed his opponent Norbert Hofer, who received 46.7 of the votes.
Likewise, in the presidential elections in Croatia in 2015, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović took a narrow victory and became the country's first female president, after receiving 50.7 percent of votes. In the presidential elections of another EU country in 2015, Poland, Andrzej Duda outvoted his opponent Bronisław Komorowski with 51.5 percent against 48.5 percent, only a 3 percent difference.
Apart from presidential elections, a referendum on the country's opt-outs from the EU was held in Denmark in 2015, but the move was narrowly rejected by 53 percent of voters. Another referendum in the Europe regarding a country's ties with the EU was held in the U.K. In 2016, often called the "Brexit" referendum, British citizens determined the country's fate by voting in favor of the departure from the EU with 51.9 percent.
In other elections in Switzerland and Moldova, European countries that are not members of the EU, referendum and presidential elections were held in 2014 and 2016, respectively. While Switzerland's referendum was approved by 50.3, Igor Dodon was elected as the Moldavian president by receiving 52.6 percent of the votes.
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