President Erdoğan's job approval at lowest level in six years, poll shows

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President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's job approval rating was 38 percent in August, down from 47 percent in the previous month, according to the Metropoll company.

Among 1,717 respondents in 26 provinces, 51.5 percent said they did not approve of Erdoğan handling his job as the president while 10.5 percent stated that they had no idea.

The company's head Özer Sencar shared the results of the survey on Twitter:

Turkey's Pulse July 2021: Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's Job Approval: Approve: : 38.0% (-10.1), Do not approve: 51.5% (+4.5) #MetropollTurkeysPulse pic.twitter.com/IN1YC9mhzo

— Ozer Sencar (@ozersencar1) August 29, 2021

This month's survey also marked the second-lowest job approval rating of the president after June 2015. Erdoğan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) had lost the parliamentary majority for the first time in 13 years in the election on June 7, 2015.

The drop in the president's job approval rating came after massive wildfires and deadly floods, as well as a public debate on a new wave of migration following the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan.

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The government came under fire over its management of the wildfires, especially because of the lack of aerial response. It was also targeted over poor urban planning that exacerbated the damage caused by the floods in the country's north.

As for the migration debate, the president, who initially stated Turkey would continue to take refugees, had to change his stance lately, saying that Turkey can't take "even one more refugee." The opposition has been pressing the government to stop the refugee flow from Afghanistan and accusing it of making "secret deals" with the US and the UK.

(RT/VK)