The public approval rating of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan fell to 50.6 percent in July, continuing on its downward trajectory since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the MetroPoll polling company has said.
A total of 43.3 percent of respondents in a monthly survey said they disapproved of Erdoğan’s performance, while 6.1 percent said they were undecided.
Back in March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic struck Turkey, Erdoğan’s approval rating had hit its highest level since a failed coup attempt in July 2016, with 55.8 percent of Turks responding positively and only 36.6 percent expressing disapproval.
Since then, the rating has been in a steady decline despite the fact that the Turkish president has converted Hagia Sophia, a Byzantine-era monument, into a mosque in an attempt to consolidate his nationalist and conservative supporters.