Europe a 'rotting continent', says Turkey's President Erdogan

Europe is a "rotting continent" and the "centre of Nazism", President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday in his latest withering attack on the European Union in the campaign ahead of a crucial referendum, News18 reported.

"Europe no longer has anything else to say, neither to us, or to anyone else. What we have here is a rotting continent," Erdogan said at a rally in the city of Balikesir.

"Racist parties are holding the leaders and European governments tightly by the hand," he added, referring to the rise of the far right in Europe.

"Europe is no longer a centre of democracy, human rights and liberty but of repression, violence and Nazism," he added.