Turkey's democracy not up to strong presidency - Venice Commission Head

A presidential system would not be appropriate for Turkey because the system has only worked effectively in countries that have a settled tradition of democracy, the president of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe has said.

Noting that a majority of European countries have parliamentarian systems, Gianni Buquicchio said the presidential systems in France and in the United States “work well, but not so well.”

“More importantly, you need a long tradition of democratic culture in order to have the necessary checks and balances. So in a country like Turkey, which in the not-so-distant past had an authoritarian regime, I think this is quite risky to go back to the presidential system because in the future it could become authoritarian,” Buquicchio told the Hürriyet Daily News in a February 15 interview.