Giant posters of Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, are appearing on billboards across the country with the slogan "solid will". The message, ahead of local elections in late March, is that Mr Erdogan is firmly in charge. Yet the question voters may ask is: at what cost, both to the country's liberal and European credentials, and to the economy? Since a huge corruption scandal involving ministers in Mr Erdogan's Justice and Development (ak) government broke in December, hardly a day has passed without a shake-up in the police or judiciary. As many as 96 prosecutors and judges have been replaced. The government is pushing through draconian new laws giving it more control over the judiciary, and tightening monitoring of telephones and the internet. It is also levying huge tax fines against the Koc group, a conglomerate that has been targeted before, and going after Mustafa Sarigul, an opposition candidate for mayor of Istanbul, over a supposedly unpaid loan he got 15 years ago.
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