"Erdoğan... can now say I have everyone in my pocket, everyone's dancing to my tune and when Mrs Merkel drives up to his palace... then I believe it's an undeserved election gift for his AKP," Lale Akgün, a member of the Social Democrats (SPD), who was born in Istanbul, told German broadcaster DLF.
Thirdly, voters only tend to be impressed by pre-election gifts if they think further goodies are in store afterwards.
A car-park in Hambantota, in the south, is crammed with hundreds of red motorbikes, pre-election gifts for local officials, a pattern repeated countrywide.
This was a pre-election gift to Labour.
In a statement, he described his arrest, on April 11, the day the government called early elections, as "a pre-election gift" to the two main parties.
Germany's decision to support tighter controls was widely interpreted as a pre-election gift from the government of his ally, Chancellor Angela Merkel.
It reportedly died last week, of dehydration.Inside, the enormous house is all towering chandeliers, gold-trimmed velvet curtains, wall-sized mirrors the better to reflect his model of Mecca, assorted swords on the walls, cut-glass vases and a box of chocolates the size, literally, of a coffin (presumably a post-election gift).
Take your pick of possible explanations for Mr. Obama's sudden move: a political tactic to gain cover for immigration reform; a re-election gift to Senator John McCain of Arizona, who is in a desperate primary struggle with a border hawk; a realistic effort to stem illegal flows of drugs and people north, guns and money south (the least-convincing explanation).
It came "after negotiations with Stephenson over a pre-election gift of the same size..
