2023-05-17 13:45:20
Eleven days and some catching up to do: the Turkish opposition, which narrowly missed being beaten in the first round of the presidential election on Sunday, wants to toughen its tone in an attempt to dislodge Recep Tayyip Erdogan from power on May 28.
Its candidate Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP, social democrat), must meet this Wednesday with the five other leaders of the Turkish opposition alliance in order to define a more offensive strategy.
According to the Turkish press, Kemal Kiliçdaroglu has purged part of his team and will hand over the reins of his campaign to the very popular CHP mayor of Istanbul Ekrem Imamoglu and to Canan Kaftancioglu, the kingpin of Ekrem Imamoglu’s victory in Istanbul in 2019 , the worst electoral setback for the head of state since he became prime minister in 2003.
Read also: Kemal Kilicdaroglu, l’espoir des anti-Erdogan
Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, a 74-year-old former senior civil servant, had so far led a very collegial campaign, against President Erdogan, and developed his vision almost every evening in short videos posted on social networks, ignoring most of the attacks of the head of state. This strategy seemed to work, as the polls gave Kemal Kiliçdaroglu in good shape.
“We will prevail”
But Sunday’s results had the effect of a cold shower. At the end of the vote count, President Erdogan has a comfortable lead of more than 2.5 million votes over his opponent, with 49.5% of the votes cast against 44.9% for Kemal Kiliçdaroglu. The only consolation: the opposition has managed for the first time to force the “Reis” to a waiver.
“I am the! I will fight until the end, I swear! launched Kemal Kiliçdaroglu Monday in a video, face unusually closed, tapping three times on his desk with the palm of his right hand.
Read also: The Turkish presidential election is heading for an unprecedented second round, Erdogan and Kiliçdaroglu promise “victory”
“We will win for sure!”, He hammered Wednesday in a new video showing him in front of a portrait of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Turkish Republic, in commander’s clothes. “We will not abandon this country to a mentality that has let in 10 million refugees (…). We will not leave this country to those who consider women as objects (…). We will not leave this country to a fake world leader who bows to Russia,” he said.
Decisive Third Man
President Erdogan himself appeared relaxed on Tuesday during a television interview, however deploring the “shortcomings” which caused his Justice and Development Party (AKP, Islamo-conservative) to lose nearly 30 seats in parliament. “We will do our accounts internally,” he said, a rare admission for the indestructible Turkish leader, big favorite in the second round.
The Head of State, who only needed around half a million votes to win in the first round, should be able to count on the support of some of the 2.8 million voters who voted in the first round for Sinan Ogan, the ultranationalist candidate. The third ballot man is expected to announce this week whether he backs either of the two finalists.
Also read: Elections in Türkiye: Erdogan to the challenge of the youth
Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would visit the southeastern region devastated by the February 6 earthquake this weekend, which killed more than 50,000 people and displaced millions.
Despite the anger of some of the survivors, who accused the state of having been slow to intervene, the head of state kept his very high scores in the region in the first round. He also wants to address young voters in Istanbul and Ankara, the two largest cities in the country, where Mr. Kiliçdaroglu narrowly came out on top in the first round.
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