The Turkish election campaign has suddenly turned in his favor.
(Photo: Reuters)
The opposition has long been convinced that if there is a political strategy against Recep Tayyip Erdogan, then first and foremost it is unity against Turkey’s long-term president. However, there can no longer be any talk of that; the opposite is the case: the opposition shows that they are more concerned about power and positions than about better politics for the people. This is how Erdogan’s opponents harm their own cause – without the Turkish President having to do anything about it.
Meral Aksener, head of the Iyi party, the second largest party in a promising opposition alliance, wanted a different candidate than the head of the largest alliance party, CHP, Kemal Kilicdaroglu. Her party withdrew from the alliance over the weekend to look for its own candidate. On Monday it was said that she wanted to take part again. Kilicdaroglu is now taking on Erdogan.
Politics for oneself instead of for the people: This obviously applies not only to Erdogan, but also to the protagonists of the opposition.
Instead of presenting a concrete plan to lower inflation, the opposition is haggling. Even the commitment to human rights is now neglected. For example, the opposition could support the release of former HDP leader Selahattin Demirtas from prison.
Instead, the six-party alliance published an election program that was more than 200 pages long but meaningless and focused primarily on the question of who should challenge Erdogan.
The largest opposition party, the CHP, wants to nominate its own party leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu.
(Photo: Reuters)
After all, the basic idea of the opposition was to abolish the one-man system. So why was it so important to nominate a single candidate again? It never occurred to anyone to simply come up with a team on which to distribute the President’s currently consolidated power. Now the two alternative candidates are to be nominated as future vice-presidents – according to the will of the same opposition, there should no longer be a strong president and certainly no vice-presidents with any kind of authority.
One thing is certain: the Turkish election campaign has changed completely within a weekend. Erdogan was considered ailing for months and was behind in polls. In desperation, he overran one of the promising opponents, the mayor of Istanbul, with politically motivated court cases. But now, shortly before the most important election of the past decades in May, the autocrat can lean back – he gets the best campaign help from his opponents.
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