The head of the largest opposition party is to challenge Erdogan.
(Photo: IMAGO/Depo Photos)
Istanbul Peace, Joy – Election Victory? In Turkey, the opposition alliance against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan again consists of six parties – and CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu is the top candidate in the race for the presidency.
Meral Aksener, leader of the right-wing party IYI, initially broke up the alliance on Friday around two months before the presidential and parliamentary elections. Aksener explained that the alliance does not represent the national will. Both Ekrem Imamoglu and Mansur Yavas would have more chances than Kilicdaroglu. All three politicians belong to the CHP.
Aksener’s departure from the alliance had caused great excitement in the opposition. She had said, for example, that the choice between Erdogan and Kilicdaroglu was “between death and malaria”.
But on Monday, Akesener surprisingly returned and offered a compromise. According to this, Imamoglu and Yavas, the mayors of Istanbul and Ankara, are to be appointed vice-presidents if the alliance wins the May 14 election. Kilicdaroglu is therefore the top candidate. The largest opposition party, the CHP, accepted the proposal, and in the evening there was official confirmation for top personnel.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his conservative Islamic party, the AKP, are facing the greatest challenge of his two-decade tenure. Polls point to a close race. He and his government were heavily criticized after the devastating earthquakes a month ago. Above all, they are accused of insufficient and too slow crisis management.
The head of the opposition party IYI initially left the alliance, only to show that she was willing to compromise.
(Photo: Reuters)
Initial polls after the natural disaster indicated that Erdogan’s popularity may have suffered. A survey sees his AKP party and coalition partner MHP at a good 34 percent overall. A second survey assumes 44 percent approval for Erdogan – the discrepancy also indicates that many voters are still undecided.
The question now is whether the opposition has harmed itself with its lurching course. In any case, after the depression caused by the earthquake, the Turkish President regained favor with the people by promising rapid reconstruction and generous financial aid.
With material from agencies
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