How to clarify Erdogan's crushing defeat within the municipal elections in Türkiye? | EUROtoday

In entrance of his dejected supporters, Erdogan took his defeat philosophically. “The results are not those hoped for,” he declared, admitting a “turning point” within the administration of the nation. The opposition won’t be able to dispute this final level. “Democracy has won,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan even allowed himself, nearly making us neglect greater than a decade of autocratic drift, fraud and erosion of the rule of regulation. But the actual political price of this defeat may develop into fairly restricted. Although they lose various metropolis halls, the AKP and its allies retain the bulk in a number of municipal assemblies. In addition, the administration of huge cities ought to sufficiently occupy the Kemalist opposition and provides free rein to Erdogan, who will have the ability to refocus on main nationwide and worldwide points. After these municipal elections, he has earlier than him a interval of 4 years, with none elections, which has by no means occurred since 2002. An eternity in Turkish political life.

The twilight of Recep Tayyip Erdogan?

The enthusiasm generated by the opposition candidates within the huge cities has in any case woke up the hope of an actual alternation in Turkey. After this victory in Istanbul, the very talked-about Ekrem Imamoglu, 52, struggles to cover his nationwide ambitions. But his major adversaries will undoubtedly be discovered inside his personal political get together, the CHP, whose divisions and strategic errors have allowed Erdogan to go it alone for twenty years. The mayor of Ankara, Mansur Yavas, additionally cherishes hopes of a nationwide candidacy. And Kemal Kiliçdaroglu stays the get together's president for the second, regardless of his defeat within the final presidential election final 12 months.

The different spotlight of this election is the brand new overwhelming victory of the pro-Kurdish get together within the provinces of the south-east of Turkey, with a Kurdish majority. The HDP, dissolved and recreated underneath the identify DEM (People's Equality and Democracy Party), gained all of the jap cities, attaining 64% of the vote in Diyarbakir, the regional “capital”, and leaving far behind the opposite events. But we should wait just a little earlier than seeing it as a “victory for democracy”. In 2019, 48 mayors elected by the poll field have been instantly dismissed from workplace underneath the pretext of “links with a terrorist organization” and have been changed by prefectural directors, appointed by the federal government. A scenario that the Kemalist opposition has by no means denounced, which stays embryonic among the many Kurds. The incidents noticed on Sunday within the area don’t permit us to envisage a serious “democratic turning point” on that aspect of the nation.

Do these municipal elections herald the twilight of Erdogan? During the marketing campaign, the Turkish president stunned his viewers by affirming that these elections can be his “last”, suggesting that he was contemplating retiring from political life in 2028, the date of the following presidential election. On this level, warning additionally stays so as. This is just not the primary time that Erdogan has introduced his withdrawal from political life. And impartial commentators emphasize that he nonetheless has the ambition to change the Turkish Constitution. Physically and politically diminished, the “Reis”, aged 70, governs a regime on the finish of its run. He has 4 years to regenerate it.