As expected, the leader of Turkey’s main opposition party (CHP), Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, was chosen this Monday as the common candidate of the opposition coalition to face Erdoğan in the parliamentary and presidential elections to be held on May 14. The opposition united around the so-called National Alliance is also once again made up of 6 parties, after the president of the İYİ Parti, Meral Akşener, who on Friday announced that she was leaving it precisely because she opposed Kılıçdaroğlu’s candidacy, attended this Monday again to coalition meetings after an apparent reconciliation.
The CHP and the İYİ Parti (2nd and 4th most voted parties in Turkey) are precisely the two main pillars of an opposition coalition that has among its ranks two small parties founded by former Erdoğan ministers (Babacan and Davutoğlu) and that is running with an electoral program that calls for abandoning the current presidential system and returning to the old system with a strong parliament, a prime minister as head of the executive, and a President of the Republic with almost symbolic powers.
This is precisely one of the main obstacles that the opposition may face, since the transition to the presidential system was approved in a referendum only 6 years ago by more than 50% of the population, and Erdoğan still enjoys a lot of support among Turkish voters; the other obstacle are the evident disunity and ideological differences between the 6 parties; and lastly, another obstacle may be the candidacy of Kılıçdaroğlu himself, since he is a not very charismatic politician with little sympathy among İYİ Parti voters – as has become evident these days – and who has faced in the past Erdoğan with rather little success.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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