Turkey’s opposition parties chose Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the chairman of the CHP, the country’s second largest party, as their joint presidential candidate.
For months Turkey’s bickering opposition coalition finally managed to avoid fragmentation when it agreed on a common candidate on Monday evening.
A coalition of six parties, which unites the opposition from the left to the right of the party field, chose as its candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. In the election, the chairman of Turkey’s main opposition party and Turkey’s second largest party, CHP, Kılıçdaroğlu will challenge the incumbent president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Kılıçdaroğlu, who has an economic background, is 74 years old and represents the Social Democrats.
“Our table is a table of peace. Our only goal is to take the country to the days of prosperity, peace and joy,” Kılıçdaroğlu said on Monday, according to Reuters news agency.
Parliamentary and presidential elections will be held in Turkey on May 14.
The opposition coalition key member, leader of the right-wing IYI party Meral Akşener had previously threatened to leave the coalition. Akşener has been very unhappy with Kılıçdaroğlu. According to Akşener, Kılıçdaroğlu is far too colorless to be Erdoğan’s challenger.
As a candidate, Akşener would have liked either the mayor of Istanbul Ekrem İmamoğlu or the mayor of Ankara Mansur Yavaşboth of whom are members of the CHP.
However, both mayors have announced their support for Kılıçdaroğlu’s candidacy. The duo met with Akşener on Monday and persuaded him to stay in the alliance.
After 72 hours of political drama, the opposition parties decided that popular mayors would serve as Kılıçdaroğlu’s vice presidents if he defeated Erdoğan.
“If we had fragmented, we would have been eliminated,” Kılıçdaroğlu reasoned to cheering supporters on Monday.
At 69 years old Erdoğan faces a very tight election in May, and Kılıçdaroğlu has an opportunity to try to take advantage of the crises facing Erdoğan.
Erdoğan’s popularity went downhill the following year when he tried to lower inflation by sharply cutting interest rates. A currency crisis followed, with many Turks seeing their savings go up in smoke while the country’s inflation skyrocketed to 85 percent.
Erdoğan’s role as a mediator in the war in Ukraine slightly boosted his approval ratings, but last month’s devastating earthquake and perceived slowness of action by the authorities dented it again.
Erdoğan was even rumored to be planning to postpone the elections, but he did not.
“We don’t hide behind excuses,” the president said last week.
#Turkey #Turkish #opposition #decided #joint #presidential #candidate