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" Whoever loses control of Istanbul loses control of Turkey. The sentence is from Recep Tayyip Erdogan. It's not only his stepping stone, where he launched his political career, not just his showcase, a city run by his AK Party for almost 25 years, Istanbul is also the economic heart of Turkey : 16 million inhabitants, 20% of the GDP, and a financial windfall that benefits the power. This Sunday, the opposition mayor, who had his election canceled after a short time in office, returns to the electorate. Ekrem Imamoglu confronts a very close Erdogan, Binali Yildirim. Ekrem Imamoglu has repeatedly denounced the corruption and patronage of the AKP at the head of Istanbul.
With our special correspondent in Istanbul, Anissa El Jabri
Ekrem Imamoglu never raises his voice, but his words are harsh for 25 years of AKP governance. A taboo that they are rare in Istanbul to break loudly: thirty companies owned by the town hall and two municipal boards share the huge financial windfall of public markets - water, transport, construction.
In each case an opaque management, an obscure bidding system and a clientelist system that benefits foundations close to the first circle of power and the party's electoral base.
The cranes are still everywhere in Istanbul, but with the recession the system gets sore. The economic circles dream of another governance, but with hushed words one evokes the civil society which needs to be heard, the respect of the environment, a way of criticizing without saying the authoritarianism of the power and its policy major works to the detriment of ecology.
Erdogan has already prepared his response: a decree ready to be signed that would place the city's major public markets under government supervision. " The election only aims to appoint the mayor, " he recently said, a " simple change in the window ."
► Also to listen: Turkey: an unprecedented debate between the two candidates for mayor of Istanbul