• Elections Erdogan could lose presidency on Sunday, according to polls
  • The Portrait Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, the candidate to face Erdogan
  • Turkey Stone attacks on opposition rallies: street violence rises days before elections

"All against Erdogan" is the underlying message of the broad opposition coalition running to win Turkey's presidential and parliamentary elections on Sunday.

For the first time since Recep Tayyip Erdogan came to power in 2002, the main opposition party, the social democratic CHP, has managed to agree with the rest of the parties – liberals, nationalists and even former allies of the current president – to present a common candidacy with a message of change and hope in the country. They have put forward a presidential candidate, Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, who promises to democratize the country's institutions, restore Turkish diplomacy and move from a more personalistic policy to one that works through the relevant ministries. With a speech open to the country's minorities and youth, Kiliçdaroglu says he will relaunch the economy and has promised the "brain drain" that Turkey suffers great changes so that they return. According to data from the Turkish Institute of Statistics, nearly 300,000 people between the ages of 20 and 29 left the country between 2019 and 2021.

Kiliçdaroglu's candidacy also has the support of the pro-Kurdish left, the third force in parliament with a faithful vote of around 11%. Although Kiliçdaroglu is a member of a party of Turkish nationalist Kemalist tradition, he has convinced a large part of the Kurdish voter, who have been suffering for years from government intervention in their town halls, the operations of security forces in their cities and who have been greatly affected by the economic crisis. The main opposition alliance has promised nothing to the Kurds if they win, but they hope that their situation will improve in a possible change of government. Polls put Kiliçdaroglu several points ahead of Erdogan and he has a serious chance of winning the presidency even in the first round.

One of the opposition coalition's promises is to return to a parliamentary system, which would strengthen the country's judicial institutions and strip the president of current executive powers. Kiliçdaroglu wants to restore the confidence of international investors and take measures to curb the price increase.

The opposition leader hopes to be able to unfreeze the accession talks to the European Union. It has also announced that it will implement the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, which calls for the release of two opponents imprisoned for years: the former leader of the pro-Kurdish leftist HDP party, Selahattin Demirtas, and philanthropist Osman Kavala, sentenced to life imprisonment for his participation in anti-government protests.

In its election manifesto, the coalition says it will maintain relations with Russia without giving further details. However, last Thursday Kiliçdaroglu marked his red lines in a tweet. In his message, he accused Russian hackers of interfering in the election with fake videos and warned that if they win, they are "open to maintaining cooperation" with Moscow as long as it does not meddle in the campaign.

On the other hand, the opposition alliance has a very clear policy on the refugee agreement with the EU, in which Turkey hosts more than 3.6 million Syrians. Kiliçdaroglu has repeatedly indicated his intention to regain ties with Bashar al-Assad in order to send back the refugees within a year. The Social Democrat leader has not given details on how they will carry out this process, but the move has aroused uncertainty in the European press.

  • Turkey
  • Europe

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