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Who will voters vote for on Sunday in Turkey - Recep Tayyip Erdoğan or Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu? Neither candidate nor the other candidate for the Turkish presidency was able to win more than half of the votes in the first round of voting. Now it comes to the decision.
Maximilian Popp, DER SPIEGEL:
»Before the run-off election, the opposite signs apply, so to speak. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the challenger, was the favorite for a long time. In some cases, he was far ahead in the polls. In the first round of the election, however, incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdoğan won again with a lead of 4.6 percentage points. The mood in the opposition camp now fluctuates between fatalism and purposeful optimism. On the one hand, they don't want to give up the election yet. On the other hand, there are doubts as to whether it will be possible to make up for this shortfall.«
At the beginning of the week, right-wing nationalist Sinan Oğan, who was eliminated in the first round, assured incumbent Erdoğan of his support. This is likely to make it even more difficult for the opposition party CHP – especially since the leadership of the campaign team also threw in the towel after the first round: their successors want to convince the few who are still undecided by changing course of their top candidate.
Maximilian Popp, DER SPIEGEL:
»Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has made a 180-degree turn in this election campaign. He initially built his campaign on reconciliation, on dialogue, on compromise. Now, before the run-off election, he is the right-wing agitator, the nationalist. He has announced that he will send refugees back to Syria. He attacks his opponent Erdoğan very directly. Kılıçdaroğlu obviously hopes to win the votes of nationalists in Turkey in this way.«
But this rhetoric seems to be causing concern among the Kurds, an important support group of Kılıçdaroğlu. Kilicdaroğlu is supported by a six-party alliance as well as by the pro-Kurdish HDP party. Erdoğan used a fake video to prove Kılıçdaroğlu's alleged closeness to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Maximilian Popp, DER SPIEGEL:
»It is likely to be extremely difficult for the opposition to regain ground on Erdoğan. Voter turnout in the first round was already at a record level of around 88 percent. Kılıçdaroğlu now has the difficult task of attracting new voters, probably mainly nationalists. And at the same time to keep his old voters, his core voters, in line. Among them are many Kurds. In a way, that's like squaring the circle. For Kılıçdaroğlu, however, it is the only way to win this election.«
Enormous challenges await the winner: Turkey is suffering from high inflation, increased cost of living and the effects of the devastating earthquake in February.