Municipal elections in Türkiye: voters unhappy with galloping inflation
Municipal elections will take place in Türkiye this Sunday March 31. Re-elected last year, President Erdogan hopes to complete his victory by seizing large cities, in particular Istanbul, which went to the opposition in 2019. But his economic policy, which was supposed to slow inflation, particularly disappointed voters .
A Turk walks in the streets of Istanbul, passing a campaign poster bearing the image of Republican People's Party (CHP, social-democrat) candidate, Ekrem Imamoglu, the outgoing mayor, on March 25, 2024. © YASIN AKGUL / AFP
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Contrary to what the Turkish head of state had hoped and promised, the new economic policy put in place last summer has not yet produced the expected effects.
Turks
are therefore going to the polls on Sunday March 31 to vote in the municipal elections with inflation still high, and even increasing. The latter
arouses anger
among his opponents, but also among some of the voters in power.
Just after his re-election last year, Recep Tayyip Erdogan radically revised his economic policy. The objective was to stem the very high inflation and present good results in the run-up to the municipal elections. Main tool: the Central Bank's key rate, which rose from 8.5 to 50% in nine months.
“
This government has destroyed our purchasing power
”
Yet
inflation has not slowed
. On the contrary: the price increase over one year was 40% before the last elections, compared to 67% last month. The measures are slow to take effect, which disappoints some of the president's voters.
This is the case of Nafiye, 22, a cashier in a grocery store in Istanbul. “
My salary is not enough. My whole family depends on social assistance. I would have liked the president to announce an increase in the minimum wage before the elections
,” she tells our correspondent in Istanbul,
Anne Andlauer
.
But the most unhappy are undoubtedly Turkish retirees, especially those who receive the minimum pension, i.e. 10,000 pounds – when the net minimum wage is 17,000 pounds. They too were waiting for a gesture before the elections.
Mehmet, met at a meeting of the mayor of Istanbul, the opponent Ekrem Imamoglu, was particularly angry against the government: “
I am retired, I vote for those who care about retirees! And again, I am not the most to be pitied. This government has destroyed our purchasing power!
», he says. Most economists expect the authorities to pursue an austerity policy after the municipal elections.
Istanbul, coveted “
trophy
” of power
On Sunday, residents of the country's large cities will elect their mayor but also their municipal councilors, their district mayors and their muhtar, a sort of neighborhood leader. According to opinion polls, Istanbul and Ankara should remain in the hands of the Republican People's Party (CHP, social-democrat), the main opposition group which won them five years ago.
With its sixteen million inhabitants and 30% of the gross domestic product, Istanbul is “
the biggest trophy of Turkish politics
”, summarizes Berk Esen, political scientist at Sabanci University in Istanbul to AFP. The main city of Turkey, which lost its rank as capital to Ankara in 1923, is a huge political showcase which President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, mayor of Istanbul in the 1990s,
took advantage of to forge his own destiny. national
.
Facing the outgoing mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, the AKP (Islamo-conservative) party in power presents a former minister who is not very charismatic, Murat Kurum, whose defeat would not damage the credit of the head of state.
“
Last elections
” organized under Erdogan
Izmir, the country's third city and CHP stronghold, seems to remain out of reach of the AKP. The ruling party could also decline in several large cities in Anatolia in favor
of an ultra-conservative formation (Yeniden Refah)
, as predicted by analysts who noted a lower attendance at meetings held in the presence of the head of the Condition - possibly due to Ramadan fasting.
In power since 2003, first as Prime Minister then as President from 2014, Erdogan announced at the beginning of March that these municipal elections would be the "
last elections
" organized under his authority, the current constitution not authorizing him to run for a new one. mandate, except in the case of early election.
Read alsoTurkey: as the vote approaches, the municipal elections arouse little enthusiasm
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