Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in power for twenty years, emerged victorious this Sunday from the second round of the presidential election in Turkey. The president won despite the unprecedented union of his opponents.
With our correspondent in Istanbul, Anne Andlauer
Recep Tayyip Erdogan won 52% of the votes, according to partial results, and thus begins a new term and a third decade in power. His rival Kemal Kiliçdaroglu finished the race with 48%. It is yet another defeat for the Turkish opposition against Recep Tayyip Erdogan who seems more unbeatable than ever.
The president has won every national election since the one that brought him to power in 2002. Certainly, as an all-powerful president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan had enormous advantages over his opponent such as control of the media, resources of the state, the ability to offer wage increases or free gas bills, as he did before the election.
But the opposition also left with advantages: an economic crisis of unprecedented magnitude for more than 20 years, the ruins of two major earthquakes which highlighted the weaknesses of power, the wear and tear of this same power… And yet, It was not enough.
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The defeat of the opposition is also due to the lack of a clear strategy. We saw it clearly in the interval between the two rounds, when Kemal Kiliçdaroglu disappeared from the radar for three days before reappear with a new campaign marked very rightaggressive, anti-refugee… This may have won him votes among the most nationalist Turks, but it has undoubtedly cost him in the Kurdish-majority regions, where voters have moved less for him.
Kemal Kiliçdaroglu counted on the massive mobilization of his electorate to win. Finally, the participation is down, to 84%, against 87 in the first round 15 days ago.
” Darkness is all I see for the future”
And in the ranks of those who mobilized, the shock of defeat adds to concerns for the future. After the announcement of the results on Sunday, the seat of the CHP, the party of Kemal Kiliçdaroglu quickly emptied. ” Darkness is all I see for the future. A future where we can no longer be sure of anything, where the country is run by conspiracy theories, by totally unpredictable decisions “, worries Serhat, 32 years old.
Ozgun has also lost all hope:it’s been too long already. I have the impression that half of the country does not live the same reality as us and I am really afraid that it is getting worse and worse. »
” Tonight, I am thinking first of women and children. It was already very difficult to be a woman in Turkey, to have the social life, the studies, the freedoms that one wishes. What will be the Turkey of tomorrow for us, for our sisters, for our daughters? What security will we have? asks Cagla, a 30-something who almost has tears in her eyes. ” I didn’t want to think of the worst, but the worst is probably to come. And for the rest, it’s the same: the economy, the refugees… All our problems will get worse. “, she predicts.