In Turkey, three days after the defeat of the opposition against Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the presidential election, an opposition figure draws the lessons of this failure, and of the failure of his party in the legislative elections which were held on May 14: Selahattin Demirtas, former leader of the pro-Kurdish HDP party, announces that he is leaving politics.
With our correspondent in Istanbul, Anne Andlauer
In a newspaper interview Arti Gercek to be published this Thursday, June 1, and of which Selahattin Demirtas reproduces a short extract on Twitter, the Kurdish leader announces that he “ abandon the active policy “. In prison since November 2016, but still very present on social networks and via interviews through his lawyers, Selahattin Demirtas takes note of a double defeat. His party, the HDP, again lost votes in the legislative elections, whereas it had already lost some in previous elections. On May 14, the pro-Kurdish party – which was competing under the colors of the Green Left Party (YSP) due to a risk of banning – won 8.8% of the vote, against 11.7% in 2018 .
“ Amateurism »
Furthermore, the HDP’s open support for the opposition presidential candidate, Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, not only did not prevent the victory of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but this election also highlighted the party’s failure to mobilize its electorate. It is in the regions of the south-east with a Kurdish majority that abstention increased the most between the first and the second round. In a text published this Wednesday, Selahattin Demirtas harshly criticizes “ amateurism of his party’s campaign.
For his part, the candidate defeated in the presidential election Kemal Kiliçdaroglu still rules out resigning from the head of his party, the CHP.
>> To read also: “What will be the Turkey of tomorrow?”: the day after its defeat, the Turkish opposition broods