At the first rays of the sun, there is no need to make an appointment. On the seaside lawns of the bay of Izmir, a port city in western Turkey, thousands of city dwellers meet to sip beers and teas. The famous promenade, called “Cordon”, and its lively taverns are proudly presented as emblematic of the local way of life.
Three weeks before the municipal elections scheduled for March 31, this convivial space constitutes an essential stopover for candidates campaigning in the third large city of the country. Marked by red bibs, members of the team of Nilüfer Çinarli Mutlu, candidate of the CHP (Republican People’s Party, Kemalist, main opposition party) for the town hall of the central district of Konak, distribute leaflets when shouts ring out.
“The CHP didn’t understand anything! What possesses you to put a candidate like Cemil Tugay [candidat CHP à la grande municipalité d’Izmir] ? “, says a fifty-year-old blonde. “I voted for him in Karsiyaka [arrondissement huppé d’Izmir], where he did absolutely nothing”she continues angrily.
Arms hanging, one of the young men in the team tries, without conviction, to put forward some arguments. “Unfortunately, we are regularly confronted with this type of reaction”, he admits in a low voice. Traffic, flooding on the seaside, the laborious progress of the metro works are systematically cited by the inhabitants of Izmir, but the causes of the anger go beyond local issues. Since the crushing defeat of the opposition in the presidential and legislative elections of May 2023, the main opposition party has struggled to gather its troops.
“How do you want to convince that you are a democrat when you do not apply your principles within your own party”, jokes Arzu (the people cited by their first name requested anonymity), a lawyer in her forties, on the terrace of the Yakin café-bookstore, a few hundred meters from Le Cordon. “Many social democratic voters around me who present themselves as unwavering supporters of the CHP say they will not vote on March 31,” she assures.
Discarded at the last minute
In Izmir, the choice of the new president of the CHP, Özgür Özel, fell on a name from his inner circle, Cemil Tugay, to the detriment of the current mayor, Tunç Soyer, who had supported, during the internal party elections, on November 5, 2023, Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, defeated rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The party leadership may have cited the results of opinion surveys to justify the decision, but it failed to convince.
You have 64.96% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.