When he speaks at the former Atatürk airport, on the European side of Istanbul, on Sunday March 24, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan does not speak like a statesman. After barely mentioning the name of Murat Kurum, the candidate designated by his party, the Justice and Development Party (AKP), to take back the metropolis from the hands of the opposition, he told the crowd: “I hope that Istanbul will find its owners this 1er april “, the day after the municipal elections. To ” Yes “ from the public, he responds: “This is the city to which I have devoted my life and for which I will devote my last breath. »
Everything is said, from the outset and without too many artifices, in these words of a priori unequivocal sincerity. Born in Istanbul, raised in one of its most popular neighborhoods, “Tayyip bey”, as his followers call him, never really left the city which was the springboard for his dazzling political career. Elected mayor in 1994, for a very notable mandate, he kept control of the affairs and management of the megacity for nearly twenty-five years with his AKP representatives, the time of electoral victories, until this stinging defeat in 2019 for the benefit of opponent Ekrem Imamoglu, now a candidate for his own succession.
Istanbul is “the key element of the Erdogan brand”, says analyst and journalist Amberin Zaman. A world city which, even beyond the symbolic charge it has for the president, represents almost half of the country’s tax base and around a third of its economic production. Its governance is an invaluable source of patronage for political offices, significant access to public and private resources. “He can afford to lose Izmir and Ankara again, as seems to be looming, but not Istanbul, where victory has become essential for him”underlines the essayist Mehmet Altan.
It is precisely because the outgoing mayor, leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), presents himself with a real chance of keeping his seat that Recep Tayyip Erdogan has decided to enter the arena, in the latter straight line. The opportunity to take on a role he has always loved: that of the leader who throws himself into the fray, harangues the crowd and challenges his opponent of the moment to a duel, the only one capable of overshadowing him. , “this dear Ekrem”as he named it for the very first time, Sunday March 24.
Candidate “without political personality”
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