Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke for the first time on Friday of the end of his power at the head of Turkey, assuring that the municipal elections of March 31 would be the “last” under his mandate.
“There will be a transfer of confidence”
“I continue to work non-stop. We run without breathing because for me, it is a final. With the authority given to me by law, this election is my last election,” announced the head of state, in power as Prime Minister then as President since 2003. “But what will result will be a blessing for my brothers who will come after me. There will be a transfer of confidence,” he assured 22 days before the election in front of a gathering of the Turkish Youth Foundation (TÜGVA).
The main issue for the ruling AKP party is the reconquest of Istanbul, the country’s main city and economic capital, which passed into the hands of the opposition in 2019 and of which Recep Tayyip Erdogan himself was mayor in the 1990s. To dethrone the current mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, the Justice and Development Party (AKP, Islamo-conservative), has appointed a former Minister of the Environment, Murat Kurum.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, 70 years old since February 26, was re-elected as head of state for five years last May, in the second round of voting, a first since he was elected by universal suffrage as president of the Republic in 2014. After a change of Constitution and the establishment of a presidential regime, he was re-elected twice as head of state, in 2018 and in 2023.
During the 2019 municipal elections, the main opposition party, the CHP (social democrat), inflicted a serious blow on the Islamo-conservative power of Recep Tayyip Erdogan by winning the capital, Ankara, as well as Istanbul.