A storm in a glass of water. Meral Aksener has reconsidered this Monday his withering decision, announced three days ago, to leave the anti-Erdogan alliance, on the eve of the presidential and general elections. The right-wing politician announced on Friday her rejection of the nomination -scheduled for today- of Kemal Kiliçdaroglu as a joint candidate of the National Alliance. The decision had been made the day before by the leaders of the other five coalition parties, who ignored the head of the Good Party (IYI), who supported a candidacy for the mayor of Istanbul or the mayor of Ankara.
But both the first, Ekrem Imamoglu, and the second, Mansur Yavas, made it clear this weekend that they supported Kiliçdaroglu, their leader in the Republican People’s Party (CHP). While President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gloated over political suicide – “I already told you” – the half of the country that seems to have had enough of his twenty years in power was torn between despondency and outrage.
However, this morning, both councilors have met with Aksener, to try to convince her to return to the nationalist alliance. The condition imposed by this – quickly accepted by the high levels of the CHP – is that Imamoglu and Yavas become vice-presidents, in the event of Kiliçdaroglu’s victory.
Elections are scheduled for mid-May. It is attended by two large blocks, the Popular Alliance (in power) and the National Alliance. The Kurdish revolutionary left (HDP) competes on its own, due to the exclusion imposed by the ultranationalist -and former Minister of the Interior- Meral Aksener. The rejection, in fact, is mutual.
The Good Party is the second most important party in the table of six political forces, although with far fewer seats than the CHP. The rest of the components are new matches or with very little weight. Among them are two headed by former ministers of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Erdogan, DEVA and Gelecek, another more Islamist than the AKP itself, the so-called Happiness Party, and finally the small Democratic Party.
In the Popular Alliance, together with the AKP, there is the ultranationalist MHP, in which both Aksener and Yavas also held positions for many years and whose youth – the Gray Wolves – were outlawed in France “for incitement to hatred” by the Minister of the Interior, of Armenian origin, Gérald Darmanin.
Although the pact has not yet been made official, with the interview that takes place this afternoon between Aksener and Kiliçdaroglu, the Turkish press takes it for granted. Although new twists should not be ruled out, facing a politician with Erdogan’s experience and resources.
Just today, Saudi Arabia has announced that it was depositing five billion dollars in the Central Bank of Turkey, in a gesture that coincides with the first month since the earthquake on February 6, which caused 46,000 confirmed deaths and perhaps more than missing, only in Turkey.
The storm in a glass of water will have had, at least, a positive effect for the opposition, once the shock has been overcome. Turkish television – the vast majority in the orbit of the government – ??had never devoted so much time to it, while taking its dismemberment for granted. Thanks to the storm, Kiliçdaroglu is no longer transparent.
