Eliamep Policy Paper: No Country for (old-fashioned) opposition
Even if the “most important election of the century” happened just two months ago, Turkey is already preparing for another important electoral show-down: the municipal elections of March 2024.
Since the May elections, the momentum has been with the government, in terms of its alliance, strategy, and programme for the term ahead.
It is possible that Turkey will have no viable Opposition in the immediate future.
It looks as if Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, CHP chairman since 2010, will continue as if “nothing has happened”.
The CHP’s alignment with the extreme right (Zafer) makes a future collaboration with the HDP unlikely.
The HDP will have a new leadership in November 2023 and might field its own candidates in the 2024 municipal elections.
The three conservative parties in the Nation Alliance—Saadet, Deva and Gelecek—are facing a crisis of purpose: they are irrelevant independently, but a merger seems unlikely and they are unhappy within the current alliance.
If the Opposition doesn’t act together, the AKP will most likely enjoy a landslide victory in the March 2024 municipal elections.
