Erdogan sacred, the opposition already on the teeth – Thomas LECOMTE

On the shores of the Bosphorus, impossible to escape the sizzling televisions on. They are everywhere: in grocery stores, hairdressing salons, restaurants … All day long, the Turks are lulled by the flood of political comments broadcast by the news channels continuously. But since the end of the election campaign for the presidential and legislative elections two weeks ago, the fiery speeches of the candidates have been replaced by matches of the World Cup football. It was to count without the inauguration ceremony of the newly elected President of the Republic. That's pretty good, there is no Mondial meeting scheduled on Monday. Eyes fixed on the screen, Muzaffer looks at Recep Tayyip Erdogan, solemnly, swearing in Parliament. This father of about sixty years does not hide his satisfaction: "Many people here predicted that Erdogan would be forced to play a second round … But the reis showed that he was still popular with voters! Our country needs a strong leader to face the challenges imposed by the West.
And for good reason: the re-election of Erdogan confirms Turkey's transition from a parliamentary regime to an ultra-strong presidential regime. A reform narrowly voted last year in a contested constitutional referendum. In fact, the President of the Republic will now concentrate in his hands all executive powers and even, in practice, legislative. The proof with the announcement of the new government, just hours after the official coronation Recep Tayyip Erdogan: as provided in the new Constitution, the post of Prime Minister has simply disappeared. "Even under the Ottoman Empire, the sultans were accompanied in their work by a grand vizier who was, in a way, the ancestor of the Prime Minister, notes Jean Marcou, professor at Sciences Po Grenoble and specialist in Turkey. From now on, the President of the Republic will directly appoint all the ministers, and the government will no longer even need to obtain the confidence of Parliament.
Bekir Özcan did not watch Mr. Erdogan's inauguration ceremony. "I have something else to do," said the section president of CHP, the main opposition party. Defender of secularism, guardian of Ataturk's legacy (the founder of the Republic of Turkey in 1923) and fiercely opposed to the abandonment of the parliamentary regime, the CHP finished in second position of the presidential and legislative of the month latest. A logical but disappointing result for a CHP galvanized by the aggressive campaign of his presidential candidate, Muharrem Ince. The center-left party hoped to push the candidate Erdogan to his limits and especially to obtain the majority of the seats in Parliament, thanks to an electoral agreement with other opposition parties. But on arrival, all his hopes were showered by Recep Tayyip Erdogan who obtained 52% of the votes in the first round while his Islamic-conservative AKP party came in ahead of the legislative elections with 42% of the vote.

"We are gaining ground …"
Still, with 146 CHP deputies elected to the National Assembly (out of a total of 600), Bekir Özcan continues to believe that his party can play a role in the world. political chessboard in Turkey: "The CHP is not the only party in Parliament to be against this new regime that concentrates all power in the hands of one man. One can thus hope, as it happened during the campaign, that parties of different political colors unite in the same opposition. On the other hand, on the HDP side, the pro-Kurdish party, which won 67 seats in Parliament, is less optimistic: "Of course, we are satisfied to have deputies who represent us in the National Assembly, comments Cihan Yavuz, the vice president of the HDP in Istanbul. But we do not believe that it is really possible to weigh directly on the decisions of the government. Our policy, we prefer to do it daily, on the street, being close to people and listening to their demands.
Still a little stunned by the results of this double election, the opposition does not have time to procrastinate. Barely re-elected as President of the Republic, Mr. Erdogan held a meeting to warn his troops of the imminence of a new election: the municipal elections, scheduled for March 2019. "What is striking with Recep Tayyip Erdogan is that he is a man in permanent campaign, badyzes Jean Marcou. Although the score of the last election is largely favorable, he still needs to be rebadured about the strength of its electoral base. For CHP's Bekir Özcan, this local ballot is especially an excellent opportunity to regain some power: "For several years now, we have been gaining ground in the big cities of Turkey, as in Istanbul or Ankara. We think voters are fed up with living in AKP-held cities and need change.
It remains to be seen whether, this time, the need for change that the opposition is talking about will materialize at the polls.

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