Elections in Turkey: In the perfect parity scenario, Recep Erdogan raised the tone at the end of the election campaign

With the polls against him and the real possibility of losing power after 20 years as president of Türkiye, Recep Tayyip Erdoganraised the tone today by comparing Sunday’s election with coup attempt He suffered in 2016, while the opposition is demanding calm and avoiding provocations.

“If necessary, as on the night of July 15 (July 2016, the date of the coup), we will defend our independence and our future even with our lives,” the head of state said on the social networking site Twitter, confirming the campaign. message that if the opposition wins, Türkiye will plunge into chaos.

Erdogan stressed that he “will not give up serving his country” and will not stop making the country grow through investments.

Fakhruddin Altun, Head of Communication in the Presidency of the Republic, influenced this idea, stressing that the country faces, this Sunday, a choice between independence or dependence, referring to another electoral message: that the opposition will surrender Turkey to political imperialism and the Western economy.

“We’ll call it stability or we’ll call it chaosBriefly.

Various analysts, and the opposition, have warned of the possibility that Erdogan, in the face of electoral defeat, will resist recognizing the result, as his party, the Justice and Development Party, did when it lost the mayoralty of Istanbul in 2019.

At that time, the score was contested and He was forced into an electoral repeat, which he lost by a much larger margin.

Interior Minister , Suleiman SoyluI have previously compared Sunday’s parliamentary and presidential elections to the coup attempt at the end of April 2016.

“July 15th was a real coup attempt. The minister said at the time that May 14 was an attempted political coup, “referring to the date of the elections.

Opinion polls predict that Erdogan will lose the presidential elections to the candidate of the opposition coalition consisting of six parties, the Social Democrat Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

For his part, the opposition candidate chose today to maintain the optimistic message that characterized his campaign.

“We will live together, in peace, as brothers and sisters, openIt makes us end the fight. “This is my duty and this is my promise to you,” he said at a rally in the Black Sea city of Samsun.

Kilicdaroglu called on his followers to go to vote without worry and confirmed that measures had been taken to defend the integrity of the elections.

The opposition candidate, already convinced of his victory in the first round of the presidential election on Sunday, told his followers to show restraint in celebrating the victory in the streets. At the risk of violent pro-Erdogan groups causing riots.

In addition to a possible backlash, different analysts believe that if he loses narrowly, the polls give Kilicdaroglu an advantage of between 3 and 10 points, and Erdogan can challenge the election.

With everything despite the political tension in the streets Istanbul The electoral atmosphere is festive.

In front of the Spice Bazaar, two groups of people danced, barely 20 meters apart, waving Turkish flags. Some of them are supporters of Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party. The others are from Kiliçdaroglu CHP.

The same thing happens in Kadikoy, where the polling stations of the opposition parties are barely a few meters apart, without raising problems or disagreements, in an example of democratic maturity.

The same calmness breathes tourists walking through the city.

Pedro, a visiting Spanish, maintains that he did not even consider shortening his vacation for fear of events after Sunday’s election.

“The earthquake (which Turkey suffered last February) did not take us back, nor did the elections,” he says, indicating that he does not feel any concern.

(with EFE info)

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