In recent years, the Turkish political scene has been turbulent. There is growing metropolitan resistance to the country’s powerful Islamist-based Justice and Development Party.
Recent polling in Turkey’s capital city of Ankara has revealed that many now feel that Erdogan and the AKP no longer hold the people’s interests at heart.
With the addition of numerous allegations of corruption within the AKP, citizens in some of Turkey’s biggest cities are hoping for new leadership.
Popular support for Erdogan and his ruling alliance in big cities has fallen to just over 32 percent, according to a survey by pollster Turkey Report conducted in May.
Only 26.3 percent of respondents said they would vote for Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) if elections were held in May, while 6 percent of voters backed the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Erdogan’s junior electoral partner. The survey did not distribute undecided voters among the parties surveyed.
“Every day, more and more Turks are joining the ranks of the opposition. There is more to Erdogan’s decline than power fatigue. He will find it very difficult to unite a majority of Turks around the flag and mosque in the presidential elections of 2023,” Burak Bekdil, an Ankara based columnist said.
The Turkish economy is in the midst of a nosedive, triggering rampant inflation and unemployment, thereby eroding Erdogan's popularity ahead of the 2023 presidential and parliamentary elections.
To distract attention away from the economy, the Turkish president and his ultranationalist allies are desperate to mobilize voters through pep talks and anti-opposition statements.
The Turkish president seeks to redirect voters' anger over deteriorating economy away from himself and toward symbolic issues.
With Turkish citizens and youth seeking new political representation, Erdogan will not be able to improve the current situation unless democratic transition is created.
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