With 38 days remaining to municipal elections, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan wooed voters in Denizli, a western province famed for its Pamukkale thermal springs. His speech to a large crowd of supporters of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) concentrated on the government's public service record and accomplishments of AK Party municipalities.
The president also mocked the opposition for falling into "a tragicomic state."
"They are worse than before. Even a fight has an etiquette, but you can't see it when it comes to the opposition. They say worst things about people they heaped compliments in the past," he said. Erdoğan was referring to the deepening fallout between the AK Party's main rival, the Republican People's Party (CHP) and the Good Party (IP), which closed ranks against Erdoğan in last year's general elections.
"They would run this country (if they won) just nine months ago. Today, they are involved in backstabbing and interfering with each other's domestic affairs. We criticized them in the past, but they are saying worse than what we have said about them now, about each other," he said.
Erdoğan has lamented the lack of a "genuine opposition" in Türkiye in his past speeches and adopted the same tone again in Denizli, claiming that the opposition had no plans of investment or services for the Turkish public. "They only want to preserve their political, personal interests. They mistake opposing as blocking something in every work of the government. They should support what the government does good," he said, citing the silence of the opposition parties after Türkiye's first domestically made fighter jet made its maiden flight on Wednesday, a unique feat for the country.
Voters in opposition-run municipalities mostly complain about the lack of municipal services, such as problems in water utility that lead to frequent water outages and traffic issues stemming from troubles in road construction and improvement of existing roads.
The municipal elections are poised to be a critical test for the opposition parties, which were united under a coalition in 2019 that only fell apart after last May's defeat.
Despite new management in office since November 203, the CHP faces dwindling odds as its allies IP and the pro-PKK Green Left Party (YSP), informally known as the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), a successor of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), decided to field their own candidates. The YSP signaled endorsement for the CHP in some places, but a general election alliance has been ruled out.
Resignations, biting remarks and protests highlight the turmoil within the CHP ahead of the March 31 municipal elections. New CHP Chair Özgür Özel pledged "change" in the party after his election, but few expected it would be as radical as dissidents of former confidante of his predecessor Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu say. He is accused of derailing the democratic process of picking candidates for municipal elections, while Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu, who raised his profile in the party after winning the 2019 elections, reportedly has a hand in choosing candidates. Several prominent figures who were close to Kılıçdaroğlu resigned from the party before the elections.
