Turkey after the first round of elections

Turkey held election on May 14, 2023. Neither President Erdoğan nor opposition candidate Kılıçdaroğlu received more than 50% of the vote. Thus, a runoff election will take place on May 28. For now, the two alliances have to mobilize everything again so that their candidate can ultimately prevail. Many observers assume that the People's Alliance around incumbent president Erdoğan is better prepared. Especially, since the AK Party won the majority in the parliamentary elections. The results are itself cause for enormous disappointment on the side of the opposition which came together as the National Alliance. It remains to be seen how deep this disappointment runs and the extent to which the opposition alliance is weakened. Given the circumstances, the AK Party and its partners are very confident. The election on May 14th can certainly be described as a victory for secular nationalism. Not least because after the runoff election, nationalist leaning parties can cooperate and find solutions yet to be seen, though not anticipates at the moment.