Revenge of the Pensioners - On the Recent Local Elections in Turkey - by Prof. Efrat Aviv

Erdoğan also expected to benefit from a crack that had appeared in the opposition: following its defeat in the general elections, the "Table of Six" coalition fell apart when the main opposition parties, the Republican People's Party (CHP) and the Good Party (İYİ Parti), presented separate candidates for mayoral positions.1 In contrast, the AK Party and its main partner, the National Action Party. [...] The loss of the elections reflects not only the CHP's strategy but also the fragmentation of Erdoğan's power and a decrease in voter turnout. [...] Also, the success of a faction more extreme than the AK Party, the New Welfare Party (YRP), the Islamist party of the late Erbakan, shows a level of dissatisfaction among Erdoğan's own electorate. [...] The question now is whether in the next general election the people will again settle accounts with the AK Party government over the economy. [...] How are the elections related to pensioners? In the period leading up to the elections and especially in the days immediately before them, Erdoğan made the issue of pensioners a main topic in his election speeches and promised them dividends and rewards.