the municipal elections of March 31 “will be the last for me”, announces Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke for the first time on Friday March 8 of the end of his power at the head of Turkey by assuring that the municipal elections of March 31 would be his “latest” elections.

“I continue to work non-stop. We run without breathing because for me, it is a final. With the authority given to me by law, this election is my last election”announced the head of state, in power as Prime Minister then President since 2003.

“But the resulting result will be a blessing to my brothers who come after me. There will be a transfer of confidence”he said 22 days before the election, in front of a gathering of the Turkish Youth Foundation (TÜGVA).

The reconquest of Istanbul targeted by the AKP

The main issue for the ruling AKP party is the reconquest of Istanbul, the country’s main city and economic capital, which passed into the hands of the opposition in 2019 and of which Erdogan himself was mayor in the 1990s.

Erdogan, 70 years old since February 26, was re-elected as head of state for five years last May, in the second round of voting, a first since he was elected by universal suffrage as President of the Republic in 2014. After a change of Constitution and the establishment of a presidential regime, he was re-elected twice as head of state, in 2018 and in 2023.