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 “last” elections.
“I continue to work non-stop. We run without breathing because for me it’s 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 twenty-two days before the election in front of a gathering of the Turkish Youth Foundation (Tügva).
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 Mr. Erdogan himself was mayor in the 1990s.