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After two decades in power, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan faces the most serious challenge yet to his rule as he campaigns for the 2023 presidential election. Opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu has not only diluted his Republican People’s Party (CHP)’s secularism and nationalism, he has also managed to unite the six main opposition parties behind his candidacy. FRANCE 24 takes a closer look at Erdogan’s opponent.
The 74-year-old Kilicdaroglu is a quiet, soft-spoken figure. An apt phrase to encapsulate his image is a slogan from François Mitterrand’s 1981 French presidential election campaign: “la force tranquille” (“a force of calm”).
While little-known on the international stage until this presidential run, Kilicdaroglu has been a prominent figure in Turkish politics for years. After working as a senior civil servant in Turkey’s finance ministry, Kilicdaroglu was elected as MP for an Istanbul seat in 2022, representing the CHP, the party created by modern Turkey’s founding father, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
“He’s the absolute antithesis of Erdogan – in terms of personality as well as politics,” Marc Semo, a Le Monde journalist and ex-Turkey correspondent, told FRANCE 24’s Le Débat show.
Kilicdaroglu’s austere, intellectual style is the antithesis of Erdogan’s flamboyant strongman brand of leadership
“Kilicdaroglu is often criticised for his lack of charisma,” observed Didier Billion, a Turkey specialist and deputy director of the French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs. “Yes, he doesn’t have Erdogan’s charisma – but that’s not really a problem in this campaign, because Erdogan has been such a polarising figure in Turkey for years now. In this context, a big proportion of the electorate wants things to calm down.”
A “lack of charisma is sometimes its own form of charisma”, Semo noted. Kilicdaroglu…
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Source : france24
