A week before the parliamentary and presidential elections in Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attacked his challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu in front of hundreds of thousands of supporters in Istanbul. The opposition leader can drink as much as he wants, the people will not leave the country to a “drunkard and drunk”, said Erogan, who again accused Kilicdaroglu of collaborating with “terrorists”.
Polls indicate a neck-and-neck race between Erdogan and the opposition leader in the parliamentary and presidential elections on May 14. Kilicdaroglu is running as a joint candidate for an alliance of six opposition parties from different camps. If none of the candidates wins an absolute majority in the first round, there will be a runoff on May 28th.
Erdogan, who in the meantime had to take a break from campaigning due to illness, repeatedly uses sharp rhetoric to attack the opposition bloc and parts of society. Erdogan said the number of participants at his event in Istanbul was 1.7 million. Kilicdaroglu also performed in front of numerous supporters in Istanbul yesterday at a major event – an official number of participants was not given.
