Ekrem Imamoglu, the resigned mayor of Istanbul who looks set to be re-elected on Sunday, is at 52 the leader of the opposition to Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the opposition’s best hope in Turkey’s 2028 presidential election. AFP reports.

The mayor, who sensationally entered the national political arena five years ago by inflicting the biggest defeat in the elections for the head of state, intends to repeat this feat and save the metropolis, despite the efforts of Erdogan, who himself was its mayor in the 1990s.

The virtually unknown, elected Republican People’s Party (CHP, Social Democrats) in 2019 ended the twenty-five-year dominance of Erdogan and his camp over the country’s largest city.

At that time, she won from an alliance of opposition parties. It wasn’t enough this time, but it didn’t seem to stop him from winning.

“Please everyone”…

A charismatic media personality, the mayor of Istanbul is in the sights of the government, which at the end of 2022 sentenced him to two years and seven months in prison for “insulting” members of Turkey’s Higher Election Committee.

The politician appealed, but the verdict, which continues to threaten his political future, has ruled him out of the May 2023 presidential race.

Regularly ranked among Turkey’s favorite politicians, he has never stopped presenting himself as a direct challenger to President Erdogan, who recently announced that these municipal elections would be his “last”.

Election poster with Ekrem Imamoglu in Istanbul Photo: Tolga Ildun / Zuma Press / Profimedia Images

During his campaign, Ekrem Imamoglu used his husky voice to attack the head of state, targeting him more than ruling party candidate Murat Kurum.

A practicing Muslim but a member of a secular party, the former Black Sea businessman, who made his fortune in construction before entering politics, also attracts voters outside his party.

“He can appeal to all segments of the opposition electorate, be it Turks, Kurds, Sunnis, Alevis, young or old,” says Berk Esen, a political scientist at Sabanci University in Istanbul, who notes that Istanbul’s mayor “enjoys quite a high profile.” high level of support in different regions of the country.”

“Atomic Ant”

However, the mayor does not enjoy unanimous support in his camp, which is sometimes accused of being more concerned about his political future than his constituents.

The pro-Kurdish DEM (formerly PDH) party, which rallied around him in 2019, chided him for his silence when dozens of his elected officials were removed from office and jailed.

His opponents argue that he is investing more in communication than in preventing earthquake risk, which is very high in Istanbul, although city hall data denies this.

During the election campaign, his rival Murat Kurum said: “He is a person who for the last five years has been interested only in issues not related to Istanbul.”

The elected official suggests and claims to look beyond his own city and claims to work “like an atomic ant” (a reference to a popular cartoon) and boasts that he has greatly feminized the municipality.

However, he refuses to declare himself a candidate for a higher post: “There are still four years to 2028. It would be inappropriate for me to talk about it today,” he said in a recent interview with the opposition media Medyascope.