Erdogan insults opposition leader ahead of election as “drunkard”

A week before Turkey’s parliamentary and presidential elections, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu a “drunkard”. In front of hundreds of thousands of supporters in Istanbul on Sunday, Erdogan said Kilicdaroglu could drink as much as he wanted and that people would not leave the country for a “drunkard and drunk”. Erdogan again accused Kilicdaroglu of collaborating with “terrorists”.

Polls indicate a neck-and-neck race between Erdogan and the opposition leader in parliamentary and presidential elections on May 14. Kilicdaroglu is running for an alliance of six opposition parties from different camps. If none of the candidates achieves an absolute majority in the first round, a second round will take place on 28 May.

Erdogan, who in the meantime had to take a campaign break due to illness, repeatedly uses sharp rhetoric to attack the opposition bloc and parts of society. He repeatedly spoke out anti-LGBT and accused sections of the opposition of speaking out for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

Meanwhile, the opposition complained that authorities were trying to prevent Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu from campaigning in Erzurum in eastern Turkey, which was scheduled for Sunday night. Imamoglu of the largest opposition party CHP becomes vice president in an election victory.

Erdogan put the number of participants in his Istanbul event at 1.7 million. Kilicdaroglu also appeared in front of numerous supporters in Istanbul on Saturday at a major event – ​​an official number of participants was not given. (sda/dpa)