The post-election truth has shaken the opposition bloc.

For the presidential election, the opposition parties adopted anti-Erdoğanism as their only political discourse and neglected to engage in new politics. They spent the campaign period under the magic spell of the misperception that they would win elections by a large margin.

At first glance, it can be seen that opposition parties, which cannot produce concrete alternative policies to those of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), lack political vision due to intraparty strife. Considering the deplorable situation of the main opposition Republican People's Party's (CHP) internal conflicts today, I think it is necessary to carefully list the reasons for this deterioration.

Impasse of the opposition

On which issues were the opposition parties mistaken in believing their success in the previous local elections would be enough to win the general and presidential elections?

Opposition leaders could not read the paradigm shift taking place in international politics. After the end of the colonial era and the subsequent Cold War period, Western states, especially the United States, realized they were not as strong as they used to be in the international relations of the new era. Meanwhile, regional powers such as Türkiye were no longer as weak as before.

The opposition leaders who sought political power in the corridors of Western capitals and embassies failed to correctly read the country's development in the last two decades, the capacity of the new Türkiye and the rational political vision of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

CHP elites proved they were adept at making political shows instead of working and used belligerent political language for the media. Although this unsophisticated dialogue satisfied members of the party, it could not persuade the Turkish people to adopt the political discourses of the opposition.

The speech of Good Party (IP) Chairperson Meral Akşener at the last general congress did not contain a single concrete sentence in the political sense. Most actors with political experience have been eliminated from the party, and the IP became de-politicized. From the IP's perspective, it seems that Akşener's leaving the opposition bloc and coming back again is not an easy trauma to overcome.

In addition, it has recently been announced that the IP will participate in the local elections alone, without an alliance. The IP chair uses harsh statements about her partner CHP, for which she participated in the election by making an alliance for four years. How can she look them in the eye if she changes her position again? The "zigzags" have become the political character of Akşener. And, no one will be surprised if she backtracks from this position after the CHP congress to be held in November. Time will tell how long the voters will continue to support such unreliability.

Turbulence in CHP

Neither those who develop an ideology for the CHP nor the rich club in Istanbul can inspire the party. Journalists who support the CHP in the media are more hopeless than politicians. Dissident artists, who could be instrumental in gaining the hearts and minds of the electorate, are detached from the reality of the people, and with their style that threatens the public from time to time, they deepen the gap between the CHP and the people.

The CHP's traditional false perception of society, religion and history further affects the political shallowness of the party. The other opposition parties who formed the opposition bloc under the leadership of the CHP during the presidential election campaign have copied the CHP's mentality that remained from the single-party era.

Academics should analyze the ongoing power struggle within the CHP as a case study to better understand what is happening in the main opposition party.

It seems that the turbulence within the CHP will continue until the general congress to be held in November. Will the new party leadership be able to build politics after that in four months by March 2024? They failed to do it in four years for the last elections.

The AK Party has always handled politics austerely in the past and started to immediately work for the next local elections after the presidential elections were over. Its alliance base is much more robust than the former opposition bloc's chaotic, zigzagging parties.