In Paris, Berlin or Copenhagen, the vote for them Turkish citizens who live abroad will be completed tonight, five days before the crucial presidential and parliamentary elections elections in which the future of the president is threatened Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The Turkish president, who has ruled for 20 years, is facing a six-party coalition for the first time, led by Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu. Erdogan, backed by ultra-nationalist and Islamist factions, is also facing an economic crisis that is hurting his popularity.

According to data from the Supreme Electoral Council (YSK), more than half (51%) of the 3.4 million registered voters abroad had cast their ballots by late last night. Turnout is up slightly from the 2018 election, when Turks abroad, who make up about 5 percent of the 64.1 million voters, voted for Erdogan at 60 percent. Erdogan’s approval rating reached 63.7% in France, 64.8% in Germany, 73% in the Netherlands and 74.9% in Belgium, the four European countries that host the largest Turkish communities abroad.

In Germany, 642,000 people have voted so far, today with Yunus Olusoy of the Center for Turkish Studies in Essen. Compared to 2018, there is a 19% increase in participation.

The polls, which had been open since April 27 in 73 countries, have already closed since yesterday in many of them, including the US and Canada, from where huge white, sealed bags of ballots have already begun to be airlifted to the Turkey.

Queues have been forming at polling stations in many European capitals in recent days. “I am here because the situation in Turkey is horrible. I want to go back one day. And that’s why I came to vote, I want the leader to change,” Kutai Yilmaz, 29, told AFP on the first day of voting in Berlin.

In some cases, such as in Marseille and Amsterdam, there were incidents between opponents and supporters of Erdogan.