Yesterday, after the withdrawal of Muharrem Ince from the presidential election race in Turkey (in favor of Kilicdaroglu) – the country’s main stock market index jumped, while CDS premiums fell.

Today, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, o candidate of the united Turkish opposition in Sunday’s presidential electiontold Reuters that yesterday’s rise in Turkish stocks means markets believe his alliance will win on Sunday and trust the “rational economic policy” of his alliance.

Noting that Turkey has close economic relations with RussiaThe Kemal Kilicdaroglu he stressed that he would seek a delicate balance in his foreign policy regarding relations with Moscow.

“We want to maintain our relations, we do not want to break our friendly relations, but we will not allow interference in our internal affairs”he said.

If he wins Sunday’s election, the Turkish opposition candidate will promote a new peace initiative between Russia and Ukraine.

“It is very important for us, and for the whole world, to reach a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine. But we will make it clear that we do not think it is right for any country to occupy another country.”he stated.

When asked if he would support NATO expansion if elected president, he answered “Of course”.

“NATO is not just a military organization in the 21st century, it is also an organization that defends democracy. We will maintain our relations with NATO in the same context as in the past,” states Kemal Kilicdaroglu, adding that a fundamental problem in the foreign policy of Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) period was the exclusion of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from the process. policy formulation.

“We will pursue a peace-oriented foreign policy that will prioritize Turkey’s interests. Our priority is our national interests and to act in harmony with the modern world”.

“Bey Kemal”

The outgoing president’s number one opponent, short and with a thin white moustache, also appears as “the Lord Clean” of Turkish political life, denouncing for years the corruption which, according to him, is gangrenous at the top of the state.

As president, he will continue to pay his water and electricity bills, he promises, and will once again live in the historic Cankaya presidential palace, rather than move to the 1,100-room luxury mansion that Erdogan built on a protected forested hill in Ankara.

“They are like us. He understands people,” 20-year-old Alena Erdem said excitedly last Saturday, during the candidate’s big rally in Istanbul.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu also pledges not to… seize power: since “restore democracy” and limit the powers of the president, he will go take care of his grandchildren, he assures.

“I’m not a man of ambition”he argued in April, speaking to Time magazine.

Since assuming the presidency of the CHP, which was founded by the father of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal, he has changed the party line, mainly erasing its very populist public image.

At the end of 2022, he thus proposed a law guaranteeing the right of Turkish women to wear the headscarf, making a gift to conservative voters.

The candidate, the scion of a poor family in the historically rebel eastern Anatolian province of Dersim (renamed Tunceli), whose majority residents are Kurdish and Alevi, is also trying to woo the Kurds, many of whom call him “Piro,” Kurdish word for grandfather or an Alevi priest.

President Erdogan, for his part, calls him “Bey Kemal” (“Mr. Kemal”), using to mock him the term “bey” traditionally attributed to foreigners.

Since the beginning of the election campaign, the head of state has renamed him… “Bai Bai Kemal” and claims that the Turks will “bury him” with their vote on the evening of May 14, despite many opinion polls showing him as a favorite Kilicdaroglu.