After the disappointing results of her presidential candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu against the outgoing president Recep Tayyip Erdoganwhere came first in the first roundthe Turkish opposition resumed its election campaign yesterday, Tuesday.

The opposition is trying to mobilize its voters again before second round of the presidential election and Kilicdaroglu mainly targets the vote of young people who “can’t even buy a coffee”.

“We have twelve days, we have to get out of the tunnel and out of the darkness,” wrote Kemal Kilicdaroglu, addressing these young people “who can’t even buy a coffee” in a Turkey undermined by inflation and where citizens aged 18 up to 34 years old represent about a third of the voters.

“Youth is once,” added the 74-year-old Social Democrat candidate, head of a motley coalition of conservatives, nationalists and liberals from the center-right and left.

Where did Kilicdaroglu “bet”?

The opposition bet on the alleged fatigue of the Turks after twenty years of Erdogan’s rule and especially the fatigue of the more than 5 million young people who were about to vote for the first time.

It also sought to take advantage of the economic environment and the falling Turkish lira exchange rate, as inflation ran as high as 85% in the fall.

But defying most opinion polls, the conservative Islamic head of state collected 49.5% of the vote on Sunday, compared to 44.89% for Kilicdaroglu.

More than 5% of the vote went to the third candidate, 55-year-old ultra-nationalist former MP Sinan Ogan.

Read about: Erdoğan leads by far in earthquake affected areas – 71% in Kahramanmaras (540878)

Erdogan’s “walk” in the second cycle shows the data

Kemal Kilicdaroglu warned yesterday, Tuesday, that his party must “fight much harder to get rid of such a brutal power”, which his faction accuses of trying to silence any dissenting voice and imposing restrictions on the press.

However, despite the support offered by the majority of Kurdish voters, the opposition has failed to worry Erdogan.

“The opposition is paralyzed; it will be difficult for them to regroup to win” on May 28, said Berk Essen, a political science researcher at Istanbul’s Sabancı University, predicting a “lower turnout” than Sunday’s.

The potential to re-mobilize opposition voters is one of the unknowns of the runoff, particularly in areas of southern Turkey hit by the Feb. 6 earthquake that killed more than 50,000 people.

Another unknown parameter is how the votes won by Sinan Ogan in the first round will be distributed. The former ultra-nationalist lawmaker has not yet announced whether he will support either candidate, but has said he opposes any concessions on the Kurdish issue.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan won’t necessarily need those votes, however: in the first round he missed victory by less than half a percentage point, or about half a million votes in an electorate of 64 million voters.

“The second round will be easier for us. There is a difference of five points (sb: between the two candidates), almost 2.5 million votes. It seems that they have no chance to cover this difference”, commented yesterday, Tuesday, İbrahim Kalin, Erdogan’s spokesman and close adviser.

The outgoing president has already secured his majority in parliament with MPs elected by his party, the AKP, and its nationalist MHP allies.