By Athena Papakosta

From the squares to Hagia Sophia o Recep Tayyip Erdogan. From the kitchen to the nationalists o Kemal Kilicdaroglu. Turkey, although without the huge pre-election rallies, is living in pre-election rhythms ahead of the second and decisive round of the presidential contest on May 28.

The Turkish president may be entering the electoral arena as a favorite, but he is not complacent. He prays in Hagia Sophia and speaks in Istanbul, while he has already warned his officials, asking them to be ready, otherwise, as he said, the opposition will steal the result.

For his part, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, denouncing irregularities, calls for greater mobilization of electoral representatives, stating that “these elections have shown once again that their irregularities and immorality have no limits. All my fellow citizens should know this. On election morning on May 28th we need five observers at each polling station, not one and two. That’s why at least one million people will go to the polls for safety.”

But the Erdogan camp is making plans for the next day and Turkey’s interior minister, Suleyman Soylu, is repeating Turkey’s century saying that he will start from Hagia Sophia the day after the presidential run-off on May 29 – the day of the Fall of the City.

The nationalist crowns, however, are now also adopted by Erdogan’s presidential opponent, finding that the nationalist/Islamist extreme right has strengthened its presence in the Turkish parliament.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu attacked the governing coalition, emphasizing that “you have deliberately brought 11 million refugees” and then added that “as soon as I come to power, I will send them all to their homes. Perfect”. It is worth recalling that Mr. Kilicdaroglu in the last months – and, therefore, before the first round of elections in Turkey – would repatriate the refugees during the first two years of his presidency, gradually.

At the same time, the message of the “chosen” of the united opposition to the nationalists is also formulated with terrorism as an edge. “I have not sat at the table with the terrorist organizations and I never will,” he emphasized from Ankara.

The target of “bye-bye Kemal”, as Erdoğan has never tired of addressing him, is the 2.8 million voters of the far-right Sinan Ogan, who quite unexpectedly has become the organizer of the upcoming second round and during his election campaign had to fill with fear those refugees living in Turkish territory by threatening them with deportation.

What Ogan will do, which presidential election candidate he will support, we will know in the coming days, but again the voting direction he will give does not mean that it will be implemented by his voters, en masse.

The opposition, however, is not standing idly by and is steadily recruiting the popular mayor of Istanbul and candidate for vice president, Ekrem Imamoglu, who is committed to starting the tours in order to change the image “tarnished by Erdogan”. Regarding the economy and the clouds that are gathering over it, Imamoglu answers to those who ask him that prices will fall “as soon as we drive them out”. As he explains, “we are not finished. Don’t listen to Erdogan. He didn’t win” and points out that “we start the match with a score of 0-0” to explain that “whoever gets one more vote will win”.

It is a fact that Erdogan “won” the first round and it is also a fact that he has won the second round the following Sunday. However, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, although he defied expectations last Sunday, insists on clapping his hands as a contender for power and promises victory with the difference that he is now also playing the card of the extreme right. As Imamoglu also said, even one vote can make a difference.