The People’s Demands Cannot Wait For An Election

Politics Service

Operations targeting mayors of municipalities, funding scandals rocking the Palace, a deepening economic crisis, price rises and the public’s ever-growing struggle to make ends meet… The country is waking up to a new scandal every day, fuelling the anger a little more. On top of all this, the arrests of journalists, the appointment of trustees to opposition media outlets – notably Halk TV – and social media restrictions all serve as evidence that the regime is shamelessly utilising its apparatus of repression.

In conditions where not even a shred of justice, democracy or the rule of law remains, the real contradiction of today is that, despite the intense anger building up amongst broad sections of society, the Palace regime has not encountered significant and sustained resistance throughout this chain of events.

As recent surveys have shown, whilst the vast majority of the public embraces the will for change in the country, they still do not constitute a political subject; whilst they are stepping up the struggle against the regime, they have not yet found a fully-fledged alternative. Moreover, against this backdrop, there is a Palace regime that has lost its connection with society, apart from a handful of bureaucrats, sectarian and religious community networks, and centres of capital.

Whilst there are many factors contributing to this contradiction, two main trends have emerged on the political scene. The first is that the regime is no longer concerned with resolving crises or preventing scandals that work against the people’s interests. In this sense, the regime has built its fundamental strategy around preventing these emerging crises from escalating into social upheavals, keeping their effects within manageable limits, and blocking all political channels that could serve as alternatives to itself.

The disregard for the rule of law, the use of the judiciary as a weapon, and the detention of President Erdoğan’s strongest rivals in prison have become the regime’s new mechanisms of governance.

When money laundering, corruption and financial scandals come to light, measures such as silencing opposition channels and imposing access restrictions on social media are all used as tools to render these crises invisible amidst pressing issues. Meanwhile, all the regime’s actors convey the message that ‘everything is under control’ through the media outlets of which it controls nearly 90 per cent.

It is precisely at this point that the regime’s greatest assurance emerges: that public anger will not transform into an organised force in the squares and on the streets.

The second key factor is the opposition’s continued failure to open up a new channel to society. The fact that, after every scandal, the only solution the opposition presents to the public is still the “ballot box”, and that attempts are made to channel public reactions around this magical ‘ballot box’ narrative, only serves to reinforce the very environment the Palace desires.

Whilst municipalities are being seized, millions of citizens are struggling to make ends meet under exorbitant price rises and inflation, a pensioner takes his own life in despair, and students are crushed by the costs of their most basic rights—housing and education—the opposition’s slogan, ‘We will settle the score at the ballot box’, has, in this respect, become a colossal illusion.

Deferring the response to the loss of rights, lawlessness and exploitation to an indefinite election date serves no purpose other than to give the regime a free hand and allow it to catch its breath.

Moreover, the futility of this illusion was clearly evident in the recent council manoeuvres and political operations surrounding the deputy mayoral elections in Üsküdar, Ataşehir and Adalar. The political approach, constrained by arithmetic and always lagging a step or two behind the streets, has once again been tested to reveal just how ineffective it is in the face of the regime’s interventions.

The reaction from the Palace regime towards those taking to the streets across Europe – from France to Italy, and from Portugal to Belgium – in protest against the housing crisis, the high cost of living and cuts to education is, in this respect, particularly striking.

MHP Leader Devlet Bahçeli’s statement, “I am also addressing our young people: do not be tempted by France! Do not fall prey to Western imperialism! Stand up for Turkey!”—and the pro-government press’s efforts to portray these actions as acts of terrorism—reveal the panic over the possibility of social unrest spilling over into Turkey.

It is no coincidence that the people’s own organisational practices, wherever they may occur, are also being targeted by the pro-government press. Whilst the pro-government press directly equates the people’s activism in the pursuit of rights with ‘vandalism’ and ‘looting’, social upheavals taking place in various parts of the world are being portrayed as acts of terrorism.

Whilst Yeni Şafak highlighted that cities had been turned into battlefields with the headline “Street Riots in the West”, the Sabah newspaper emphasised that the protests were supported by Israel under the headline “The Shadow of Genocidal Israel Over Protests in Europe”.

It is clear that the effects and consequences of these practices hold lessons to be learnt from every perspective. There is no doubt that the ballot box and the electoral process are of such importance that they cannot be overlooked when it comes to defeating or rolling back the regime. However, it must not be forgotten that the ballot box itself can only gain meaning as the result of a concrete and determined struggle waged from today onwards. Whilst an approach that postpones everything until election day fosters despondency and hopelessness, the realistic way forward lies in the existence of a united line of struggle that makes the ballot box an integral part and a stepping stone of an organised struggle built from today.

Note: This article is translated from the original article titled Yurttaşın talebi seçimi beklemez, published in BirGün newspaper on October 20, 2026.