Turkey's 2024 municipal elections: a turning point for democratic resilience?

Official URL: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13629395.2025.2459558

The 2024 local elections in Turkey represented an important signal for the country’s changing political environment. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) suffered its most severe electoral defeat since first coming to power in the 2002 general elections. Despite an uneven playing tilted in favour of the ruling alliance, the opposition led by the CHP party succeeded in a threefold feat: reasserting its political dominance in the large cities, expanding its electoral appeal to the AKP strongholds, and, most importantly, overtaking Erdoğan’s AKP at the national level for the first time. The result appears even more striking when one considers that just over a year ago, Erdoğan’s ruling alliance had won a clear victory in the presidential and parliamentary elections. Although these two elections underlie different dynamics, this article analyzes the factors that led to this dramatic reversal.