Like all the first days of May of the last decade, the Turkish left met in the Maltepe Park, a neighbourhood in the Asian area of Istanbul. Among the 80,000 people who participated in the meeting was not all militancy. The most daring tried to meet in the mythical Taksim Square, the usual place for this celebration, since the police slaughtered 34 protesters on 1 May 1977. There were 500,000 people in the centre. To avoid this, the Islamist AKP government also closed the most central metro stations, as it has been doing in 2013 since Gezi protests. The day ended with incidents and the arrest of 35 people. In Turkey, the left cannot choose where to celebrate its annual holiday.

It is therefore no wonder that the Turkish left, in all its accents and stories, has come together to expel Recep Tayyip Erdogan from the presidency in the presidential and legislative elections on 14 May. This objective appeared in the banners and slogans, as well as in the conferences of the stage management. “We must finally get rid of this harmful system. Let’s make a promise to end the rule of tyrants,” said DISK Secretary General Arzu Çerkezoglu, the strongest Turkish trade union, to choose between “despotism and political freedoms” which he asked the people. He didn't mention it in Erdoga, but it wasn't necessary, everyone understood it.

The enormous importance of elections, in full governmental authority, does not run away from the leaders or the base. And this requires exceptional measures, such as that taken by the Communist Party of Turkey (TCP). “For the first time in history, the party will not boycott the elections, but will convene to vote for Kemal Kiliçdaroglu,” said Jane, a young long-haired, newly graduated college, who has been in the TKP for over four years. Kiliçdaroglu is the leader of the CHP, the centre-left, the main opposition party, and will be a candidate with a six-party coalition, including the right-wing IYI, and three Islamist parties, confirming that the step taken by the TKP is unusual.

The TKP is a small out-of-parliament party, like most of the twenty parties that hit the flags on the shores of the Marmara Sea on this sunny spring morning. However, in the elections in which the result can be decided with votes, all support is essential. In the absence of a week, some surveys planned a technical draw between Kiliçdaroglu and Erdogan.

The left has particularly suffered the disasters of the harsh Electoral Law. Because in order for the Kurdish nationalist parties not to enter Parliament, the limit for entry into Parliament was 10% of the vote. After many years of ostracism, the more pragmatic left of the CHP has learned to manage its differences and to agree broad electoral coalitions. In recent years, the HDP party, the latest electoral version of the historic national Kurdish movement, has been the backbone of these leftist coalitions. In the 2018 elections he won 57 Members with about 12% of his votes.

But this time it will not be presented with its acronyms in the progressive coalition “Freedom and Work Alliance”, but with the acronyms of the small ecological party Yesil. The reason is that the Supreme Court can illegalize it because it believes it is related to the CCP, a militia fighting for the sovereignty of the Kurdish people since 1984. As the elections approach, the repression of Kurdish activists has increased and by the end of April more than 130 have been stopped, including some candidate for legislative elections. Salahatin Demirtas, leader of the HDP, remains a prisoner despite the fact that the European Court of Human Rights calls for his release. In recent years almost 60 municipalities in the hands of the HDP have been dismantled.

“I defend Yesil, because I believe the country’s main problem is the solution to the Kurdish question,” says Bahadir, a political science student, dressed in a hat with the image of Che Guevara. Sitting next to him on the prairie, classmate Emre says yes, adding that for the left Kurdistan peace is a more urgent problem than a wage increase in line with inflation. Surprisingly, neither of them is curved. “Furthermore, the Kurdish parties have a more open mind in many respects and not only in the rights of minorities. For example, on issues of feminism,” says Emr.

In Turkey, the classification of parties on the left-right axis is complicated by crossing the national issue and the role of Islam in public life. “In many ways, the CHP in Kiliçdaroglu can be equated with the French or German Social Democratic parties. Keynesians, lay and progressive on moral issues. In any case, they are very nationalist and have often had a speech against the Kurds,” said political scientist Omer Taspitar. At the meeting of 1 May, they sent a small representation, which was justified by the fine and non-parliamentary parties. No known party authority had climbed the stage.

“Most leftist parties in the ‘Freedom and Labour Alliance’ coalition, including the HDP, decided not to present candidates and support the Kiliçdaroglu. We disagreed. We believed that we had to present a progressive platform in the first round of the presidential election, and that we had to support Kiliçdaroglu in the second,” explains Istanbul Parliament candidate of the Trotskyist party Görkem Duru IDP. It believes that the small left-wing parties associated with the HDP can represent 3% of the voters.

“The truth is that the policies of a government in Kiliçdaroglu do not seem to be very left-wing. Not only because the CHP is centrist, but for the rest of the coalition parties,” Duru announced that the main problem in the country is the increase in inequalities. Last year the Turkish lira fell above 50% and inflation rose to 85%, so the working class has paid the highest price. “But now the priority is to get rid of Erdogan and ensure the survival of democracy. Then we will mobilize for social struggles,” says this politician. This reflection is now shared by Turkish Stalinists, Trotskyists and Maoists. What the Islamist Erdogan has brought together could not be separated, even disputes over the quotas of the joint lists. A real miracle.