Turkey’s Anti-Immigration Challenger Tops Erdogan on Twitter
- Ozdag’s tweets more popular than president’s for first time
- Zafer Party leader’s profile surges on anti-refugee sentiment
By
Patrick Sykes
May 20, 2022, 8:55 AM UTC
Turkey’s leading anti-immigration opposition politician now gets more “likes” than President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Twitter, underlining the firebrand’s outsized effect on political debate ahead of elections next year.
Zafer Party leader Umit Ozdag’s tweets attracted an average 26,640 likes in May so far, topping Erdogan’s equivalent (18,627) for the first time, according to a Bloomberg analysis of Twitter data.
Going Mainstream
Anti-immigration politician Umit Ozdag's tweets now get more likes than President Erdogan's
Ozdag’s most popular tweet, a challenge to a public showdown with the interior minister over immigration policy, racked up almost four times as many likes as Erdogan’s, at 209,691.
Erdogan Faces New Challenge From Anti-Immigration Firebrand
Despite his party having a single parliamentary seat, Ozdag closed the social-media gap with the man who’s led Turkey for almost two decades by riding growing anti-immigrant sentiment. The mood in Turkey is turning against hosting the world’s biggest refugee population as an inflation surge erodes living standards.
As Ozdag’s profile grew, and with it his calls to send millions of migrants home, the government announced plans in May for the voluntary return of a million refugees to Syria.
