İmamoğlu’s charm: emulating Erdoğan’s playbook for a counter-hegemony

Kalelioğlu, U.B.

Abstract

This article examines the political ascent of Ekrem İmamoğlu, the mayor of Istanbul, whose electoral victories posed an unprecedented challenge to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s long-standing dominance. Drawing on Gramsci and the discourse theory of Laclau and Mouffe, it conceptualizes hegemony as a contested project and analyzes İmamoğlu’s public discourse, symbolic practices, and campaign strategies as attempts to construct a counter-hegemonic bloc. The article argues that İmamoğlu’s success rests on selectively emulating Erdoğan’s populist playbook, while re-signifying key nodal points, such as ‘the people’ and ‘justice,’ thereby opening the way for a more pluralist yet still conservative-democratic political alternative.