Turkey’s opposition gets a reboot, Germany’s government gets a scandal, and Gen Z gets some career advice

On Friday, Turkey’s political landscape shifted dramatically when Özgür Özel, the former leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), launched a new party called the New Party. At least 91 MPs from the CHP defected to join him, instantly making the New Party Turkey’s largest opposition force. Polls suggest support for the new party has already crossed 30%, while the CHP’s backing has melted into single digits. The episode traces how this happened, why it matters for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and what obstacles the new opposition will face.

How Erdoğan’s pruning backfired

The CHP had been Turkey’s main opposition since Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AK Party) swept to power in 2002. Özel took over the CHP in 2023 after the party badly underperformed in general elections, and his biggest achievement came in 2024 when the CHP beat the AK Party in local elections — its best result in about half a century. But in May, a court deposed Özel, ruling that the party congress that elected him had been rigged. The court replaced him with Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the CHP’s former leader, who had guided the party to a string of defeats, including his own loss to Erdoğan in the 2023 presidential election. When Özel’s supporters said they would not accept the verdict,