So often praised for his great ability in old-fashioned public speaking, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan set himself a social media trap on May 8 when he said during a speech in parliament: “If one day our nation says ‘enough’, then we will step aside.”

Subsequently, more than half a million Turks piled onto Turkish-language Twitter under the hashtag #Tamam (“#Enough”) to call on Erdogan, in power either as prime minister or president for the past 16 years, to go. #Tamam also became a global trending topic.

With Turkey’s economic situation becoming precarious, Erdogan has called snap parliamentary and presidential elections for June 24. As well as the mounting woes over the country’s overheating economy and clobbered Turkish lira, Erdogan must now also contend with the sight of the opposition for the first time in many years managing to unite to fight against him and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) and dismay that the elections will take place under the state of emergency brought in by Ankara in July 2016 after an attempted coup. The UN human rights office has claimed that the prolonged emergency regime, with its massive purging of citizens, has had a “chilling effect” on Turkish society by demonstrating that any dissent will be punished.

Reuters quoted several examples of tweets sent out under the #Tamam hashtag.

“We want democracy so we say #enough to Erdogan. Please leave your seat, you did insane things to our country and people. Enough,” said one user.

“You will not step aside quietly. You will give account for the things you did. Enough!” said another.

“Enough: It’s very strange that Erdogan has offered the opposition a uniting slogan,” tweeted journalist Rusen Cakir.

Erdogan’s rivals in the presidential polls also joined in. #Tamam tweets came from three of Erdogan’s main opponents, attracting more than 10,000 retweets.

“Time is up. Enough!” tweeted Muharrem Ince, the candidate of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).

Turkey’s traditional media is saturated with coverage of Erdogan, something that this week led Ince to claim there is an Erdogan-requested embargo against covering the opposition. Erdogan typically makes two or three speeches daily, all of which are broadcast live on major channels.

After the elections, Turkey will switch to an executive presidential system narrowly officially approved in a referendum last year. There will be no prime minister and parliament will have a greatly curtailed role.