ANKARA, Turkey — Meral Aksener, the secular nationalist leader of Turkey’s Iyi or Good Party, known as the “she-wolf” of Turkish politics, was the first to declare she would challenge President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in June's snap elections, which many see as the last chance to stop Turkey’s descent into full-fledged authoritarian rule. The polls, in which Erdogan relies on a conservative-nationalist alliance between his Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), will mark Turkey’s transition to a new governance system headed by a virtually omnipotent president.

Aksener has inspired hope among many that she could beat Erdogan, but her apparently intransigent strategy has sparked concerns she might ultimately enable Erdogan to overcome an opposition that is for the first time making efforts to join forces.

A prominent political figure for more than two decades, Aksener started off as a parliamentarian for the center-right True Path Party (DYP) in 1995. The following year, at age 40, she became interior minister, shortly after the so-called Susurluk accident, a momentous event in Turkish politics that exposed the security forces’ collaboration with the underworld in the fight against Kurdish militants.

Journalist Emin Ozgonul, who closely followed Aksener at the time, said she quickly built a reputation as a “mannish woman.” Recalling Aksener's debut as interior minister, he said, “Her first move was to fire the director-general of the police. When the director refused to move out of his office, she took the new director with her and stormed into the office one midnight. She is said to have broken the door.”