Akşener criticizes transportation in metropolitan municipalities after refusing to collaborate with CHP

Duvar English

Turkish nationalist opposition İYİ (Good) Party leader Meral Akşener on Dec. 6 criticized the transportation in metropolitan municipalities, two days after her party refused to collaborate with the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) for the upcoming local elections.

Speaking at the parliamentary group meeting of her party, Akşener said, “As the population density in our provinces increases, transportation services are also becoming one of the most important duties of municipalities. However, unfortunately, it is not possible to talk about the success of transportation services, especially in our metropolitan provinces.” 

“Compared to provinces in developed countries, our transportation facilities unfortunately cannot meet expectations in terms of both quantity and quality,” she added.

She also said the inadequacy in the transportation services became a crisis with wrong urbanization policies, political conflicts, uncontrolled migration, irregular settlement, coupled with municipalities being deprived of financial resources.

Istanbul, Ankara and İzmir metropolitan municipalities, three biggest municipalities of Turkey, are currently run by the CHP. 

Her remarks came two days after the İYİ Party refused the CHP’s offer to collaborate for some municipalities in the local elections to be held on March 31, 2024. In the 2019 local elections, the İYİ Party and pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) did not field mayoral candidates for Istanbul and Ankara metropolitan municipalities, making the race between the AKP and the CHP, which ended in a CHP victory.

Before the 2023 presidential elections, Akşener rejected then-CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu's presidential candidacy and endorsed Ekrem İmamoğlu or Mansur Yavaş, Istanbul and Ankara mayors from the CHP, to be a candidate.

The İYİ Party is expected to field mayoral candidates in 81 provinces. 

On the other hand, her remarks praising a metro line in Istanbul in January 2023 went viral on social media. 

In the opening ceremony of a new metro line in Istanbul, Akşener was seen saying for the metro trains that “Very beautiful, like the ones in Paris.”

The İYİ Party started to oppose the alliance system after the opposition’s defeat in the general and presidential elections in May 2023, arguing the alliance politics deepened the polarization in the country and pushed back the party’s identity.