Opposition İYİ Party refuses Bahçeli’s call for forming alliance with MHP

Duvar English

Opposition right-wing Good (İYİ) Party Spokesperson Kürşad Zorlu on Aug. 11 refused the call of government ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli for forming an alliance together in the upcoming local elections.

In a written statement, Zorlu deemed Bahçeli and other MHP politicans’ calls “unfortunate.”

“Our President, Mrs. Meral Akşener, revealed our will to open a new ground and a new path in politics for our 85 million people (in her re-election as party leader) at our congress held on June 24, 2023. We invite the pure-hearted people, nationalists, patriots, and Turkey lovers to the İYİ Party for the sake of the country and nation,” Zorlu added.

MHP deputy chair İsmail Özdemir told CNN Türk television channel on Aug. 10 that Bahçeli calls on the İYİ Party to form an alliance with MHP in the 2024 local elections.

“(Bahçeli), paying his respects to you, conveys a new call to the İYİ Party. His message is as follows: ‘We called you (in 2019), you did not return home, let's be neighbors in the local elections for the good of the country’,” Özdemir said.

Founded in 2017 by Meral Akşener, İYİ Party is a MHP-breakaway party that aims to garner nationalist and centralist opposition votes.

Since then, MHP has been the ally of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) within the People Alliance; whereas the İYİ Party is the second biggest party within the main opposition Nation Alliance, following the Republican People’s Party (CHP).

Following CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu’s presidential election loss against Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in May, some İYİ Party executives and deputies called for an end to the alliance with CHP.