Davutoğlu doesn’t close the door for alliance with AKP in local elections

Turkish opposition Future Party leader and former PM Ahmet Davutoğlu has stated that they might form an alliance with the ruling AKP for the local elections in some municipalities if they can agree on “a good candidate.”

Saturday October 14 2023 04:06 pm

Duvar English

Turkish opposition Future (Gelecek) Party leader Ahmet Davutoğlu on Oct. 13 did not close the door for an alliance with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) for the 2024 local elections.

Speaking during a press conference in the Central Anatolian province of Konya, Davutoğlu was asked his opinion on President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s remarks of “Our door is open to everyone who wants to join (to the ruling alliance).”

Davutoğlu said Erdoğan’s remarks were said for the opposition İYİ (Good) Party, and they “founded a party (in 2019) because we were against the political model proposed by the (ruling) People's Alliance,” according to reporting from online news outlet T24.

“If any party or leader wants to meet with us, our door is always open and we will meet at any time. The people in the AKP are also people we had been together with in the past. Even if they don't greet us, we won't hesitate to greet them,” Davutoğlu said and did not close the door for a possible alliance with the AKP.

“The issue of alliance is a matter of principle. For the alliance in local elections, each province, district must be evaluated separately. We can reach an agreement with this or that party on a good candidate,” he added.

Davutoğlu also said forming an alliance is more difficult for the general elections, and the AKP must “abandon the mistakes made so far, and give assurances that those mistakes will not be repeated.”

This week, Davutoğlu also hinted that they would support the new draft constitution of the government to "protect the family," which is expected to target the LGBTI+ community in the country.

Before founding the Future Party in 2019, Davutoğlu was a member of the AKP. He served as the Foreign Minister between 2009 and 2014 and later became Prime Minister of Turkey between 2014 and 2016 with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's presidency. He resigned from office in May 2016.

The Future Party was part of the opposition coalition “Table of Six,” which is also referred to as the Nation Alliance, going into the May 2023 general elections. The party gained 10 seats in the parliament by entering the election under the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) list, all of whom later switched over to the Islamist Felicity Party in July 2023 to establish the Future-Felicity parliamentary joint group.