Erdoğan meets former İYİ Party leader Akşener

Duvar English

Turkey’s President, and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met former İYİ (Good) Party leader Meral Akşener on June 5.

The meeting took place in the presidential palace complex in Ankara’s Beştepe.

As an unexpected move, Directorate of Communications head Fahrettin Altun announced the meeting on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The content of the 40-minute meeting was not disclosed and no press conference was held.

Following the opposition’s presidential election defeat in 2023 May and her party's defeat in the March 31st local elections, Akşener did not become a candidate in her party’s congress held in late April. Müsavat Dervişoğlu has been elected as the new İYİ Party leader instead, but he received Akşener’s support before the congress.

Despite receiving 9.69 percent of the votes in the 2023 general elections and securing 43 parliamentary seats, the party remained at 3.77 percent in the March 31st local elections after it withdrew from the main opposition People’s Alliance.

Similarly, Özgür Özel was elected as the new CHP leader in a party congress in November, but unlike Akşener, former CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu was a candidate and lost.

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