İYİ Party leader signals larger cooperation among Turkish opposition

İYİ Party leader Meral Akşener has signalled larger cooperation among Turkish opposition parties. "It doesn't seem likely that the People's Alliance will win," Akşener said, referring to the ruling alliance.

Thursday May 06 2021 11:03 am

Duvar English

Right-wing Good (İYİ) Party leader Meral Akşener has said that cooperation with two opposition parties may be on the horizon, as she talked about alliances.

Akşener said that the Nation Alliance consisting of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), İYİ Party, Felicity Party (Saadet) and Democrat Party (DP) may include the Future Party and Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA), two relatively new parties, in the days to come.

"It seems that cooperation will take place in the future. I'm talking about DEVA and Future parties," Akşener told broadcaster KRT TV on May 5.

Both the Future Party and DEVA were founded by former high-level government officials.

She also commented on the results of the recent polls, saying that the votes of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) have decreased as low as 25 percent.

"On the contrary, the İYİ Party is growing, the CHP keeps its votes and the Saadet Party is doing well. When you look at it this way, it doesn't seem likely that the People's Alliance will win," Akşener said, referring to the ruling alliance consisting of the AKP and its far-right ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).

The concept of forming alliances emerged ahead of the June 24, 2018 elections, with the People's Alliance and Nation Alliance competing ever since.

A year earlier, Turks voted in favor of the constitutional changes in a referendum, leading the country to switch from a parliamentary democracy to an executive presidential system despite strong backlash from opposition parties and critics.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was elected president under the new system in 2018, with sweeping executive powers that opposition parties described as a "one-man regime."

While the People's Alliance supports the presidential system, the opposition wants a return to the parliamentary one.