There seems to be a serious misconception floating about in our political sphere these days that the results of the June 7 elections created a unified bloc that represents 60 percent of voters and thus is the real political force to counter the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), which received 40.66 percent of the vote.The Republican People's Party (CHP) Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu made a strange statement recently claiming that the bloc representing the 60 percent, which includes the ultra-conservative Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), should unite and form a coalition claiming that this was the will of the people reflected in the June 7 polls.
It seems either Kılıçdaroğlu is so naive that he is fooling himself with imaginary political scenarios with no validity or he is simply trying to create a positive atmosphere that gives him time to cover up his own elections failures.
There is no bloc and there is no unity or even solidarity between the parties that represent this 60 percent. The MHP and HDP are miles apart with no chance of any reconciliation. The CHP has more sympathy for the HDP, but CHP officials also see that the HDP may grow at their cost. So there was no love or affection between these parties before the elections and certainly none after the election of the Parliamentary speaker where the CHP and the HDP declared that the MHP had sided with the AK Party and had given them the speakership on a golden platter. They called it a sellout by the MHP.
Thus claims that the bloc is now defeated and has fallen apart are also wrong. There was no bloc in the first place. The bloc was a hallucination in the minds of some CHP people led by Kılıçdaroğlu.
The MHP has said from the very beginning it wants nothing to do with the HDP and everything it stands for, so much so that MHP officials are inclined to not even accept the presence of the HDP deputies in Parliament. Trying to put the HDP in the same basket with the MHP was wrong.
Trying to insinuate that the MHP cooperated to have the AK Party candidate, İsmet Yılmaz, get elected as Parliament speaker simply because the two sides had secretly made an agreement to forge a coalition and thus wanted to facilitate the AK Party is also wrong. The MHP has said it is not involved in any coalition contacts secretly or openly with the AK Party. The MHP has also said if the AK Party fails to forge a coalition with the CHP then as a last resort they could agree to a coalition, but that would mean the termination of the reconciliation process with the Kurds, taking four former ministers to court on corruption charges and also forcing President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to stop his involvement in party politics.
Our politicians have to stop hallucinating and start facing reality. The MHP simply wants early elections and feels it can boost its votes and seats. People should not try to create the image that the AK Party and the MHP are involved in secret deals that included the election of Parliament speaker.
The CHP is making serious tactical errors and is then trying to cover up its own shortcomings and failures by slinging mud around. If they really want to be a coalition partner with the AK Party they really have to start thinking more rationally.
