Former Republican People's Party (CHP) Chairman Hikmet Çetin criticized current Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu for waiting 33 days to announce the failure of the coalition talks with the Justice and Development Party (AK Party).
Speaking to HaberTürk daily on Monday, Çetin said Kılıçdaroğlu should have announced the failure of the coalition talks on the first day. "After 33 days Kılıçdaroğlu said a coalition was never spoken of; so what did they discuss? In this case I assume that the CHP presented its party program [to the AK Party]. They should have announced on day one that [the AK Party] was not proposing coalition," Çetin said.
Following the June 7 general elections, which resulted in no single-party majority, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan gave Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu the 45-day mandate to form the new government on July 9. Coalition talks between the AK party and CHP lasted for a total of 35 hours in five separate sessions until Aug. 3, but the talks ended without any success due to major policy differences between the two parties. Regarding the coalition negotiations, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said in a press conference afterward that the AK Party tried its best to not leave Turkey without a government. Nevertheless, after the failure of the talks media outlets reported that Kılıçdaroğlu said he was not expecting a coalition.
