Meral Akşener, leader of the center-right nationalist Good Party (IP), said on Saturday that she would rejoin the opposition coalition only if either Mansur Yavaş and Ekrem Imamoğlu, CHP mayors of the capital Ankara and Istanbul, respectively, were chosen as presidential candidate for the upcoming elections.
Speaking to Habertürk TV, Akşener said that she wouldn’t make it a matter of pride and would return to the coalition if “Mr. Kemal or the bloc will accept the will of the people.”
"The figures of these two names in the surveys are much higher than me and Mr. Kemal," she said, referring to Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP).
Akşener announced Friday the IP was leaving the bloc.
She said that at a presidential candidate selection meeting this week, five parties in the alliance proposed Kılıçdaroğlu as their candidate.
"Personal ambition was preferred to Türkiye," Akşener said. This was not what the Good Party was founded for, she added.
The 74-year-old former civil servant's failure to light up opinion polls had been causing divisions within the six opposition parties for some time.
Akşener accused members of the alliance of pressuring her party and defying the people's will, adding that she proposed Yavaş and Imamoğlu.
Akşener’s announcement, just 10 weeks before the planned May 14 election, was not anticipated as the parties had been negotiating with each other for a year.
After Akşener’s announcement, Yavaş and Imamoğlu posed in a photo with Kılıçdaroğlu and stated that they would adhere to CHP decisions.
The public split in the alliance of opposition parties followed months of simmering discord in the group and was seen by analysts as a blow to opposition hopes of unseating President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan – who has been in power for two decades.
Before the splinter, the CHP, Felicity Party (SP), IP, Future Party (GP), Democrat Party (DP) and the Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA) formed the opposition.
Opposition leaders said they will announce their joint candidate to challenge Erdoğan on March 6. IP officials said that Akşener would not attend Monday’s meeting.
A staunch nationalist and a skillful orator, Akşener, a former interior minister, is one of the few prominent women in domestic politics.
