The deputy chair of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) has lashed out at Türkiye’s six-party opposition bloc for “already doling out administrative posts” ahead of the simultaneous presidential and parliamentary elections on May 14.
“The Nation Alliance partners are already blatantly bartering for it before the entire nation. They have tried explaining this with their imaginary scenario called the ‘strengthened parliamentary system’ but we have never done such bargaining because the People’s Alliance works for the good of the people,” Semih Yalçın said during a television interview on Monday.
The May 14 elections are the first since Türkiye switched from a parliamentary to an executive presidency system after the majority of Turkish voters endorsed the system in a 2017 referendum. The official transition to the new system took place when President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was sworn in as the president in Parliament after the 2018 general elections, which he won by a majority of 52.6% votes.
Now his People’s Alliance, helmed by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in partnership with the MHP, the Great Union Party (BBP) and the recent addition New Welfare Party (YRP), is being challenged by the Nation Alliance.
Türkiye’s main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) heads the bloc alongside the center-nationalist Good Party (IP) with four smaller parties, the Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA), Future Party (GP), Felicity Party (SP) and Democrat Party (DP).
The bloc’s primary pledge, which they unveiled in early 2022, is a return to a “strengthened parliamentary system,” which limits the president to a seven-year term and requires that the president sever his ties to political parties and prohibits them from joining a political party after their term.
Despite having joined forces to unseat Erdoğan, the alliance has been teeming with fractious debate, especially in recent months, as infighting led to multiple public crises, particularly one in early March when IP leader Meral Akşener stepped away from the “table for six” due to her objections to CHP Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu’s presidential candidacy.
It took convincing Kılıçdaroğlu to promise vice presidential posts to Akşener’s favored candidates, Istanbul and Ankara’s popular mayors, in his potential new government for the IP leader to return to the bloc. However, Kılıçdaroğlu’s embracing of the People's Democratic Party (HDP), known for its affiliation with the PKK terrorist group and currently fighting a closure lawsuit, has left cracks in the alliance, prompting backlash and even resignations from IP and CHP devotees alike.
Yalçın on Monday argued the table for six was a “formation with its back to both the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) and the PKK through the HDP.”
“The Nation Alliance could never run Türkiye and open up a path to the future or innovation. What have they offered so far as a program? The reinforced parliamentary system proposal is all they have been talking about but it’s impossible after this point,” he said.
Stressing that the People’s Alliance was working to bolster the current presidential system, Yalçın contended, “This system should not be broken up. We must maintain this system and if it has minor deficiencies, we must repair them.”
Recalling Kılıçdaroğlu’s remarks about releasing HDP leader Selahattin Demirtaş, Osman Kavala and PKK ringleader Abdullah Öcalan, all jailed on terrorism charges of various degrees, Yalçın slammed the CHP leader for drawing the “praise of Qandil” and said, “The people will see it for what it is.”
The Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq are the PKK’s stronghold from where it devises and launches attacks on Türkiye, as well as nearby cities and towns.
The MHP official condemned the HDP as “the suit-wearing extensions of terrorists at the Turkish Parliament” and argued Kılıçdaroğlu was “othering” the CHP’s future by aligning with the HDP.
“There lies the answer to the question of why people must vote for the People’s Alliance” Yalçın declared. “Both because we hail from the hearts of our people and because it has now become clear which alliance wants to go where with whom.”
He underlined that the People’s Alliance and the MHP “care about the future and prosperity of Türkiye” and “citizens do not doubt it for a second.”
“Türkiye is growing and evolving into a superpower in its region, as well as in its foreign policy. We want to sustain it,” he noted.
While the AK Party will be running joint candidates with the YRP, the MHP, the second-biggest member in the alliance, is set to compete with their own candidates and logos in the parliamentary vote.
Under the shadow of a devastating series of earthquakes that struck Türkiye’s southeast on Feb. 6, an election manifesto Erdoğan uncovered on Tuesday promises to “Keep Walking with Right Steps” in hopes of building on 20 years of rule.
