Müsavat Dervişoğlu, who took over the chair of the opposition Good Party (IP) in May, admits that more people may leave his party, which scored poorly in municipal elections.
Dervişoğlu, who replaced Meral Akşener after the March 31 municipal elections, spoke to reporters on Tuesday in the western province of Afyonkarahisar where his party held a convention.
“There may be new resignations, and I can ask those not fulfilling their responsibilities to step down,” he said.
Koray Aydın, one of the founders of the party and a stalwart in Turkish nationalist circles for decades, was one of the last prominent names to quit the party in late June, following a barrage of resignations in the party both before and after the municipal elections. His resignation decreased the number of seats the party had in Parliament to 34. The party had secured 44 seats in the 2023 legislative elections.
The IP has endorsed an opposition alliance in the 2023 general elections against incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. However, the presidential race wasn’t smooth for the party, with Akşener threatening to quit the bloc over the nomination of the chair of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. After Kılıçdaroğlu lost the election, the party was shaken by a string of resignations. A new wave of resignations followed the municipal elections where the party won only one provincial mayoral seat, securing only 3.77% of the vote. It trailed behind the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) whose former members include Akşener, Aydın and Dervişoğlu among many others.
“It is no bed of roses for the IP,” Dervişoğlu acknowledged. “But I won’t beg anyone who intends to leave,” he added. “Still, it is not true that a storm is brewing in Good Party as claimed. We are fine. There may be people among us with different ambitions and it is only natural in politics. Resignations will not impact us,” he is quoted by the media outlets. He said he only felt disappointed upon the resignation of Aydın, “An important political personality.”
Dervişoğlu also stated that recent surveys showed that his party was gaining momentum though his recognition was not on a good level. “Yet, this is not a disadvantage since there is this trend of growing popularity for the party.”
The IP thrived on the votes of former supporters of the MHP who were disillusioned with the latter’s alliance with the AK Party. Another group split from the MHP founded the far-right Victory Party (ZP), but it fared worse than the IP in municipal elections.
The party aspires to regain the trust of supporters disappointed with defeat in local elections. Yet the results showed that the only path to success is through an alliance with other parties, which will be figured out in the next general elections in 2028. Dervişoğlu will have to tread carefully through murky alliances and can only count on the votes of former nationalists who supported the CHP in a bid to oust Erdoğan in the past, political pundits say. However, under new management, the CHP seems to be also earning the favor of non-CHP voters, as municipal election results showed.
