Nimet Özdemir, an Istanbul lawmaker for the opposition Good Party (IP), announced on Wednesday that she is leaving the IP. She joined a growing number of lawmakers and other prominent figures who were parting ways with the party, which had recently replaced its chair.
Özdemir, who was criticized for her staunch opposition to an animal protection bill the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) seeks to implement, said in a social media post that her heart was “no longer” with the party where she “fought for values she believed in.”
With her resignation, the party's number of seats in Parliament dropped to 32, while the number of independent lawmakers rose to nine.
The IP has secured 44 seats in the 2023 legislative elections. Those were accompanied by a general election, in which it endorsed Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the candidate of the six-party opposition alliance against incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. After Erdoğan won a runoff, the party’s leader, Meral Akşener, faced mounting criticism, which worsened after the disastrous results in the March 31 municipal elections.
Müsavat Dervişoğlu, who took over the party's chair in May, admitted earlier this month that more people may leave the party. “There may be new resignations, and I can ask those not fulfilling their responsibilities to step down,” he said.
Koray Aydın, one of the party's founders and a stalwart in Turkish nationalist circles for decades, was one of the last prominent names to quit the party in late June.
In the municipal elections, the IP, which secured only 3.77% of the vote, 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 the Good Party as claimed. We are fine. There may be people among us with different ambitions, which is only natural in politics. Resignations will not impact us,” he was quoted by the media outlets.
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.
