PM slams main opposition leader in a row over previous charter comment

ANKARA

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The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) is opposed to everything, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said in a row to criticize the party’s leader over the latter’s comment on the constitutional charter that will usher in a new governmental system.

“Kılıçdaroğlu said that if a party that has a majority in the parliament in the new system will be different than that of president, it will cause political problems. You were saying there will be a one-man regime? So it means that there is a parliament which is effective and there is a president in the new system,” Yıldırım said in the northwestern province of Düzce on March 10.

His comments came after Kılıçdaroğlu answered criticisms from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) over his earlier comments which state that the new system could produce political crises “if the political parties of the future-prime minister and future-president [in the new system] are different” in a radio show on March 7.

Yıldırım first mocked Kılıçdaroğlu, accusing him of “not knowing the constitutional amendment charter well,” since the bill stipulates the abolition of the prime ministry. But the CHP leader defended his words, saying the expression was wrong and that he was implying the initial characteristics of the system.

“[If] the president’s party would be different than the party that has the majority in the parliament, then the real tension will start,” he said March 9.

Yıldırım continued his criticism at the Düzce rally for his party’s referendum campaign.

“His deputy said he knows the charter but he just read it inversely. After all, they are all reading everything upside-down. All they do is to go in reverse,” he said.

“They oppose everything,” he added.

“In the new system, the parliament and the president will have mutual rights to call for elections. For this reason they will be entitled to work in harmony and will not bring any problems for five years of their term,” he said.

“It would take a century for you to understand that,” he said, referring to the opposition.