AKP welcomes MHP’s support for Erdoğan’s presidential run
ANKARA
Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ has welcomed the Nationalist Movement Party’s (MHP) decision to support President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the next presidential election, planned for 2019.
“We respect the decision of the MHP and we welcome their statement that they will support our president’s candidacy for the presidency,” Bozdağ told reporters following the weekly cabinet meeting on Jan. 8, underlining that Erdoğan will be the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) candidate.
Earlier in the day, MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli announced that his party will not present a candidate for the upcoming presidential election. He said he wanted to preserve the “spirit of unity and togetherness” since Turkey’s July 2016 military coup attempt and voiced his willingness to form a pre-election alliance with the AKP.
Bozdağ said the two parties will discuss Bahçeli’s proposal in the coming days.
