CHP leader tough on rows

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu issued a fresh warning to “trouble-makers” in his restive party yesterday after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ridiculed him for having failed to rein in internal dissent.

Speaking at a meeting with CHP members from Ankara, Kılıçdaroğlu said the CHP must leave behind its notorious internal squabbles and focus on increasing its popularity with the people. “We have to respect each other. Competition is the treat of democracy but turning this into quarrels is unacceptable. This happened often in the past, and we just passed it over. We are no longer going to pass it over,” Kılıçdaroğlu said. “Those who cause quarrels have no place in the CHP. They can go to other parties, but there will never be room for them in the CHP,” he said. “A new understanding should prevail. We have to listen to the people.”

Kılıçdaroğlu said the CHP was lucky to have as a rival the Justice and Development Party (AKP), which he described as “the most inept government of republican times.” “If we focus on our internal disputes, we will fail to explain to the people the ineptness of the government,” he said.