İYİ Party leader 'rejects alliance politics'

ANKARA

İYİ (Good) Party leader Meral Akşener has reaffirmed her party's decision to contest the upcoming local elections independently, nominating candidates in the country's all 81 provinces.

"We reject the alliance politics that hopes for bargaining rather than the nation," Akşener declared during her party's group meeting in the parliament on Sept. 4.

The İYİ Party, formerly part of the Nation Alliance led by the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), distanced itself from the coalition after the twin presidential and parliamentary elections in May.

"If we had ensured that politics was done with reason, not populism, and with the voice of the nation, not with personal interests, everything would be very different today. As the İYİ Party, we feel responsible not only for what we have done but also for what we have not done," she asserted.

Akşener criticized the statements of CHP leader and alliance's presidential candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, accusing him of failing to acknowledge the elections as a defeat. Similar discontent resonated within the CHP, with Kılıçdaroğlu facing internal criticism ahead of the party's congress scheduled for early November.

"We reject the status quo politics, the populist politics that fuels anger and polarization, and the self-interested politics that exacerbates societal wounds. We reject the shortsighted politics where politicians win and the nation loses. In short, we reject alliance politics that prioritizes bargaining over the nation," Akşener stated.

In a departure from the 2019 local elections, where İYİ Party supported CHP's mayoral candidates in key battlegrounds such as Istanbul and Ankara, Akşener repeated her party's decision to field candidates independently in all provinces for the upcoming elections in March 2024.

"We will show everyone what can be achieved when we work for the nation with our moral, honest, hard-working and qualified mayors. We will demonstrate this first in the provinces and districts. Then, do not worry, it will be Türkiye's turn as well," she remarked.