Turkey's main opposition CHP pushes for coalition gov’t without AKP
ANKARA
DHA photo
Republican People’s Party (CHP) head Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has outlined his party’s hopes of forming a coalition that would reflect the desires of “the 60 percent bloc,” effectively ruling out any governing alliance with the Justice and Development Party (AKP).“If we embrace all segments of society and deliver warm messages, then we will also take very important steps for the representation of peace in the country. After the election, a balance of 40 percent and 60 percent has emerged, a balance which has been presented by society,” said Kılıçdaroğlu.
According to the preliminary results of the June 7 election, the AKP received 40.87 percent of the total, the CHP won 24.96 percent, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) totaled 18.29 percent and the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) finished with 13.12 percent.
Accordingly, the AKP will have 258 seats in the 550-seat parliament, the CHP will have 132, while the MHP and the HDP will have 80 seats apiece.
Having lost their parliamentary majority, the AKP was expected to engage in coalition negotiations with the other parties.
“All parties need to not overlook this balance. And the main duty falls on the shoulders of the 60 percent bloc,” Kılıçdaroğlu said at a press conference on June 15, delivering his first public remarks since a brief statement on the night of June 7.
“If we want to present a will in line with society’s expectations and which doesn’t ignore them, then we are to form a government in line with the expectations of the 60 percent group,” he said.
The CHP leader, meanwhile, also made clear his remarks, which came a week after the election, were not meant to refer to a prospective future election.
“When I am saying all of this, I am not laying emphasis on the next election,” he said, in an unveiled reference and response to recently delivered remarks by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Erdoğan said a snap election would be “inevitable” if both the AKP and the CHP fail in efforts to form a new government within the constitutional limit of 45 days.
Erdoğan said he planned to grant a mandate to form a new government first to the AKP.
“Let’s say the party who came first in the election could not achieve this [to form a government] and neither did the second one... In such a case, going to the ballot box again as per the constitution would be inevitable,” Erdoğan said, after noting that he planned to grant a mandate to form a new government first to the AKP.
“I don’t call this a snap poll but a re-run,” he added.
According to Kılıçdaroğlu, however, “Turkey has to get out of an election atmosphere.”
“We have to consider Turkey, but not the next election. If we work from today according to the next election, then we will ruin democracy,” he said.
14 principles
Kılıçdaroğlu explained his party’s position in possible coalition scenarios with the announcement of 14 principles which included ensuring Erdoğan does not exceed his constitutional powers.
He stated it was “unacceptable” for Erdoğan to be a primary political actor while coalition talks were underway and that the presidential office was not a place for “meddling in everything.”
“It is my open call to all political leaders. Let everybody please present their own principles. Let us present our principles and sit together if and with whichever party that principles of each of us match,” he said.
Rebuilding the rule of law, completing amending laws that are a legacy of the Sept. 12, 1980, military coup d’état, adopting a law on political ethics, strengthening the social state, revoking a discretionary fund that has been allocated to the president, changing Turkey’s foreign policy, expanding the spectrum of freedoms for the youth, reducing bans in line with human rights, ensuring media freedoms, preventing the misuse of tax auditing, forming a final account commission in parliament, drafting a libertarian constitution and fighting corruption were the themes of the CHP principles listed by Kılıçdaroğlu in addition to the president’s role.