Turkey's President Erdoğan is ‘loser’ of election: MHP head Bahçeli

“He [Erdoğan] should resign under these conditions,” Bahçeli said on June 11, when asked about speculations that Erdoğan was in favor of holding an early election. 

“Democratic initiatives start with the renewal of the presidential election. The loser of the election is Erdoğan. There have been many instances of robbery with omnibus bills that are tabled at midnight. We would like to see a notebook of these incidents,” he added, in an exclusive interview with daily Hürriyet. 

Excluding figures involved in corruption from new political formulations in order to build transparent and clean governance is reportedly one of the red lines already drawn by the MHP in order to engage with the AKP in the potential formation of a coalition government.

After the election results were determined on June 7, Bahçeli said Erdoğan should “remain within his constitutional limits” or consider resigning. He also said Turkey should hold a new election if the AKP is unable to agree to a coalition with the opposition parties.

“In particular, Erdoğan should appropriately comment [on] election results,” Bahçeli said.

Bahçeli’s MHP has seemed by many to be the most likely partner of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) if the latter attempts to form a coalition government.

“They may present that as an election slogan and a concept of perception center to society. It is their most natural right,” Bahçeli said, when asked whether the AKP might blame the MHP for failing to form a government and accuse them of causing a deadlock. 

“[A] settlement of accounts with the AKP should take place before the nation,” he added. “There is no need to be afraid of an election,” he said, describing the prospects of an early election as “a new light of hope” in the event of social unrest.

With the ruling party having lost its parliamentary majority, the election results meant the AKP will have 258 seats in the 550-seat parliament, the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) 132, and the MHP and People’s Democratic Party (HDP) 80 apiece.

Any party prioritizing the “resolution process,” the government-led initiative aimed at ending the three-decade long conflict between Turkey’s security forces and militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), should not attempt to appeal to the MHP to form a coalition, Bahçeli said.

“There is no caprice in politics. Sitting and discussing may happen after a normalized political environment, normalized political party and a normalized president come out,” he replied, when asked whether they would still refuse a coalition with the AKP even if they declared “they had given up the resolution process.”