MHP leader confident no party member will join interim cabinet

ANKARA

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Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli has said he is confident that none of his party’s deputies will accept being a part of an interim pre-election cabinet headed by the Justice and Development Party (AKP), speaking at a press conference in Ankara on Aug. 25.

“We don’t have party members, we have friends of a cause. This cause is not for sale,” said Bahçeli when reporters recalled that Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu was expected to offer seats in the cabinet to individual deputies, rather than to the party leaders.

The MHP head also recalled that they had clearly outlined their criteria for forming a coalition government with the AKP. 

“The AKP said no to our principles. The AKP, which said yes to the [outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party] PKK, has said no to the MHP. We wanted to bring justice by trying the suspects in the Dec. 17 and 25 [corruption probes], but the AKP said no,” Bahçeli said.

The prime minister has five days to form the interim cabinet and is obliged by the constitution to offer cabinet posts to opposition members. Candidates from outside parliament can fill the posts if the opposition turns them down. Out of three other parties holding seats in parliament according to the results of the June 7 election, only the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) has expressed willingness to take part in such a government. Both the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the MHP have so far refused to take part in any such caretaker government.