Erdoğan’s party suffering major rifts

Aya Ezz

Rifts are increasing inside the Turkish ruling Justice and Development Party, in a new blow to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Head of the opposition Republican People’s Party Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu expected the party to witness even more rifts in the coming period.

A large number of the party’s members, he said, oppose the policies of Erdoğan, especially his policies in Syria and Libya and his economic policies that opened the door for the deterioration of the Turkish economy.

Popularity collapse

Kılıçdaroğlu noted in a TV interview that public support to the Justice and Development Party had dropped by between 30 and 35%.

He expected a large number of the party’s members to defect from it in the coming period.

“There is anger among the members of the party,” Kılıçdaroğlu said. “This is why I expect defections to happen inside it in the coming days.”

He also expected the Turkish political scene to be reformulated in the coming period, against the background of the problems happening inside the ruling party.

Kılıçdaroğlu said new political parties are emerging in Turkey and that these parties owe their presence on the Turkish political stage to the mistakes of the ruling party.

He said those believing in transparency and accountability are defecting from the ruling party.

“This is a normal occurrence,” Kılıçdaroğlu said. “These people are now forming their own political parties.”

Principal defectors

Those defecting from the ruling party include former prime minister Ahmet Davutoğlu who founded the Future Party.

The Future Party said it is ready to form a new alliance with other opposition parties with the aim of presenting a new vision for solving Turkey’s problems.

The defectors also include former economy minister Ali Babacan who founded the Democracy and Progress Party.