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Opposition bloc 'should form government' in Turkey

June 15, 2015

Turkey's center-left Republican People's Party (CHP) has urged other opposition groups to form the next government. The leader of the country's largest opposition party has also laid out terms for joining the coalition.

https://p.dw.com/p/1FhXa
Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) delivers a speech during a rally in Istanbul, Turkey, Tuesday, June 2, 2015 as he campaigns ahead of the upcoming June 7 general election (AP Photo/Mehmet Guzel)
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/M. Guzel

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has increased efforts to find partners for a possible coalition government led by his center-right Justice and Development Party (AKP). The AKP remains the largest party in parliament with 40.9 percent votes despite failing to win a majority in the June 7 election.

But Kemal Kilicdaroglu (pictured above), leader of the center-left Republican People's Party (CHP), said Monday that "the principal duty to form a government falls to the 60 percent (opposition) bloc."

Kilicdaroglu also outlined the terms for the opposition parties which include forcing Erdogan not to exceed his constitutional powers.

"The president has to be pulled back within the constitutional limits," Kilicdaroglu said, adding that Erdogan should not be involved in the coalition-building talks.

Erdogan, who has been a powerful political figure in Turkey for more than a decade, should not "meddle in everything," said Kilicdaroglu.

A campaigning neutral president

Despite the fact that the president is a neutral figure in Turkey, Erdogan campaigned relentlessly to secure an absolute majority for his AKP party that could allow him to make constitutional changes to switch from a parliamentary to a presidential system.

The pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) - which achieved more than the 10 percent of the vote needed to secure parliamentary representation - has rejected joining an AKP-led government.

A coalition of the three opposition parties - the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the CHP and the HDP - is possible, but that has so far appeared unlikely , given their political differences. If no coalition is formed, Erdogan can call new elections.

shs/rc (AP, Reuters)