“As a transparent person, I would really want to form a coalition with the Felicity Party and the Democrat Party,” Akşener told reporters in Ankara on Feb. 28.
“I’ve told this to [SP leader Temel] Karamollaoğlu, but he also wants to nominate a candidate. That is positive. The more nominees, the merrier,” she added.
Her remarks came after the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) recently announced a “People’s Alliance” endorsing the candidacy of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and pushing for a legislative amendment formally allowing pre-election alliances.
“We can no longer take [Devlet] Bahçeli as a political interlocutor. He is now just a staff member at the [presidential] palace. He’s been given the task to attack us,” Akşener said, referring to the head of the MHP, a party she was once a member of.
Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) head Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu recently suggested that opposition parties could form an “alliance of principles” for the upcoming 2019 elections.
“As groups that stood against a one-man regime in the [April 2017] referendum, we made the point that a strong parliamentary system would be much more beneficial for democracy and for Turkey,” Akşener said on Feb. 28, echoing Kılıçdaroğlu’s remarks said.
“I am not talking about inter-party alliances. It’s an alliance of principles,” she added.
The AKP and the MHP’s “Yes” camp narrowly won the referendum shifting the country to an executive presidential system, though voting was marred by allegations of irregularities.