Former leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Özgür Özel instructed lawmakers siding with him to convene for a technical meeting ahead of the establishment of his new party. Özel did not attend the discussions but was scheduled to hold a separate meeting with lawmakers on Thursday night.
Özel and the lawmakers announced their resignations from the party earlier this week, but the resignations were not yet formal. They are expected to submit their resignation letters to the new administration led by Özel’s predecessor, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, on Friday. Kılıçdaroğlu was reinstated to his post after a court annulled Özel’s chairmanship last May, citing irregularities in the 2023 intra-party vote. Özel has also held talks with members of the CHP’s former party assembly who were either removed or left the body after Kılıçdaroğlu returned to office.
The Özel camp aims for the new party to replace the CHP as the main opposition, which requires holding at least 68 seats in Parliament. Unconfirmed reports say Özel’s new party has the backing of 80 lawmakers currently in the CHP. Figures close to Kılıçdaroğlu, however, say the number of lawmakers supporting Özel will not exceed half of the current parliamentary group and that they do not expect additional members to join later.
Meanwhile, Kılıçdaroğlu’s CHP criticized Özel’s plan to establish a new party. The party’s spokesperson, Müslim Sarı, told reporters on Wednesday that the new party being established by “Manisa lawmaker” Özgür Özel was no different from the CHP in terms of its policies, pointing to Özel’s recent speech in which he said the new party would adhere to the same principles as the CHP. “If you are going down the same path, why do you need a new party?” he said. Sarı added that they had been open to holding a new party congress, as Özel had previously requested, and that Özel and his allies had already been invited to continue their “political struggle” within the CHP. “It seems like they are more interested in having a seat in a new party than advancing their policies,” he said.
Özel’s new party will initially be ineligible for state aid, which is available to political parties that secure a certain number of votes. Parties are required to cross the electoral threshold in the first election they contest to become eligible for state funding. Devlet Bahçeli, leader of government ally the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), told journalists on Thursday that the state aid allocated to the CHP in 2026 should be proportionately diverted to the new party, noting that the Treasury paid more than TL 1.8 billion ($38 million) to the main opposition party this year.
“It is the ethical way,” he added.
