Six Turkish opposition parties to the regime of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan unveiled on Monday February 28 a memorandum of understanding for the return of the country to a “strengthened parliamentary system“, in the next presidential election scheduled for June 2023.
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The leaders of the CHP, the Republican People’s Party – the main opposition party (social democrat), which holds the municipalities of Ankara, Izmir and Istanbul -, of the Good Party (Iyi Party, nationalist right), of the Felicity Party (Saadet, conservative), the Democratic Party (DP, centre-right), the Democracy and Progress Party (Deva) and the Party of the Future, all represented in Parliament, are signatories. At the end of the last ballot in June 2018, which had reappointed President Erdogan – in power since 2003 – for five years, Turkey had switched from a parliamentary regime with Prime Minister to a presidential regime in which the powers of the head of the state are expanded.
“Hyper-presidency”
The constitutional revision, adopted by Parliament then validated by a popular referendum, abolished the post of Prime Minister, whose prerogatives were transferred to the Head of State. This authorizes him in particular to govern by decree, to declare a state of emergency, to dissolve parliament and to appoint certain senior officials and magistrates. That “hyper-presidencywas part of the resumption of control of the country after the coup attempt of July 2016, led by rebel soldiers and followed by extensive purges, particularly within the armed forces, the police and public administrations, with the arrest or dismissal of tens of thousands of people.
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Faced with a serious economic crisis and an official inflation rate close to 50%, President Erdogan could be tempted to bring forward the date of the legislative and presidential elections, his opponents fear. The six parties co-founded “the nation’s alliance‘, as opposed to ‘the people’s alliancein power, between the AKP, Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party and the MHP (conservative). Among the notable absentees, the pro-Kurdish HDP, or Peoples’ Democratic Party, is missing. The opposition has not yet published the names of the candidates to represent it in the presidential election.