Muharrem İnce, who was Turkey’s 2018 presidential election candidate for the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), made a surprise return on Tuesday to the party he left in 2021 to found his own political movement.
İnce made his appearance during a meeting organised today of the CHP’s parliamentary group, where its secretary general Özgür Özel welcomed him back to the party in what he called a very important step for the unity of the Turkish opposition in the face of what he described as political persecution by the government: “This party is under heavy attack. I asked my comrade to return to his political home, and he did so,” Özel said, announcing İnce’s return to the party’s ranks.
“I have not come here with arrogance or regret. I have come in response to our president’s (Özel) sincere and heartfelt invitation. Sometimes, separations happen because of resentment; sometimes because one looks for hope in different ways. My coming here today is not a return. My coming here is an embrace, a relief from something I was longing for,” İnce said when invited by Özel to speak at the podium, according to Turkish media reports.
In the hours prior to this scene, İnce had gathered the executive of his Fatherland Party, the new party he founded in 2020, where they unanimously voted to dissolve the political formation, although it will not be until the extraordinary congress to be held in July when its disappearance will be formalised. Precisely the leader of the CHP, Özgür Özel, has called for all members of İnce’s party to join the CHP.
The candidate who challenged Erdoğan in 2018.
After achieving significant electoral success as a candidate against Erdoğan in the June 2018 presidential election – in which he won more than 30% of the vote, 5-7 points above the CHP’s usual results – Muharrem İnce left the CHP in February 2021 after fierce internal disputes with its then secretary general, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.
However, with his new party İnce was unable to repeat the success he had achieved in the 2018 presidential election, obtaining very modest results and even suffering strong pressure to withdraw his candidacy by other opposition parties, as he finally had to do in the 2023 presidential election. However, since Özel dethroned Kılıçdaroğlu as CHP leader later that year, İnce’s relations with his former party had improved markedly and the latter had even expressed support for the CHP following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu, accused of corruption charges.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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