Turkey’s former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu will establish a new political party in late November, according to a report on the Gazete Duvar news website.
Davutoğlu resigned from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) after party management moved to expel him for public criticism.
A number of former AKP deputies and branch executives working with Davutoğlu have also resigned.
Davutoğlu became prime minister when Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was elected president in 2014 but was later sidelined and resigned from office in 2016. After the AKP suffered a string of defeats in local elections in March of this year, Davutoğlu became a vocal critic of the party and published a long manifesto on Facebook.
In his manifesto Davutoğlu slammed the party’s economic policies, media restrictions and the damage he said it had done to the separation of powers and to Turkey’s institutions.
Meanwhile, former Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan decided to establish a political party after resigning from President Erdoğan’s party.
The two parties will pose a serious challenge to Erdoğan’s popularity among Turkey’s conservative electorate, according to experts.