An unnamed executive from Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) said a number of opposition mayors may transfer to their party in the coming days, the Gazete Duvar news website reported on Thursday.
The rumor came while the AKP is faced with comments that it has been losing voters as former members like Ali Babacan and Ahmet Davutoğlu, who left the party to start new political movements.
While the public is curious about what measures the party and its leader, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, will take against these new movements, the AKP executive said some mayors who in this year’s local elections were elected from opposition parties may join them in the near future.
“We are not standing idly by. There is a proverb that says, ‘Do not push the drunk, let him fall by himself.’ We are leaving them to their destiny for now,” the anonymous party member said, referring to the initiatives led by Babacan and Davutoğlu.
“Our president can send them packing simply by starting a debate over something as small as a mosquito.”