, which supported President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the 2023 general election, has announced his presidential bid for the next election scheduled for 2028, the Birgün daily reported.){kind=link}
Fatih Erbakan, leader of the Islamist New Welfare Party (YRP), which supported President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the 2023 general election, has announced his presidential bid for the next election scheduled for 2028, the Birgün daily reported.
Erbakan, the son of former prime minister Necmettin Erbakan, who spoke at an event in Ankara on Friday, said his party would take part in the presidential election with its own candidate in line with the expectations of party organizations, officials and voters while announcing his bid for candidacy.
“It is normal for this candidate to be the general chairman of the party,” he said.
Erbakan said he had withdrawn his candidacy for the presidency during signature collection in the previous election held in May 2023 but that it would not be “politically meaningful or appropriate” for the party to support another candidate again in the next election.
In the run-up to the May 2023 general election, the YRP joined a bloc of parties known as the Public Alliance that backed Erdoğan against Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the then-leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP). Erdoğan defeated Kılıçdaroğlu in a runoff, securing yet another term as head of state.
In a September interview, Erbakan said the YRP supported Erdoğan’s presidential candidacy due to pressure from its conservative base, which was concerned about the election of a president from the CHP, a party that had offended pious Muslims with its policies in the past.
He said the YRP extended an “olive branch” to Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) by allying with them but later had to part ways because the AKP disappointed them by pursuing the same policies after the election despite warnings from the YRP.
Erbakan said at the time that he would never ally with Erdoğan again, accusing Erdoğan’s party of driving people away from religion.
According to Erbakan, the policies of the AKP are responsible for young people’s distancing themselves from Islam because although the AKP government claims to be supporting Islamic values, they do not act in line with them.
He said when young people see politicians who claim to be pious Muslims but are not honest, waste public money and get involved in tender rigging, this has a negative impact on young people’s perception of religion, causing even the students of religious imam-hatip schools to embrace deism or atheism.
In Erbakan’s view, Erdoğan is exhausted and Turkey needs a change of leader, and therefore elections should be held earlier.
The YRP also refused to ally with the AKP in the March 31 local elections last year and fielded its own candidates.
The party drew Erdoğan’s ire when it emerged as the third most successful party in the local elections, taking over some municipalities from the AKP, while the AKP suffered its worst election defeat since its establishment and came in second. The CHP had the most victories in the local elections.