Striking behind-the-scenes talk on the İYİ Party congress! 'İmamoğlu and Yavaş...'

The İYİ Party, which decided to enter the local elections 'free and independent' by rejecting the CHP's alliance offer, suffered a major disappointment on the evening of March 31.

In the İYİ Party, which fell to the position of the sixth party across Turkey by receiving 3.77 percent of the votes, the name targeted by criticisms was Chairwoman Meral Akşener.

AKŞENER SAID ‘CONGRESS’

Following the reactions, Akşener decided to hold an extraordinary congress and announced that she would not be a candidate. While eyes in the İYİ Party turned to the congress on April 27, former MP Emin Şirin made important assessments regarding the developments in the party.

“AKŞENER’S ACTIONS ALWAYS BENEFITED THE AKP”

Speaking to Tuncay Mollaveisoğlu on the Anında Manşet program broadcast on TELE1, Şirin said, "The actions Meral Hanım has taken since 2013-2014 have always produced results that benefited the AKP and Tayyip Erdoğan. In the previous presidential election, she prevented the opposition from fielding a joint candidate by running herself. Therefore, people have difficulty understanding what she does. Her own voters also have difficulty."

"She tried to do in the local elections what she should have done in the last election. The result is clear," said Şirin, and continued as follows;

"We need to return to Mr. Devlet Bahçeli's statements. After the local elections, he said, 'Many things will change. Everything will change. I hope Turkey does not change.' While we were trying to decipher this sentence, he tweeted and gave a speech. He said, 'Turkey was not founded at the ballot box.' This was a response to Özgür Özel. Mr. Özgür Özel gave an interview to the effect of, 'As the CHP, we sometimes stood in the wrong places. We stood by the state, whereas it might have been more correct to stand by the nation.' This sentence was met with a very harsh reaction from Devlet Bahçeli. He said, 'The state and the nation are the same in Turkey; do not sow discord between the state and the nation.' A situation emerges as if there is a view within the Palace or the People's Alliance that specifically glorifies the state and puts the nation in the background."

‘İMAMOĞLU’ AND ‘YAVAŞ’ EFFECT DISCUSSED IN İYİ PARTY BACKROOMS

I am of the opinion that what Devlet Bahçeli said about Meral Akşener will also be very influential. She must also have other concerns. Because it is being discussed quite a bit in the backrooms that both Ekrem İmamoğlu and Mansur Yavaş will be influential in the İYİ Party congress. Within the framework of all these, one must watch with interest whether Meral Hanım will stay or not. Many things will happen in Turkey. It is clear that there will be a lot of mobility, including the external conjuncture. I do not believe that an early general election will be much later than 2026. I expect it from the second half of 2026 onwards."