President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan returned to his weekly parliamentary group meetings on Wednesday, weeks after his victory in the May 28 runoff. Addressing fervent supporters of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), occasionally interrupting his speech with slogans, Erdoğan appeared to be having a field day against the embarrassed opposition bloc. He also said that the race was not over and vowed to work to "take back" municipalities the AK Party lost to the opposition in the 2019 municipal polls.

Erdoğan, who secured a five-year tenure as president, aims to boost the standing of his party as well, as he acknowledged a decline in the votes in the parliamentary polls. Yet, he sought to invigorate his supporters for more work for a landslide win in the local elections, which are expected to be held in March 2024.

He reiterated his gratitude to the nation for voting for him and AK Party and thanked members of the People’s Alliance of Parties, which endorsed him. The president then proceeded with his usual dose of criticism of the opposition, which failed once again to unseat him or the AK Party after almost three decades.

"He was talking about the 'table for six' and now wants to expand it to 16. It is not enough. You should consider increasing it, though you won’t get results still," Erdoğan told Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, his rival in the presidential election. The leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) was defiant despite suffering another loss at the hands of Erdoğan and vowed that he would seek to broaden the opposition front while dodging calls for his resignation as party chair. "You can only get results if you bow down to the nation’s demands. The nation demands services; you cannot get anywhere by lies," Erdoğan, who often complains of disinformation spread by the opposition leader, said in his speech.

The president likened the "unity of the nation" during the May 28 runoff to "unity during the war of independence" (after World War I) and lauded people praying for their victory. "We concluded a difficult election process. It was one of the most critical elections. It will be understood in time how Türkiye overcame a great challenge and saved from plunging off a cliff," he said. The president said the opposition failed to pledge something concrete for the nation and instead favored bargaining over their candidate. "They wanted to return to the former presidential system and sought to impose a strange system with seven vice presidents. They conducted a dirty election campaign and sought to stoke ethnic, sectarian strife. They threatened people by intervention into their lifestyle," he said. "They tried everything, from threatening people to insulting victims of the earthquake," he said, referring to controversial statements by CHP supporters after the elections that derided people overwhelmingly voting for Erdoğan in the southeastern provinces hit by the Feb. 6 earthquakes.

Erdoğan also lamented the absence of a strong opposition to compete against him. "We don’t want to win elections because of the weakness of our rivals. Indeed, we want a changed opposition. We should have an opposition that will be exemplary in the world. The opposition should stop threatening people. They should focus on resolving the country’s problems," he said.

The president stated that their race for the next challenge had already started one day after the May 28 runoff and they had no room for lethargy. "We will not neglect the local elections. We will continue our supremacy. Our goal is to win more municipal seats, particularly those won by other parties. We will concentrate more on winning seats in metropolitan municipalities," Erdoğan said.

The AK Party was victorious in the 2019 municipal elections, by winning more than 44% of the vote, against CHP’s 30.1%. Yet, it failed to end the reign of CHP in its strongholds, particularly in cities on the Aegean coast while the opposition party managed to secure the top seats in Istanbul and the capital Ankara, thanks to the support of other opposition parties, which joined forces around the CHP candidates.