President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced that as the People’s Alliance, they would welcome new partners ahead of the 2024 municipal elections.

The People’s Alliance is led by Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AK Party), whose main ally is the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). Several smaller parties such as the Free Cause Party (HÜDA-PAR) and the New Welfare Party (YRP) endorsed Erdoğan and the AK Party in last May’s general elections.

Addressing the parliamentary group meeting of the AK Party on Wednesday, Erdoğan said, on the condition that the AK Party’s allies consent to it, the People’s Alliance had "doors open" for "anyone willing to join our struggle for the prevalence of our country and nation, its independence and future."

"This fascist mindset, which cannot tolerate anyone, will pay the price of their latest delusion in the municipal elections," Erdoğan said in a criticism of the opposition. He was referring to recent remarks of Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) who is accused of insulting Parliament. Kılıçdaroğlu derided Parliament in a speech, claiming it was "no longer" the Parliament of the early days of the Republic of Türkiye that played a key role in the War of Independence. Kılıçdaroğlu who led CHP to several defeats against the AK Party since he was elected party chair, has also said that it was now "a Parliament where the AK Party and MHP lawmakers do nothing but raising or lowering their hands (in parliamentary sessions)."

The People’s Alliance will compete in the elections against the CHP and other opposition parties, which formed a six-party bloc against Erdoğan and the AK Party in May’s general elections. The CHP is expected not to form an alliance for the 2024 elections, while its main ally Good Party (IP) recently declared that it would field its own candidates instead of supporting the CHP’s candidates, especially in provinces where the CHP has strong voter support.

Erdoğan said the CHP was still piling the blame on the nation instead of finding fault among their own for their election defeat when its leader denigrated Parliament. "They disrespect our Parliament instead of questioning themselves why they are not in Parliament," he said, in a barbed remark toward Kılıçdaroğlu who lost his parliamentary seat when he vied for the presidency, which makes candidates ineligible to run in the legislative elections.

Answering reporters’ questions after his parliamentary group speech, Erdoğan reiterated his remarks on an invitation to the People’s Alliance. When a reporter asked whether he specifically referred to the IP, Erdoğan said the IP was included in his invitation. The MHP had earlier urged the IP to join the alliance. The IP’s policies are closer to those of the People’s Alliance, especially in its stance on counterterrorism efforts. The party, led by Meral Akşener, was founded by former members of the MHP. "The stronger the alliance, the better for the benefit of our country," Erdoğan told reporters.

In his speech at Parliament, Erdoğan urged his party to strengthen bonds with the public. "This makes us invulnerable in the polls. Otherwise, we will be like that party representing fascism, the party that is favored by those who deviated from our path," he said. He was referring to former AK Party ministers Ahmet Davutoğlu and Ali Babacan, now leaders of the Future Party (GP) and the Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA) respectively, which were part of the opposition bloc in the last elections.

The AK Party is among the most successful in the brief history of the Republic of Türkiye in terms of election victories. Erdoğan, whose meteoric rise to political fame came during his tenure as mayor of Istanbul, Türkiye’s most populated and famous city, is credited with introducing an effective model for running the municipalities for his party.

Along with its first unprecedented success in the 2002 elections, the AK Party quickly garnered public support in the municipal elections and retained a majority in mayoral seats in successive elections since then. In 2019, however, the opposition crushed its dreams of winning Istanbul and the capital Ankara.

"We cannot rest until we reintroduce exemplary municipal services to people of Istanbul and Ankara again and until we strengthen our place in municipalities (currently run by the AK Party)," Erdoğan said in his speech. "Politics is open to surprises if you don’t fulfill your responsibilities. We have seen these surprises in (2019) elections. We want to surprise our rivals this time and it is your duty to ensure it," he told the party’s supporters. "We can only win if we prioritize our country and party instead of ourselves. You won’t be different than those competing against you, those putting their own interests first if you don’t do so," he said.

As it intensifies its efforts for the local elections, the AK Party is looking to inform the masses of municipal failures in constituencies the CHP has been ruling since the last mayoral polls in 2019.

The party’s primary goal is to regain the mayoralties of metropolitan cities like the capital Ankara, Istanbul, Mersin, Adana and Antalya from the CHP. In constituencies like Izmir, Türkiye's third largest city and districts of Kadıköy in Istanbul and Çankaya in Ankara, historically CHP strongholds, the party aims for a serious spike in voter support. To that end, the AK Party is working on a rundown of the activities of every CHP municipality, including towns and minor districts, to recap whether promises were kept. Officials said reports so far have shown the municipalities failed to deliver even 5%-10% of their pledges from 2019.

The party has been holding voter satisfaction surveys, especially in five cities where it saw its support drop in May’s presidential and parliamentary elections. The primary objective is to rekindle lost support in some 39 constituencies of Istanbul where President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said his party must "conquer the hearts of everyone and launch a rebirth of municipalism."

The ruling party lost control of Istanbul and Ankara for the first time in 25 years, as well as five of Türkiye’s largest cities, to the CHP in the 2019 elections, something the opposition characterized as a blow to AK Party’s popularity; however, both the president and his party came out victorious in May.