The six-party opposition bloc declared its election program at a meeting on Monday, a few months shy of the Turkish elections. The lengthy “joint policies agreement text” signed by the leaders of the parties promises reforms and landmark changes to everything from education to the judiciary. The declaration comes a few weeks before the bloc is expected to announce its candidate for the May 14 elections, which will pit him or her against incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The road map includes a change in the presidential term, limiting it to one term for seven years and the abolition of the Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSK), excluding the justice minister from the process of assignment of judges and prosecutors. The bloc has also pledged to decrease the vote threshold to 3% for political parties to secure seats in Parliament.
The opposition also plans to change the current executive presidency system and an item in the text pledges to abolish all offices and boards in the Presidency and hand over their authority to relevant ministries.
"We will shift to a strengthened parliamentary system. We will put an end to the president’s power to issue decrees,” the program says. The opposition leaders have drawn criticism recently for what critics called their attempt to install a puppet president. Future Party (GP) Chairperson Ahmet Davutoğlu has disclosed that the chairs of the six parties would be authorized to participate in decision-making processes and they would have had much authority over each strategic decision as the president.
As for ministries, the bloc says they would separate the Treasury and Finance Ministry into two entities. According to the text, Parliament will be the only authority to withdraw from international treaties Türkiye is a party to.
Faik Öztrak, deputy chair of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), the biggest among the opposition parties, said at a meeting where the declaration was announced that they would also implement “local administration reforms” and will end the “tutelage of central administration on local administrations.” He was referring to the appointment of trustees for seats of mayors expelled from office after their conviction on criminal charges. Türkiye has removed many mayors linked to the PKK terrorist group from provinces and districts in recent years, while several other mayors were removed from office and replaced with trustees over corruption charges. The program also pledged to abolish the consequences of the state of emergency decrees implemented after the July 15, 2016 coup attempt that accelerated the dismissal of suspects linked to the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), which was behind the putsch bid.
One concrete step for the bloc to abolish the executive presidency emerged in the text as moving the current presidential office in the capital Ankara’s Beştepe to Çankaya, a historic estate that is currently used by the vice president and was Türkiye’s first presidential complex before it was handed over to the now-abolished prime ministry. The office of the prime ministry will also make a comeback, according to the opposition’s road map. The opposition also promised to open all palaces, mansions and other estates allocated to the Presidency to public use. It also pledged to sell all presidential planes and purchase firefighting planes instead.
The bloc also announced that they would scrap the megaproject Kanal Istanbul.
Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA) Deputy Chair İbrahim Çanakçı said at the meeting that they would bring inflation down to a single-digit figure within two years and would create at least 5 million new jobs within the next five years. Çanakçı said they would also halt the practice of the FX-protected lira scheme, a step Türkiye has taken to protect Turkish lira deposits from depreciation versus hard currencies.
Bülent Şahinalp, deputy chair of the Democrat Party (DP) of the opposition bloc, said they would change the mandatory education system to “1+5+4+3” years. Currently, compulsory education in Türkiye is 12 years, four for primary school, four for middle school and four for high school. The new system of the opposition makes preschool education for one year compulsory. Şahinalp said they would also abolish the Board of Higher Education that oversees universities, including the assignment of rectors and deans, but they would establish another board with “limited duties” instead.
The program’s foreign policy section stressed the importance of restoring "mutual trust" with the United States and achieving Türkiye's stalled goal of gaining "full membership in the European Union.” It made no direct mention of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. "We will maintain relations with the Russian Federation with an understanding that both parties are equal and strengthened by balanced and constructive dialogue at the institutional level," the program said.
The opposition joined forces against Erdoğan, whose main ally is the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), last year and since February 2022, convened 11 times, pledging to work on a road map after every meeting. Yet, resentment grows among the electorate, according to polls, for their failure to nominate their candidate; while the heads of almost all parties in the bloc hinted that they may be a contender against Erdoğan. On Sunday, CHP Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu announced that the candidate will be announced on Feb. 13. Yet, he was still cautious, adding “God willing.” In a televised interview with Halk TV, Kılıçdaroğlu said Feb. 13 may also be “the date that they would decide on a candidate” and they could announce their candidate at a later date. On the question of if he will be nominated as the presidential candidate for his party, Kılıçdaroğlu said supporters of every party “definitely want to see the leader of their party as a candidate” but added that what mattered now was a joint decision by the leaders of the parties in the opposition bloc.
