MHP leader Bahçeli keeps door ajar for coalition with AKP

The leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), which has become key to the imminent election of Turkey?s new parliament speaker, has left the door open to forming a coalition government with the Justice and Development Party (AKP), while defining three strict preconditions for such an agreement.

Bahçeli?s addressed newly elected MHP deputies on July 1, just hours before a plenary session was due to take place at parliament in which the new speaker would be finalized, as none of the four candidates were able to get a minimum number of votes required for election in the first two rounds on June 30. 

He suggested that the result of the parliament speaker election would be decisive in the potential forming of a coalition government, describing a coalition between the AKP and the CHP as the ?most likely? formation. But he also added that the MHP would not close the door ?if all alternatives are exhausted.? 

?If political instability arises, with God?s permission, we wouldn?t avoid responsibility and force Turkey to be dependent on craven ones,? Bahçeli said. 

However, the MHP head defined three strict conditions for any coalition: An end to the Kurdish peace process, the return of Erdo?an to within his constitutional boundaries, and pursuing the now-dropped Dec. 17 and 25, 2013 corruption cases, which embroiled former government officials and their relatives.

Speaking to reporters after the group meeting, Bahceli repeated his vow that the MHP?s parliamentary group would refuse to vote in the same bloc as the Peoples? Democratic Party (HDP) in the third and fourth round of voting for the new parliament speaker. 

?The MHP will support our candidate Ekmeleddin ?hsano?lu to the end by being present during all votes ?...