Özgür Özel is almost cocksure to get back his chair as the legal battle on the matter lingers. The former chair of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) was forced to leave his office when a court ruled for the reinstatement of Özel’s predecessor, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, last month, in a case where the Özel administration is accused of buying votes in a 2023 intra-party election. He now mulls founding a new party, though he also remains determined to remain in CHP.
Özel was defiant on Tuesday as he held his first parliamentary group meeting at the party where he now serves as the said group’s chair. On Wednesday, he met a group of journalists and answered questions about his future and rumors of the establishment of a new party by his loyalists. “We are not committed to setting up a new party,” he told journalists, while underlining that it might be “worst-case scenario.”
“Nobody can stop the wind,” he said, referring to his call for a new election in the party, which he is confident of winning. “We are engaged in a great march to govern. We will not do this by leaving the party,” he said.
CHP trails ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in most opinion polls, but it has suffered successive election defeats in more than the past two decades, except for a strong comeback in 2024’s municipal elections. Özel advocates an early election, ahead of the 2028 presidential vote.
