Oenkerh-
triggered the
meeting that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ,
President of the
Felicity Party gathering tire Karamola Ihsanoglu -alosbua Almadi- speculation about the
possibility of
transmission of
happiness party from the
coalition with the
opposition parties to the
coalition of the
public ,
which includes the
Justice and Development Party and the
Nationalist Movement Party.
The meeting came at a time when Erdogan is seeking to expand the alliance to include new parties other than the National Movement and the Grand Union Party, as there are fears among the members of the alliance, confirmed by recent opinion polls, that the alliance's support rate will decline.
And last Wednesday, Erdogan met with the leader of the Happiness Party at the Presidential Complex in Ankara, where Karamolaoglu stated on the sidelines of the meeting that he discussed with Erdogan many internal and external issues, pointing out that the meeting was very friendly and positive, and agrees with Erdogan on some points and disagrees with him on others .
The Happiness Party has 1-2% support, as the party won 1.4% in the 2018 elections and 2.8% in the municipal elections, and is believed to have improved its position also in the past two years.
The recent mayoral elections in Istanbul, which the opposition won, were evidence of the importance of the Felicity Party votes for the Justice and Development Party.
ideological dimension
In this context, Dr. Mahmoud Rantisi, a researcher at the SITA Center for Studies in Istanbul, considered the withdrawal of the Happiness Party from the opposition alliance to the ruling coalition as an achievement for Erdogan in the event that it occurs, considering it a necessity because the Happiness Party is a conservative and “Islamic” party, and removing it from the opposition ranks deprives it of portraying itself as a It represents all spectrums of the Turkish street, and Erdogan benefits from using the ideological dimension of the voter against the opposition.
Al-Rantissi told Al-Jazeera Net - "Although there are some obstacles to the alliance of happiness with Justice and Development, including old differences and the perception of some cadres of happiness that the Justice Party split from them when it was established, these matters have vanished as happiness moved to the opposition square, and then its transfer It became flexible."
Analysts: Inclusion of the Islamist Felicity Party benefits Erdogan in using the ideological dimension of the voter (French)
He added, "If happiness is located with the Justice and Development Party, this will be reflected in the calculations of other parties, and the equation for playing and negotiating between the rest of the opposition parties may change, and two opposition coalitions may arise."
Al-Rantissi suggested that the Happiness Party would join the ruling public coalition, as the Justice Party could meet some of the basic demands of the Happiness Party, whether in terms of the number of parliamentarians or some legal and economic reforms, such as what emerged on the issue of the Istanbul Agreement.
Political Islam
The Felicity Party is the heir of the Milli Görüş (nationalist vision) movement founded by Necmettin Erbakan in 1969, and he continued to lead it as a movement representing “Turkish political Islam.” Islamic identity is seen as the basis in the structure of Turkish identity to confront the official Westernization followed by the Kemalist republic. The movement was also opposed to joining the European Union, as well as Turkey’s presence in NATO and the American military presence on Turkish soil. During decades of political work, it was able to integrate the religious Turkish class from central Anatolia into Turkish political and parliamentary life through a number of parties that represented the movement. Starting with the National Order Party, passing through the National Safety and Welfare Party, and ending with the Happiness Party.
The "Happiness" party split at the beginning of the millennium between "traditionalists" committed to the founding principles of the "Mili Gorus" movement who remained within the party's framework, and "reformists" led by Erdogan, former President Abdullah Gul, former parliament speaker Bulent Arinc and a number of other leaders who founded the "Justice Party" And Development” as a liberal conservative party, which has abandoned its hostility to the European Union and the West, affirmed its belief in secularism, and managed to attract broad spectrums of the Turkish nationalist right.
After the split in the party, "Al-Saada" was unable to play any important political role. In fact, he has not succeeded in entering parliament since 2002, due to the parliamentary threshold he failed to cross, as the party's votes ranged between 2.49% in the general elections in 2002, and 0. 68% in the 2015 elections until he succeeded, through the opposition nation alliance, to enter parliament in the 2018 elections with two representatives on his behalf.
Last year, Turkey witnessed constitutional amendments that allowed the transition to a presidential system instead of a parliamentary system, followed by tireless work by the ruling Justice and Development in cooperation with the National Movement (a right-wing nationalist) to push the internal political structure towards the politics of blocs instead of the politics of parties, which was done by During the two parties’ agreement on a set of amendments that allowed the formation of electoral alliances that preserve the identity of the allied parties, and the one party is treated like an alliance with regard to the parliamentary threshold, as the party must obtain 10% of the votes to ensure entry into Parliament.
"happiness" fears
The fears of some leaders of "Happiness" - according to a source in the party - arise that the alliance with the "Justice and Development" will only be a means for justice and development to swallow "happiness" once and for all, as the "Justice and Development" did with most of the center-right parties, after the accession of the Minister of Interior The current former head of the Democratic Party, Suleiman Soylu, joined the Justice and Development Party in 2012, and then the Democratic Party was dissolved, as well as with former Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus joining the “Justice and Development” party in 2012, and the People’s Voice Party, which he founded in 2010. After splitting from "Happiness".
In addition, the source indicates - to Al Jazeera Net - that happiness's refusal to join the ruling public coalition earlier is also due to the deep differences between it and the "national movement", citing the failure of the "national movement" to congratulate Karamolaoglu when he was elected president of "happiness". In contravention of political norms, as well as not sending any delegates by His Excellency to attend the Congress of the Movement.
The Yeni Şafak newspaper, which is close to the Justice and Development Party, stated that the party seeks to attract the Happiness Party, not out of greed for votes and popularity. Rather, it is trying to "enrich the alliance with the nationalists with a new addition and a new name to show Turkish society that the alliance represents the spectrum of Turkish society, including Islamists, nationalists and liberals."