After his defeat against Turkish President Erdogan, Kemal Kilicdaroglu lost the chairmanship of the CHP. In a vote, parliamentary group leader Özel, who wants to realign the party, prevailed.
Özgür Özel is the new leader of Turkey’s largest opposition party, the CHP. At a party conference, he prevailed in the second round of voting with around 60 percent of the vote against the previous incumbent, Kemal Kilicdaroglu.
The decision at the CHP party conference in Ankara was hotly contested. In the first round of voting, Özel was only two short of the almost 1,400 delegate votes for victory. The decision was only made that night.
Özel has been the chairman of the CHP parliamentary group in the national parliament since the summer. He is one of the so-called reformers in his party. They have increasingly pushed for a change in the CHP since their candidate Kilicdaroglu’s defeat in the presidential election in May.
Özel demands social democratic profile
In his application speech, Özel demanded to take responsibility for the defeat. He had previously publicly described the collaboration with parties, some of which were Islamic and nationalist, as a mistake. He would like to make the CHP more clearly social democratic again.
In his speech yesterday morning, Kilicdaroglu commented on the defeat in the presidential election. The opposition was not united enough. There was also resistance within our own ranks. He had to compete with “daggers in his back”.