Turkish president-elect Tayyip Erdogan signalled no let-up in his drive to strengthen the powers of the presidency yesterday and vowed his battle against an Islamic cleric he accuses of plotting against the State would intensify once he took office.
In his first major speech since declaring victory in a presidential election on Sunday, Erdogan offered little sign that his fiery rhetoric and blunt approach to politics would soften after his inauguration on August 28.
His victory secured his place in history as Turkey’s first directly elected head of state and took him a step closer to the presidential system he covets for the EU candidate nation and Nato member State.
His opponents fear an increasingly authoritarian State under Erdogan, who has dominated Turkish politics for more than a decade, and whose Islamist roots and intolerance of dissent they fear is taking Turkey further away from Western values.
Erdogan, who remains Prime Minister and leader of the AK Party until his inauguration, urged provincial AK leaders to remain focused on securing a stronger parliamentary majority next year to enable the party to re-write the Constitution.
Those who thought our party would fall apart have always been wrong
“I said before that the presidential elections would be the starting gun for the 2015 (general) elections,” he told the party meeting in a speech broadcast on Turkish television. “Our target should be to acquire at least a majority to establish the new constitution. I don’t believe that you will compromise on this,” he said.
Erdogan will have to break formal links with the AK Party once he is president. He wants a pliant successor as party leader, likely also to be his next prime minister, to secure a stronger Parliament majority in polls next June.
Should his influence over the party wane, Erdogan could struggle to force through the constitutional changes he wants to create an executive presidency – a reform which requires either a two thirds majority in Parliament or a popular vote.
The AK Party currently holds 313 of Parliament’s 550 seats, a strong majority but below the crucial two thirds threshold.
Erdogan founded the AK Party as a coalition of conservative religious Muslims, nationalists and reforming centre-right elements. He dismissed suggestions that the party he has dominated ever since could crumble without him. “Those who thought our party would decline or fall apart have always been wrong,” he said.