The Turkish opposition’s Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA) on Wednesday lost two more parliamentary seats after two of its founding members announced their resignations.
DEVA’s Balıkesir representative Burak Dalgın criticized the party’s change of direction as it seeks to form a parliamentary group with other smaller opposition parties, the Felicity Party (SP) and Future Party (GP).
Criticism of the party has long been reaching the administration, Dalgın said in his statement on X.
“That deep-rooted change our people demanded with first surveys then their votes in the 2023 and 2024 elections unfortunately never materialized,” Dalgın said. “We cannot expect different results by doing the same things.”
Meanwhile, Manisa Representative Selma Aliye Kavaf, former minister of women and family affairs, said the party has come to a point where it “must engage in introspection”.
DEVA, SP and GP had their parliamentary candidates run in the Republican People’s Party (CHP) lists in the election, which ensured their survival in the 2023 electoral defeat.
The SP and GP formed a parliamentary group with a new alliance but the resignation of a GP lawmaker last month endangered its survival. They lost the right to form a group as the number of their total lawmakers fell below the threshold of 20.
Media reports said SP now eyes an alliance with DEVA to revive the group, with two lawmakers from DEVA rumored to join SP.
Ertuğrul Kaya, one of two lawmakers from DEVA rumored to switch sides to SP, said they attached importance to keeping an SP-led parliamentary group alive.
DEVA last month lost another lawmaker and one of the founders of the party as Mustafa Yeneroğlu announced his resignation, citing DEVA’s failure to “ensure political communication it sought to form with people.”
“While writing DEVA’s program, we had aimed to offer tangible solutions to people’s shared problems,” Dalgın said.
Kavas said she was announcing her resignation at this time so as to not harm the party’s restructuring efforts.
Their resignations bring DEVA’s parliamentary seats down to 11.