Erdogan Gets a Rival in Turkey as Aksener Starts Her Party
- Former nationalist interior minister forms the ‘Good Party’
- Says democracy under threat, path under Erdogan unsustainable
Meral Aksener
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A veteran Turkish nationalist politician known as “she-wolf” by her admirers formed a breakaway party to challenge President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a potentially vote-splitting move that could loosen his grip on power.
“Democracy is under threat,” former Interior Minister Meral Aksener said Wednesday in an address to hundreds of supporters in the capital, Ankara. “The postmodern national ‘chief’ era has started, but it’s not sustainable,” she said in a reference to Erdogan’s increasingly centralized rule.